Rick Alan West, Production Mngr. Clear Channel Radio-Tulsa "I really related to the message in Clam Digger. Downright bar boogie."
Mike Price Ft. Worth Business Press "...the band has achieved a spontaneous and organic sound, while utilizing a set of technologies that serve most commonly to capture a colder and more regimented signal. It's all in the warmth of the performance and the engineering, of course, and this set of performances is uniformly vital."
Steve Hill, Writer/Producer FOX Sports Southwest "I was very impressed by the sound and song selection. You guys have definitely come a long way since I saw you last about a year ago."
Brian Gagnon Dallas G & L Guitars Just-a-Jam Organizer "They played together for the first time at G & L Just-a-Jam 2002 with none other than the remarkable Will Ray of The Hellecasters sitting in on the session... and rocked the house for hours, drawing a bigger crowd than that Dallas night club had ever seen."
Cameron Smith, Host of Smooth Jazz TV President of Center Stage Television & Host of Smooth Jazz TV "The blues guitarist from hell!"
David Young, Broadcast Engineer CBS TV "Your Flying Saucer performance was awesome! In the few months since I last saw [you] perform you went from "pretty darn good" to 'Wow!' Your cover of 'Road House Blues' was inspired!... Bob and Kevin proved once again that they can drive the band with the visceral rhythm of a locomotive on a long downhill grade! Congratulations on your first CD release!"
Chris Denley Guest Guitar Player "Bobzilla... Enjoyed the Flying Saucer gig immensely, it was a lot of fun despite the temperature. Thanks for the invitation to come up and jam... Keep up the great bass playing. Considering the terrible acoustics, you and the drummer sounded particularly good..."
Okay so like over a month or so ago, Chaz hands me this press kit from a band called "Big Cookie & the Crumbs." Quite honestly, the name seemed so hokey, I threw the whole packet into my "take a listen sometime this century" pile.
This morning as I sat here loading more Texas Country music for the "Country" side of www.TexasRadio1.com, I came across Big Cookie and the Crumbs' CD, "Heartbreak Hideaway."
Just a little insight as to how things work around the TexasGigs Corp., first we usually open the CD case, take out the insert and peruse the info inside. Next we head on over to the website and take a look around. Then we'll insert the CD and listen intently, fingers crossed that it's a good one.
Thankfully, this morning I popped the CD in as I finished off an email. Much to my surprise, this is a great band! Very old-school blues/rock, really good stuff! The website is an ass-whip, that's for certain.*** Please-o-please musicians, I beseech you; keep your website simple and easy to navigate, with at least 3 MP3's. However in this case, the music more than made up for the site.***
From BC&C's press kit:
Cookin' the Blues with the best rock & blues act in North Texas! Fronted by larger than life 44 year veteran lead guitarist Len "Big Cookie" Francis, Big Cookie & the Crumbs will take you on a trip back to the "old school" days of smoke-filled nightclubs and after hours city life. Francis' throaty vocals and smokin' guitar licks shred blues greats like Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughn, B. B. King, Hound Dog Taylor, Roy Buchanan and many more... AND be ready to groove to renditions of classic rock heavy weights like Hendrix, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Foghat, and George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
A rock solid groove from Crumbs' rhythm section Kevin Rothstein (drums) and Bobzilla (bass guitar) gives this band a powerful edge in a world full of sloppy bottom end. Providing added punch to the Crumbs' lineup is ax man Dean Pauley. Pauley's severe chops compliment Francis' leads as they explode together into a guitar solo frenzy. Big Cookie & the Crumbs is the real deal in North Texas.
Two late additions to the Crumbs' lineup, Rush Olson (vocals) and Pat Elza (keyboards), are the final pieces to this wild music puzzle. Rush has the force to belt out tunes in front of the Crumbs' powerful attack. Pat Elza moves seamlessly from subtle background fill to monster solo fury showing-off his hard rock/heavy metal influences. Big Cookie & the Crumbs ROCK!
I highly recommend this band, along with their CD, "Heartbreak Hideaway." **
You can get yo Big Cookie on at The Octagon Pub & Grill on Saturday, May 1st! I'll be turning this CD over to the Buddy Blues guys to play on www.TexasRadio1.com "Blues" genre.
***Patrick is referring to our OLD Crumbs' web site (cookiecrumbs.tv - no longer online) managed by the label. Hey, we didn't care for it much either. THIS web site you're on right now (WWW.BOBZILLA.TV) is a BRAND NEW creation designed for your drinking & dancing pleasure and is managed entirely by none other than Bassman Bobzilla himself. So, if this one is an "ass whip" you can blame it on him.
**Of course, you can download the new MISSISSIPPI QUEEN CD/EP "GHOST" for FREE right now (just click on the "GET THE CD NOW" tab). Most of the material from the "Heartbreak Hideaway" CD has been digitally re-mastered for quality enhanced audio and re-released as a courtesy to our fans... because we appreciate them.
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One Response to "Me Love Big Cookie"
kerry okie Says:
April 23rd, 2004 at 2:38 pm In addition to being a fine guitarist, Big Cookie is also a hellafine tube amp repairman.
Big Cookie & the Crumbs released "Heartbreak Hideaway" in December of 2003 on AVI Entertainment, Inc.
Hello Stanley!
Back in 1999, the Dallas Stars won it all. Big Cookie & the Crumbs got into the act when the Stars' front office asked us to record "Hello Stanley" for use in the celebration. We didn't hesitate - the song "Hello Stanley" was written then recorded in a studio in Arlington, Texas. Check it out...
PsychoPat's motto is: "Stink goes up... Shit goes down... And don't bite your fingernails."
By the way, he's a plumber. Well, that's his "day job" anyway. By night, uh, I'm not really sure what he does at night, although rumor has it that he prowls the alleys of Chicago looking for his long lost ex love's. Pat's under the impression that an ex comes back as their TRUE self in the next life and he is convinced some of them will return as rats.
I've known Pat for almost twenty years. That's a whole bunch longer than either one of us ever spent with any of our rats, uh, I mean, ex's. We met in a metal band when he was a wee lad of only 16-years-old. I will give you a taste of an article I wrote for MUSKIE Magazine that should explain why we are the way we are:
"My friendship with Pat goes back to our garage band days. Well, we practiced in his Parents' basement, but you know what I mean? He was just a kid in his mid-teens and still in High School back then. I was in my mid-twenties and steam rolling towards (dare I say it?) the BIG 3-0. Given our ages, it was an unlikely pairing. His keyboard skills were stellar and I decided to forgive him for his private school haircut and 'boyish charm' if he could forgive my biker-like demeanor and beer toots.
Come to find out this kid could not only hold his own on keyboards, but was pretty formidable in the toot department, as well. He shared many common interests with me - one being fishing. Now I can't tell you if he was ahead of his time, or that I was a 'slow developer' in the maturity department, although I have a few ex love interests out there who would confirm the latter. Whatever it was our friendship grew out of the fertile common ground that still bonds us together as best friends to this day. Being ten years older than he, however, I still seize every opportunity to remind him how much closer in age we seem now than we did back then. Must be the 'old age creeping-up' thing? All I know is that when I'm eighty and he's seventy we're gonna have to keep TWO porta-potties on board with us at all times. Maybe we should just replace the seats?
The moment Pat and I discovered that each of us considers fishing superior to practically every other activity on the planet Earth we could think of, there was no turning back. Give us a good fishin' hole plus money enough for bait, gas, and groceries and we would disappear for days on end. We've fished for carp on The Fox River, salmon on Lake Michigan, and hit just about every other species in between the two.
When muskie fishing entered the picture not too long after we had become friends, it was like a huge mile marker in our lives. We didn't know it then, but that light bulb moment was about to change our world in a very positive way. We're so tight these days even eight hundred miles of central time zone can't come between us."
That in a nutshell describes the story of us. All I can tell you is that Pat is not only a great fisherman, but he's an amazing keyboard player, as well.
Living in Chicago makes it impossible for PsychoPat to play with us every time out. Be sure that I will let y'all know when he's coming, so you can make plans to be there. Don't miss it because he may decide to come to your house and plug your pipes, just to let you know he's been in town.
Zilla
PsychoPat & Bobzilla jam with Dave McClaren the VP of G & L Guitars (G & L Just-a-Jam I @ Fat Ted's - Deep Ellum, Dallas TX)
PsychoPat plays mean keys on our tune Clam Digger
PSYCHOPAT - Club Dada, Deep Ellum - Dallas, Texas
Pat has a history in my Heavy Metal days... He's gonna plug my toilets for this one taken at the Nite Cap Lounge back in 1980-something?
Larger than life, Big Cookie, a 40 plus year veteran guitar player has split from his former large band and is now doing things lean and mean. In his eyes rock and blues are one and were both made to be expressed with maximum emotion. With this in the back of his mind and his trademark Flying V in his massive hands, this genetic derivation of Paganini and Jenny Lind is tearing up stages everywhere he goes. From the sweat glistened tips of his hair down to the soles of his boots emotion pours from Cookie as he expresses himself through a myriad of guitars. Cookie has torn up rock and the blues on stages from Nashville and Memphis, to Boston, Arizona, Arkansas, and all over his adopted home state of Texas.
Big Cookie is the man that Cameron Smith, President of Center Stage Television and Host of Smooth Jazz TV, called "The Blues Guitarist From Hell!"
When the size 16 boots of the Cookieman cross the stage they make the sound of anticipation of what is to come. Wordlessly Cookie and the band explode with power. All the listener can do at this point is remain still and think, "Damn, people just don't play this way anymore." Cookie can caress you with a ballad one minute and slice you like a razor the next.
Expect the unexpected. Catch Cookie on a stage near you and you too can live his vision of rock and blues smashing together at the speed of light.
Cookie & Bobzilla backing up the amazing and talented Will Ray of The Hellecasters at G & L Just-a-Jam I (Fat Ted's - Deep Ellum, Dallas TX)
Cookie & his infamous Flying V (Club Dada - Deep Ellum, Dallas TX)
Cookie's SMOKIN' solo on our tune That's the Way It Goes will kick your ASS
Cookie Rocks Arlington, Texas
Drummer Man Rey Sanchez
Rey Sanchez
CLICK NOW TO READ THE STORY ON CBS 11 NEWS
City To Hold Benefit For Injured Soldier
(CBS 11 News)WAXAHACHIE, Texas An injured soldier returned home to North Texas, but now he's struggling to support his family. The city of Waxahachie is now fighting for a man who fought for his country.
Army Specialist Jason McCully struggles to settle his hand. "When it gets real bad, I know I'm gonna have a seizure that day or the next day," said McCully.
While fighting in Rhamadi, the 33-year-old soldier was hit with mortar shrapnel. He now has three to four epileptic seizures a week.
"They've actually gone down in frequency, but they're a lot more intense," said McCully. "I vomit before and after constantly; it's bad."
Marirose, McCully's wife, said the battle to care for her sick husband is often more than she can handle.
"People don't realize on a day to day basis what you go through when a soldier comes home," said Marirose. "The post traumatic stress disorder, the mood swings, the struggles you go through… people just don't realize that."
Together they have four children, and McCully's benefits from the military are less than $800 a month.
"Some days you just want to throw your hands up and say, 'I give up,' but you have to be there to support them 'cause they're having a hard time too," Marirose said. "You have to turn to your family and friends. You have to ask for help because you just can't do it by yourself."
And that's why the Waxahachie community has rallied around this injured soldier.
The Knights of Columbus will be hosting a benefit dinner for the family on Saturday, March 17 at the Knights of Columbus hall in Ennis. It starts at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $15.
Although McCully has lost the freedom of complete mobility, he'll continue the fight to be the best father and husband he can be despite his disability.
"You know what you're getting yourself into when you volunteer for the army," McCully said. "I don't have any regrets about it all."
