I caught up with George this afternoon in his studio in the Arcade building
on Broadway. We talked shop about his band the The Tequila Mockingbirds and his other band Bourbon Renewal.
Citizen Nancy: I am familiar with your work as I am sure many others are as well but is there someplace you haven’t performed but always wanted to?
George Fletcher: I wouldn’t mind playing SPAC, opening up for somebody cause I’m locally based, I have no delusions about getting famous or anything but it would be nice to be respected enough to get an invitation to warm up another acoustic act,somebody coming through town.
Citizen Nancy: Whats your best performance experience?
George Fletcher: (sighs) There have been a lot, I would probably say, when my old band opened up for Ray Charles. That was a really good show, and we were very well received, about five thousand people. It was my trio called The Handsome Men back when I was living in Poughkeepsie and that was really huge.
Citizen Nancy: What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done at one of your shows?
George Fletcher: All those memories have to do with rudeness, we had female come up to us at a gig at City Tavern a few months ago, drunk, its always a drunk chick, I gotta be honest with you. Drunk guys don’t, they bother with us, because their busy bothering the girls. (laughs) But its always a drunk girl who will keep requesting the same song over and over again.
Anyone who knows us, knows we don’t do BROWN EYED GIRL, we don’t do MARGARITAVILLE, we don’t do FREE BIRD we don’t do any of that stuff. We leave that up to people who are good at that, were good at what we do. And… we’ll do an hour set of strictly jazz standard and someone will come up and ask for a totally inappropriate tune because they’re not listening. They don’t care. Well, this one girl came up to us, and she went to Peter (Pashoukous) and she said something to the effect of,”Do you guys know anything that doesn’t put people in a coma?!” And he [Peter] just started yelling at her, “Oh my god, you’re so polite!”
Then there was another one, at Gaffney’s a couple summers ago, [who] obviously hadn’t had a cocktail in a long time and she’s sitting at a table out in the Garden right next to us and she keeps yelling [at George] “Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart! because I had the skunk stripe and I look like Jon Stewart and a lot of people tell me that. She wouldn’t stop and I kept asking her really nice, I laughed and joked with her, I was like, you gotta stop I’m working and finally we had a bouncer escort her out. Yeah, Absolutely, she wouldn’t stop, it went on for like thirty minutes. It was awful.
Citizen Nancy: Do you like performing during Racing Season?
George Fletcher: Yeah, sure because you get to perform for a different audience every night. And what ends up happening invariably is we up working 5-7 nights a week, and you will play to a different crowd every night, you can even play the same bar 7 nights in a row and play to a different crowd every time.
Citizen Nancy: Whats your favorite bar to play in?
George Fletcher: All of them. Every place has its charm. Every place has the staff who have become your friends. They’re all great.
Backstretch is a new place and thats great. (on caroline street where Its Confidential used to be) We just played Caffe Lena, we rarely play Caffe Lena because they wouldn’t hire us because we play all the bars. Their concern would be that people wouldn’t pay money to see us, I beg to differ,I know if we promote a special show at Caffe Lena, that we could fill it up with paying customers, I know it.
We play on the roof fairly regularly up on the roof of City Tavern, thats fun and we love Gaffney’s Garden. We play all the places I just don’t have a favorite.
Citizen Nancy: Is there one place that you refuse to play anymore cause you just don’t like it?
George Fletcher: I can’t say… I won’t say that. I’m not a political guy, I’m not somebody thats into creating controversy, those who I may have problems with know who they are. We are an appropriate act for any situation around here from loud bar to quiet listening room but not everyone sees it that way. But thats okay, I don’t have a problem with people who won’t hire us. But folks who won’t hire us just cause they have a cranky disposition, and don’t get it… but whatever…doesn’t hurt me.
Citizen Nancy: What book is currently on your night stand?
George Fletcher: Discover Magazine….yeah, and the Kama Sutra…just kidding.
Citizen Nancy: What else?
George Fletcher: I have another band..I have Bourbon Renewal.
Citizen Nancy: Yeah, I knew you have both the Tequila Mockingbirds and Bourbon Renewal.
George Fletcher: