Porkin' Ain't Easy Competition Barbeque Team

   "It was raining, as I looked out at the looming grayness; my wife was gone, and she had taken my son away . . .
          as I tipped back my scotch and reflected, on the sleepless night and the hard-worked day . . ."

Wow, that sounded like the beginning to a great blues song . . . It was indeed raining on Saturday at the Main Street BBQ and Bluesfest, and though my iPhone had provided a quasi-favorable Doppler image, it would lightly drizzle for the majority of the day. My wife was, indeed gone, and she did take one of my sons with her, it was merely to take him to one of his baseball games, as they had a tournament that weekend; Ryan, my other son, and a BBQ Team member, was at the contest with me. I had just sat down finally after working the 2:30 AM smoker watch (thus a sleepless night), plus the hard worked morning of final preparation for the barbeque turn-ins; I had poured me a scotch and was sitting in the tent next to our serving table, and upon realizing "Whew!, it is done," I took my first sip.

It was at that point that a well-dressed, classy lookin' gentleman walked up to the serving table and asked, "Do you have any chicken available?"

I replied "Not at the time, but the People's Choice sampling will start in the next 45 minutes, that is when we are allowed to hand out some of our Pork butt."

"Oh, we will be on stage by then," he replied.

"Are you with the Soulard Blues Band," I asked.

"Yes, I am," he stated.

"Well come on in and get you a plate; we have Chicken here, Pork there, brisket over here," I said motioning to items on the table.

"I just want some chicken," he said and picked up a couple of the competition thighs. I asked him to let us know after he ate, what he thought about the chicken, and told him that he was more than welcome to come back after playing if he wanted to, and said that I was looking forward to listening to some great blues, as I had heard good things about them. He thanked me and went back to the band stand. That gentleman was none other than Marty Abdullah*, the lead singer for the Soulard Blues Band.

About 15 minutes later, another band member came up and asked if he could have something to eat; he too chose the chicken to eat, he thanked us and went back over to the bandstand; this was Art Dwyer*, the founder and bass player of the Soulard Blues Band. About 10 minutes later Kirk "Dr. Drum" Grice* came and selected some chicken as well, also getting his son a couple of ribs to eat. All of the band members were cordial and polite, and looked like they were ready to lay down some exceptional blues . . . a fact that our team was about to realize as the music began to play.

The People's Choice Award sampling began, as the Soulard Blues Band played some of the tasiest blues that I have heard in a long time. We gave out samples of our Pork Butt and Ribs, interacting with the public as they sampled our Barbeque. During a lull in activity, I said to Jack that we should go over and listen to a song or two, since the band members had frequented our site, and show our support of their performance, to which he and I headed over to the band stand.

We worked our way about midway up the side of the audience area and listened as the band played a song (I don't know the title) where the lead singer would end a verse with "and you know what my <woman/baby> said," whereby there would be a long silence in the song, whereby the audience would holler back "What did she say?" They were in the middle of the song, and got to another pause; this time, I was one of the ones who hollered out "What did she say?" In the silence that followed, Marty, the lead singer, turned and looked at Jack and I, pointed to us, and stated "There is my barbeque chicken man . . . awsome chicken," and with the nod of his head, the band continued on with the song.

At that point, Art and Kirk looked over and saw us standing there pointing back at Marty, nodding my head in acceptance of his answer of how the recipe was, both got a smile on their face and nodded in agreement. The audience turned and looked at where we were standing, me with a cooks towel tossed over my shoulder and a shirt dirty from carrying trays of meat around, with a smile on my face that could not be beat. We listened to the rest of the song, and saw that there were more folk back at the tent, so we left the band area knowing that the band knew that we appreciated the tasty tunes being laid out.

On their break, the guitarist Tom Maloney*, came by the site and got a plate of ribs, pork, and brisket and chatted for a bit; I told him that I apprecated the shout-out during the song, and that they could come by the tent for more after their gig, if any of them were hungry. He thanked us and went back for their second session.

There is always something special about a barbeque contest. It can be either taking the stage for a trophy or ribbon, or a story that is generated, jus' due to the fact that it is out of the ordinary. Getting that shout out, during a song being played, by a world-class blues band, was just like getting a Grande Championship Trophy. And with that said, Porkin' Ain't Easy will always feed the band . . .

* Names were gained by my feeble attempt at photo recognition on the Soulard Blues Band website. CC