I’m certain sausage making and music go hand in hand.
When working with meat, I’m always jammin’. In the Italian macellerias, Dario Cecchini's butchers preferred AC/DC while carving up their massive steaks. When I arrived in Denmark, David Bowie populated everyone's playlists, so I decided to give them a taste of Texas Country music while we toiled in the kitchen – surprisingly, they liked it. The next day the Danes returned and followed up my playlist with one loaded with Garth Brooks tunes.
I can dig it.
One day, I noticed an Instagram follower of mine, Rich O’Toole, played Texas Country. The next morning in the kitchen, I mixed in a few of his songs into the rotation. They were catchy. I felt like I had heard his tune “Robert E. Lee” before, or maybe that was just was just the history major in me. Eventually, Rich was my go-to artist. I'd throw on my headphones and go to work - singing and screaming about Robert E. Lee or "Uncle Hank." Eventually, the Danes started asking questions about this Robert E. Lee fellow, so I had to give them a history lesson.
Flash forward a couple of months…
I’m helping throw an event just outside College Station, Texas and needed a band. I was to do a sausage making workshop, and it was to be followed up with BYOB and a band. Something clicked in the brain and the next thing you know, Rich O’Toole is lined up to play an acoustic show after my sausage demo at Jake’s Saloon in Calvert, Texas.
On the day of the event, everyone was digging in and getting their hands dirty making sausage. Rich and Matt (his guitar player) rolled up their sleeves and jumped right in.
Rich O’Toole is a liar.
The man said he had never made sausage, but honestly, I think he’s been moonlighting as a butcher while rockin' the Texas Country Music scene. He and Matt turned out some nice consistent links – Rich even tackled a second batch of meat and produced a killer sausage coil!
Rich and his guitar player, Matt, cranking out some links.
After some fresh-cooked links and some libations, Rich and Matt pulled out their guitars and plugged in their amps to put on a stellar acoustic performance. We had a blast.
Sausage Slingers
Brother Rich just released his new album, American Kid. It’s taken over my car radio and headphones for the past week. Check it out here.