The members of Boot Hill have been done wrong, but they don't have the energy to assume Stevie Ray's vigilante tone. In fact, their words echo the lyrics of "Empty Arms," another song from the same Vaughan album: You're gonna miss me, little baby/The day that I'm gone/'Cuz I'm leaving you this morning/Won't be back at all. When we last heard from this spirited rock trio, it was attempting to recoup its instruments and equipment, which had been stolen after the band's performance at the Flamingo Casino. Unfortunately, little has changed since then, other than the fact that the members' will to persist decreases on a daily basis.
"It doesn't feel the same," says bassist Allegra Cloud. "This thing has just broken us spiritually. I'm not saying we're quitting, but we might be taking a hiatus. It's just too hard to try to keep competing. There's not going to be anything coming up on the horizon."
On the not-so-distant horizon is Boot Hill's benefit show with Spooky Pajamas, Sister Mary Rotten Crotch, and the Snot Rockets on August 3 at the Grand Emporium. Proceeds will go toward replacing the equipment. As an added attraction, two special guests will join Boot Hill.
"We're bringing our kids with us to show people that it's hard to be parents with both of us in the band," Allegra says. "They never see us with our kids, and that is the majority of our life. We feel like we've made so many sacrifices to do the band, and when we got our stuff stolen, it was like, 'God, is this even worth it?' In a lot of ways, it has been (worth it) for us, but in many ways, it is not. We're going to honor all of our gigs because we don't want to cancel anything, but we are definitely slacking off to try to rejuvenate and feel good again. It's such a financial burden that you begin to fight amongst each other, and with us being a married couple and having kids, it's just not good. We feel that our family's a little more important than to let the devastation of what happened have that kind of an impact on our family and on our marriage, and it has."
"One of the ironic things is that just weeks prior to our stuff being stolen, a production company out of L.A. had chosen us and the Kristie Stremel Band to shoot some dialogue on the lifestyle of musicians," adds Gary Cloud, "how there's so much poverty, how there's no health insurance. Bands like us don't really make money. People think that just because you're out there gigging that you're making a killing, and it doesn't work that way. Basically, you can just throw a keg party at your house, have all your friends come, and spend a lot less money doing it."
Should Boot Hill throw such a keg party anytime soon, the revelers would be more closely packed than rooftop gawkers at the Plaza lighting ceremony. As Allegra says, the one good thing to arise from this emotionally draining situation is the band's new circle of supporters.
"There are so many wonderful people in this city that I never knew, and I probably never would have known unless our stuff got stolen," she admits. "I didn't know so many people cared."
Most of these generous souls come from the music community, and many of them have offered to help out by playing for the benefit (the bands were booked by Grand Emporium's Jason Hyken, not the members of Boot Hill) or lending the band instruments. But the group is managing to scrape by on a combination of purchased-on-indefinite-layaway instruments from MARS Music and a guitar Cloud's parents bought. Unfortunately, "Gary can't play guitar without breaking strings constantly," Allegra says. "So having just one guitar helps, but it's not like it was."
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