Help: Hey Max!!! How did...

Subject: Hey Max!!! How Did Mudcat Get Its Name?
From: Willie-O
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 08:56 PM

How did the Mudcat get its name? My daughter is deeply curious.

(Not that that's surprising.)

Also, she wants to know.

Bill C

Subject: RE: Help: Hey Max!!! How did...
From: Max
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 09:37 PM

I'm not exactly sure. When I was in college (the early 90's) I used to go to a good friend of mine's house (Mudcat's Pene Azul) every other week or so and play just about every song I knew and a few more in his basement. He has a great basement that is very much like a studio.

For some unknown reason, every night at the beginning of out Jams, I would say louldly into the microphone: "Welcome, welcome, welcome, to the Mudcat Cafe" I cannot remember why I said this, but it stuck, and the night, the place became known as simply "The Mudcat". It simply was and is about the most fun and the best feeling I can imagine, playing the music you love and touches you with your best friends in the world, your peers... I can't think of a better time.

So when it came time to express myself and my interests, it was a no-brainer. A year or so later it came time to incorporate and become non profit. The government knows us as "The Mudcat Cafe Music Foundation". Anyhow, I like it, and it sticks. We'll take it...

Hey Bill, what's you little one's name? I have a daughter Alexis who is 10. She loves Leadbelly...

Subject: RE: Help: Hey Max!!! How did...
From: Pene Azul
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 12:39 AM

On a Friday evening around 1992 or 1993, I first met Max Spiegel. He showed up at my house with a mutual friend, Steve (an incredible musician),  to shoot some stick and shoot the shit. We became fast friends—it was as if we'd known each other for years. In the course of the night, Max plucked around with my vintage '71 Sears guitar. He played a couple of songs, we goofed around with some funny lyrics. We drank some beers, shot more stick, shot more shit. We talked about jamming the next day. I hadn't played much keyboards in years, but we thought we'd get together and play around 10 am. Generally such conversations had sincere enough intentions, but wound up with people waking up, sobering up and forgetting all about it.

Well, lo and behold the doorbell rings around 10am Saturday morning. Damn! Time to dust off the ol'  keyboards (literally) and get down! We set up, plugged in the mic, and turned on the amp. Max stepped up to the mic, "Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Mudcat Café." It just fit. We all loved the blues. We were jammin' in our own juke joint.

Subject: RE: Help: Hey Max!!! How did...
From: Willie-O
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 08:49 AM

That's a good answer guys...

Max, I don't really have a _little_ one, Emily is 13, a semi-award-winning radio-playwright ;>=
and a certified night owl. She has rather good taste in music despite her predilection for show tunes--her first favourite CD was "Rain Dogs" so it was really cool that you played that last night! She's into jazz & swing a bit, plays flute.

My youngest, Keith, is almost 10.

Long the the Mudcat Cafe! When I tell people about it, I say, "It's what the Internet should be." Got a note from Alison--she wants to play "Gogama." So cool--intercontinental folk music distribution!

Bill C