Devil Wings

Even though I've given these things up for a while I still think about them a lot, I'm talking about Devil Wings, deep-fried, halved chicken wings tossed in a hot sauce made of Louisiana hot sauce and butter. My wife and I found these things in San Francisco last year under their original title, 'Buffalo Wings' while on holiday. One afternoon after we'd had an argument I left our hotel room and started walking up the street, on the next street corner was a diner I'd noticed a couple times before - painted white with blue and red detailing called 'O.B.W.' with a logo something like the Caltex logo but with a winged bison instead of the Pegasus. I went inside and saw their specialty was Buffalo Wings - that came in hot, extra hot, and terriayaki, I ordered a dozen extra hot and after a 10 minute wait got a big sack of these things, well it was almost love at first taste, I walked around for a while eating these things with hot sauce all over my hand and looking in shop windows when I saw my wife coming up the sidewalk with our two boys,
"what are you eating?"
"Nuthin"
"give me one"
"here y'are"
Well we stood there on the sidewalk pigging out on these hot wings while people stared at us like a pair of freaks. We had them a couple more times before we left San Fran and then off we went to Europe.
Later that year, back in Australia I was shopping at a Spanish foods supermarket when I found a huge bottle of Mexican hot sauce (Tapatio) for real cheap, I bought it and planned to make the wings, I looked on the internet and found out that they were deep fried and that you mix hot sauce with butter to make the sauce, so on New Years Eve 2007 I made up a huge batch for the people round our place and we all sat out in the backyard drinking beer and eating 'Buffalo Wings' well, they were mighty hot, so hot that after about two of them your mouth was really burning up. I made the wings a few more times and everytime they were so hot they'd just about kill you, I went back on the internet to see what hot sauce was the best to use and everywhere said the original was Frank's Red Hot sauce (you can't get it in Australia), well we persevered with our insane xtra hot wings for a couple more months and then in April, we returned to the U.S.A. for a tour - I bought botttles of hot sauce everywere we went, in every grocery store, gas station, anywhere I could find it I bought some, although I didn't get any Frank's cos I didnt like the look of the bottle. We travelled from Austin, through Louisiana, up through Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky... right on up to New York where we stayed for 2 1/2 weeks then flew to San Francisco. The flight to San Francisco was a nightmare, we missed our plane in New York, while we were standing in line to get put on another flight a big bottle of hot sauce fell out of my bag and smashed on the floor sending glass and hot sauce everywhere, and our two boys screamed and cried for the entire flight. At last we got to San Francisco and took a cab to out hotel (the same one we stayed in the year before), when we got there my wife got the boys ready for bed and I went straight down to the corner and bought us a double dozen of hot wings, some drinks, fries and a salad, I got back to the hotel and the boys were asleep, we spread out a picnic on the floor and sat round eating these delicious wings, the whole day's chaos was gone in an instant when we tasted how good they were, and mild compared to my 'loco' variation using the hot Mexican sauce. When we got back to Australia we went on a wings quest, using all the hot sauces I'd bought, looking for the best tasting one and the one that reminded us most of those wings we had in San Francisco. After all the testing I have found a favourite - 'Crystal' hot sauce from Louisiana, it's real mild so you can serve it to anyone but you can easily heat it up too by adding some super hot sauce in, and the flavour is good. So there you have it, I call them Devil Wings. Like I said at the start, I'm off them for a while, first because I suspect that they are one of the most unhealthy foods you can probably eat, and second, because they have a bad side-effect that can get you out of bed two or three times in the wee hours of the following morning to visit the bathroom (in the worst kind of way). By the way, I did try Frank's Red Hot (found an American supermaket way out in the suburbs that sell it) and I didn't like it - too salty, that's the main problem with a lot of the sauces, if you're gonna try making some of these try and get a sauce that is not real salty. When I make my cookbook these are gonna be in there.

'Jungle Blues' Tour T-Shirt

This is the tour T-Shirt that I'll be bringing along for sale at the shows, these are limited editions just for the album launch tour. Tour dates listed on the back of the shirt.

'Jungle Blues' National Album Launch Tour

Yes, next Wednesday the National album launch tour for Jungle Blues begins, I'm taking with me a four piece band consisting of: Stephen Grant - Cornet, Kynan Robinson - Trombone, James Clark - Double Bass & Tuba, and Ollie Browne - Drums, and of course, my beautiful wife Kirsty Fraser who'll be singing the smash hit 'Housebound Blues' from the Jungle Blues album. Also coming along as the special guest opening act is Brownbird Rudy Relic who we've imported from New York City to entertain you with his wild stage antics and original "Holler Blues" style. This lineup is not to be missed so book your tickets in advance to avoid disapointment. Ticket information is available from www.billions.com.au Click on the tour poster pic to view tour dates

Hair Grease

I have a good new combo of hair grease that's the best thing I've found in a while - When I was staying in Brooklyn back in May, I picked up a jar of some stuff called Nature's Blessings from a pharmacy, this stuff is a very light pomade, green in color, smells good and makes pretty good shine. Last week I decided to pick up a tub of Brylcreem since I keep hearing about what good shine it makes, well now I put some of that Nature's blessings through and then top it off with a dose of Brylcreem and that combo make the best shine I've ever had - course it makes a damn mess of your pillowcase at night, but at least the Nature's Blessings jar says it's good for your skin too so I guess you really do get some beauty rest while your head is getting coated in that junk in your sleep. I got on the hunt for movie star shiny hair after I got rid of my old preacher's hat along with my black suits, when you wear a hat you have to wear real heavy pomade or you get a big damn mess all over the place, you still get a mess anyway but not as bad if the pomade is a heavy one, the problem is those heavy pomades don't shine that good. Now after 10 years of slicking it back, my hair doesn't need heavy stuff to lay flat so this light stuff is real good, The Murray's super light is a good one too, and the Sweet Georgia Brown in the red can, Royal Crown is another real light one (they don't sell it in Australia), Elvis used it, I've gone off the ones with the real strong smell though, there's another called Murray's Hair-Glo that I ain't tried yet. But for now the Nature's Blessings is the one I like the best, it has a long list of herbal ingedients which make it seem healthier than these old-time ones that just contain: Petrolatum, Fragrance.