Shelby James @ Rula Bula

I Love When My Reputation Proceeds Me

After killing time, we headed back to Mill Ave., and parked near Mission Palms, which was just a short walk to Rula Bula. Which I'd guess I'd always thought of being closer to the University end of Mill. But y'know, aside from the big touchstones (pretty much the 7th block, and Monti's at Rio Salado, by memory of Mill always gets a bit screwed up.

The size of Rula Bula was also surprising and impressive. I have a recollection of looking in there years ago, but had no idea that it spanned two shop fronts. In anycase, Shelby was setting up by the time we rolled in. The place was particularly quiet, making it wasy to pull up a stool at a table with a really good vantage point.

When Shelby started playing, it was a mixture of covers, with a few originals interspersed through the mix. Probably not surprising, since his Monday night gig was providing music for the eating / drinking crowd of Rula Bula. At one point early on, Katie went outside to talk to Aaron on the phone, after which we were talking about how he should by a Folsome Prison shirt while he's down there, and how cool that'd be. Ironically, in the middle of the conversation (without overhearing it), Shelby launched into Folsome Prison Blues. Incredibly spooky! And also the fact that it's the second time in a few days that it's been played (Stephen Ashbrook being the other time) and we had only dropped Aaron at the airport to head out there two days ago!

At some point he launched into Scarlot Harlot, which was an impressively more 12 bar bluesy rendition, conpared to the album, which was really cool to hear. In hindsight, I really wished I'd recorded video of it. But my camera batteries were starting to go, and I was holding out for Dance Like Jesus. After Scarlot, Shelby asked for any requests and Katie called out for Just Like Heaven by The Cure. That's our new thing - to try see how many people we can get to play it. An idea that we came up when we saw Ashbrook launch into it in Kansas City (and then again the other night at Martini Ranch on spotting Katie's Cure t-shirt). Alas, Shelby didn't know it. I'd been planning on catching him in between sets and requesting Dance, and since The Cure request didn't pan out, I just called out for that. Which changed the whole direction of the set list, since he now realized someone (us) was there to see Shelby James songs, not covers! And hence launched into that, and two others off Downs On 9th.

When it came time for a break, he immediately came over to our table and apologised for the "gospel covers" and that he didn't realize that we were there to hear his stuff. After some introductions, and determining that he recognized Katie (as they "ran in the same circles" - probably largely Los Guys shows and explaining the move from Australia to here, he asked if I was into Dead Hot Workshop. And then if I had been at the Stephen Ashbrook show on Friday night. Why yes, of course I had, but how the hell did he know? He proceeded to explain that he was working on his new album at Curtis' studio over the weekend and he'd mentioned that I'd been at the Stephen Ashbrook show and was from Australia and was really into the Tempe music scene (enough to move here). So, once again, my reprutation proceeded me. It really goes to show what a small world it is (at least in the Tempe music scene), to see Curtis (without any prior knowledge) playing with Stephen Ashbrook on Friday night, Shelby being at his studio on the weekend, and then us going to see Shelby on Monday night! I had wanted to, particular with Rula Bula being so quiet, introduce myself to Shelby and mention being into his stuff, and all the work of doing that was removed by that twist of events! We ended up having a really cool talk about the music scene, past and present and our travels, which was really cool. We also mentioned that we were after his second disc, which unfortunately he didn't have any copies of on him.

After quite a decent talk, he took his break and then played his second set. By this point, Rula Bula was quite empty, with us being the only people there except for a few people at the bar - which really turned into a nice little private show for us, focusing on his own songs, both "from the CD you don't have" and some stuff off his new record which he's putting the finishing touches on at the moment. Too cool, and made me really glad that we noticed that he was playing tonight.

It had admitedly been a long day, and thankfully he finished up at midnight. "Thankfully" just because we had the 45 odd minute drive back to Casa Grande ahead of us, and we didn't want to leave prematurely given the personalized performance we were getting.

After the show we said bye to him, and that we'd back out here in about a month, so he'll definitely see us again, and he wished us luck on the trip back. After a smoke / watching his stuff by his truck while he finished up some stuff at the bar, we headed back to Pepe for the drive back to Casa Grande - giving Baby Mercury (Domo) the first listen since picking it up at Zia the other day!

Once again, another great night out in Tempe!