True Spirit CD

I'm a devoted fan of Pirate rock in all it's incarnations (Pirate Jenny, Hucklescary Finn, and now, Captain Bogg & Salty), but I find that this album transcends the pure delightfulness of the band's other albums and appeals to me on a deeper level. Although I love them all, this is the one that brings out the dreamer in me.

In the early days, when the group was formed (in 1991) as the 'house band' of a youth outreach, it was known as the 'Friday Fight Night Band' (it's not really a long story but we're still not going into it here). Once the decision was made to take the show outside the walls of the church, it was OBVIOUS that a name change was in order. For a couple of years the band was called 'Mission Blue' but then a change was made to 'Mission Blues' and it has remained that ever since (at least at the time of this writing we haven't changed the name! besides 'Cap'n Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters' was already taken anyway).

Before the band ever made it into the studio, there were a handful of singers who spent some time with the band as the group spent a few years trying to establish a solid musical style. In 1998 it was time to record the first project which came in the form of CDs and cassette tapes (no albums or 8-tracks). That project was titled 'Blues on a Mission' and was recorded at Pat MaCatee's studio in Raymore, Missouri, with lead vocals sung by Kent Kuss and Lori Walters.

We recorded it as quickly as we could (pretty much) because we didn't have much money. Although we worked hard on it, it's difficult to get the kind of quality that you want on a shoestring budget so when we ran out of copies we didn't bother to reproduce it. If you own a copy, you should hang onto it because it may be worth a lot of money someday (but I really doubt it).

That was also the beginning of the 'chrome doughnuts' 3-D illustration used for the cover, which, by the way, is making a strong revival lately. Well, I've been asked many times what the heck that's all about but I've kept it a secret, at least until now. On second thought, I can't reveal that now either. Sorry!A few singers and a few years later we were back in the studio to record our second CD. 'Voices' was recorded at Air Digital in Independence, Missouri and was another step forward in establishing a distinct Mission Blues style. The only problem was that we didn't have much money so we recorded it as quickly as possible and the quality was better (but still not great). Ok, I realize that this is beginning to sound WAY TOO familiar.