Pretentious Prudence Panel Causes Bitterness for the Ricksy Chicks

I stumbled upon this video clip of the Ricksy Chicks (Halsey, Me, Marilyn, Summer) Guitars Unplugged performance of 2005 and I realized that I am still working on some lingering pangs of bitterness toward the members of the "Prudence Panel"... instituted to protect the virtue and integrity of the event.

Apparently our primary mission was to sabotage those very things because we dared to present a cover of "Cowboy Take Me Away," that diabolical song which suggests "lying down in a field of bluebonnets" with a person unnamed. The ambiguity of the phrase can allow one's mind wander to forbidden places and the song was thus deemed unworthy.

We took another run at it by changing the lyrics so as to avoid any copyright issues. But, alas, our ulterior motives revealed themselves when we included A word that suggested heat, passion, or perhaps, lust.

It took a while to get beyond the discouragement, but finally after a few very late nights we were able to coin some cleverly clean lyrics based on Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 (Marianne Dashwood's theme poem) and sneak past the Prudence Panel's ever-so-watchful eye.

Performance Night: Just before we walked on-stage, our song was announced incorrectly in a last ditch effort by the panel to overthrow our cause. Despite all of this, the performance was given well and although I thought I would hyperventilate, we had a lot to offer. In addition to a very skilled guitarist (okay, maybe not), we had two of the most talented string musicians in the west, one of which sang while fiddling, and an awesome percussionist with some smooth shakes. That is a lot more than most performers had that night! AND we had written our own words!

Alas, the Prudence Panel banned us from the BIG Sat. night performance. It may not have helped our popularity when I demanded with a large and in-charge attitude to know the reason. It didn't matter, I suppose, because we all knew the truth: we were too hot to handle.