Coyote Highway - October 22, 2005

It's very late, and I'm toolin' down the highway at break neck speeds on my way back from a performance in another world. Even though the horizon is rushing towards me, it never seems to move the way I would like it to: be here now. My feet are burning up from the heater, and I keep shuffling them around in an attempt to cool them off. It never occurs to me to turn down the heat. I smell like cigarette smoke and the radio is annoying me. So is my hair. It's been a long day.

I see something. Was that a coyote running across the road up ahead? Does Illinois have coyotes? A few miles down the road I see another, and still another. The last looked at me before turning into a mist of vapor. My eyes are playing tricks on me. This coffee isn't doing it. It tastes like bacon; I was grateful for the last cup in the pot at Road Ranger, and began wishing that I had a couple of eggs to go along with the coffee. Lots of miles to go.

Another coyote. Maybe I should pull over and rest my eyes. I think about tonight's performance. I had a really fun time. I truly felt like I had connected with a few people out there tonight. It's happening more and more. No more just throwing a song out and seeing who nibbles. We are all part of a larger thing"seeking the same thing from two different viewpoints.

While I was packing up at the end of the night two women approached me; an older and younger. The older woman made contact. She introduced me to her daughter and told me that her daughter wanted to meet me. She said that her daughter really loved my music and will come back to see me next week if I will come back. The whole time the daughter didn't say a word, but just stared a hole in me and smiled. That's ok. Later on she will think of things to say when she's in the controlled environment of her thoughts.

A moment later a waitress approached and shyly said "I really like your music"I mean I usually don't like the people who play here, but I really like your music." That was the nicest thing anyone had said to me all day, and there were some really nice people out there saying some really nice things. I noticed her while I was playing; I thought that she was supposed to be stationed by her waitress area, but now I realize that she had subliminally defected to audience side of life without her supervisor suspecting a thing. Good for her. I won't tell.

That's a beautiful thing--hey maybe that's why I am stranded in a steel box zipping down a stretch of road in the middle of the night. As I took another sip of cold bacon coffee, I had to slow down to avoid another phantom coyote. I asked myself "Well g-man was it worth this?"

"Hell yeah!" Rumbled my stomach.

Gary Wesselhoff

BIO "g-man Blues" is Gary Wesselhoff, a solo acoustic rocker with a genuine dedication to Chicago Style Blues. Hailing from the Chicago suburbs, he began his musical career in the mid-sixties during the Folk Rock movement. Playing Chicago coffeehouse scene in the early ?70?s, he hit it off with a couple of other folk rockers and began playing under the name Woodlind. Woodlind wrote and performed their own material exclusively?one point boasting a song list of over seventy-five original songs. At the end of his high school years, g-man and Woodlind recorded but never released a double album of songs at Chicagolands famous "Pumpkin Recording Studio" with producer Gary Loizzo (star of the group "The American Breed" who later became renowned for his production of several Styx albums). Over the years the band members eventually drifted apart.

In college g-man met and began playing with two outstanding performers, Bob May, and Ken Zemanek. The three began playing once again under the name of Woodlind. The band grew in size and following. Ken would later progress on to join American English; other band members Scott Bonshire would join Heartsfield, and Jim Williams hooked up with a country band called Crossfyre. Joey Drada currently plays with contemporary Chicago Blues Royalty.

In the interim, g-man dropped out of the business to raise a family.

In 2003 g-man sat in with some friends and immediately decided to return to music. Quotes g-man "When I returned, I discovered something forceful about myself; I found that I had new abilities that were not present when I was a kid?it?s much more than the synergy of practice and focus. I discovered that I could sing more dynamically, play more powerfully, and write better than ever". He began to chase the blues, and worked a blues harp into his act.

In 2005 he launched his Website: gmanblues.com is a successful Website often with hits from countries around the world. It?s at this site that you can sample some of g-man?s music offerings, and see photos of him in action. Currently g-man Blues is writing an album of original songs that has the working title "g-Force", and he is playing around the city. More information can be found at his website.