No Regrets

(excerpt)

Outside the Ashman Court Hotel at the bottom of the hill, No Regrets, an original rock band, will be playing for tailgaters.


Cary Black, their guitarist and keyboardist, is working on a book called “Tales of Katrina: A Freight Train Screamin’” with a soundtrack by the band (excerpt available at www.redowlpublications.com).


Singer Angi Dodge is excited to be playing for the baseball crowd, and like many, is excited about the team.


“This is a good thing for Midland, I hope it will get some people in the downtown area,” Dodge said. And the downtown tailgate parties promises to be a lot of fun, and she, from talking to others, expects thousands.


“Midland kind of gets that stuffy reputation,” she said, “There’s good stuff to do in Midland.”


But they’re not just going to be out there rockin’, they’ll be selling CDs. They’re trying to “spread the word that folks in Louisiana and Mississippi and other close areas are not recovered from the devastation from Hurricane Katrina,” lead singer Angi Dodge wrote in an e-mail.


The three song EP, recorded at the White Crow Conservatory, features artwork from a Katrina survivor who was stranded in an attic for days. The band hopes to release the book, a soundtrack and a DVD this summer, all about Katrina. - The Verge

No Regrets, Lots of Projects (November, 2006)
The Verge (featured band)

Stop into Decker's Lounge on a karaoke night, and odds are Angi Dodge is singing a hard rock classic.

She's also a singer for the No Regrets band, a group with a diverse lineup ranging in age from folks in their teens to folks in their early 50s.

Verge writer, Josh Grosteffon, caught up with the band at a practice in Dodge's garage/secondary living room to chat about their upcoming projects, which includes an album and DVD and book about Hurricane Katrina.

JG: How did No Regrets get together?

Angi: I talked to Cary (Black, lead guitarist) about putting some music together, we kind of started playing music today with another lady, and that kind of fell apart.

We actually hooked up with Bill (May, drummer) and Jim Hackett, the karaoke guy, and we were playing in his garage for a while, and that didn't work out.

Nathan (Mercieca, drummer) lives next door, and sometimes Bill couldn't come to practice so we'd say "hey, Nathan, want to come over and play drums?"

Chief (Scott Smart, rhythm guitar) kind of joined up with us last year.

It just kind of snowballed from there.

JG: How do you think your wide range of ages and personalities contributes to your sound?

Angi: Everybody's got a little bit different background.

Cary: "It's not so much a function of age, it's a function of attitude. I think everyone kind of comes from different musical backgrounds."

We've created a little kind of mini universe where everything comes together, and it's pretty cool.

JG: Angi tells me that you guys are working on a book and DVD about Hurricane Katrina. How did this come to light?

Cary: Just by accident I ended up getting stranded in Atlanta. I ended up spending the night in the airport, in the bar in the airport, with some folks coming back from New Orleans.

They had a bunch of pictures, and we looked at those pictures, and I thought "That would be a hell-of-a book."

I flew down to New Orleans ... and took a lot of pictures and embarked on writing a book about the hurricane.

I have like 5,000 pictures from all kinds of people, video footage.

JG: How does music fit into this novel?

Cary: Working with these guys I, we, put together a series of, I think, very compelling music.

The video production is about 60-70 percent done, we'll be layering this music as a soundtrack to the DVD, which will go into the back of the book.

JG: This won't be your first book, Cary. Tell me about your first foray into publishing, "Zen and the Art of Cooking Beer Can Chicken?"

Cary: I was working at SC Johnson as a consultant and one of the operators I had worked with invented this chicken cooker, the Poultry Pal.

He knew I was a writer and he knew I liked to cook. So he said "can you write six recipes for my little pamphlet?" Sure. And I wrote six, then I wrote 12, then I wrote 30, because I fell in love with the damn thing.

It occurred to me that I had a book. I formed Red Owl Publications (www.redowlpublications.com) and published it myself.

JG: So a book and a DVD are in the works. How about an album?

Cary: What we envision the album being is including shorter versions of all the Katrina music, then we have three or four other songs that we haven't pigeonholed into the Katrina effort.

JG: The title of the CD is...

Angi: Musings and Pathos.

Cary: One side of it will be something like the "Katrina Suite," then we have three or four other originals.

Angi: Steve (Vinson, bass) just walked in with three new songs.

Cary: Maybe we'll have seven more songs then. The focus of our energy is getting this original stuff done in a way that's professional and compelling.

JG: Angi, you're a karaoke veteran, or a karaoke "lady of the evening" as you put it. What is it that you like about karaoke?

Angi: I love being able to entertain folks. Karaoke also gives me the opportunity to try out new songs that the band may not know yet. But mostly, just 'cause I love to sing.

People have a tendency to deride it but it is just plain fun. If you have the guts to get up and sing in front of folks, it doesn't matter how good or bad you are. It's entertaining, and I will give applause for everyone.

Check up on the No Regrets and all their projects at their MySpace at www.myspace.com/noregretsoriginalrock.
- The Verge (featured band)