In late 1998, I was offered an interesting gig up the coast from San Carlos in Puerto Penasco, known to us gringos as Rocky Point. At a popular place in town called "Margaritavilla", where I had played a Red Cross benefit over Memorial Day Weekend. The place definitely had history. It had been a prison at one time, then later was converted into a brothel. Now it was a seafood/Thai food restaurant bar with a stage in the corner and Buffett tunes on the stereo. The gigs were steady, the money was decent and it sounded like a chance to meet kill two birds with one stone: remain in Mexico on the Sea of Cortez, but perform for all these Arizonans I was now meeting at my shows up in the States. Rocky Point, unlike San Carlos, is only an hour from the border and gets flooded with tourists from nearby Phoenix and Tucson every weekend. With a fourth album being recorded, I figured I'd sell a lot of CDs to the weekend crowds plus be able to move between both countries easier than the eight hour trip from San Carlos to Phoenix. I had just gotten engaged to Adela, and our wedding was planned for June 1999 in Guaymas, We talked it over and I took the gig, moving to Rocky Point in January of 1999 and staying there alone for the first six months until she joined me after the wedding.
We had some good times in Rocky Point, even though we missed San Carlos and Guaymas a lot. Margaritavilla would definitely fill up with tourists every weekend but often times not the kind of folks who are into Mark Mulligan tunes. (Like the drunken spring breaker who once rocketed a billiard ball at my head during a song, or the guy who passed out under my car, etc., etc…) Much different than the gringos I knew in San Carlos. One reason we tended to attract the dirtbags in addition to the cool people was the bar's policy of giving away free tequila from 11-12, AM and PM, seven days a week….no limit and no purchase necessary. Yes, you read that right. As long as you could crawl to the bar, they'd serve you. In fact, they'd probably serve a six year old if he had a decent fake ID. I lost my voice fairly often during many a wild night at Margaritavilla.
Probably the craziest characters at that bar were the State Liquor Department inspectors whose job it was to regulate the place. These guys were raging alcoholics who basically drank for free at any bar they went to "inspect". One of them almost busted my friend Kyle for falling asleep on a table one night….The next night, we found the same inspector passed out, face up on the pool table inside the bar. The inspectors would frequently steal a bottle of booze from the bar, approach an unsuspecting bar patron, grab his head from behind and shove the bottle down his throat, liquor spilling all over the place. They would also smuggle in bootleg booze and send it up to me on stage in a shot glass, usually with a note that said something like "Drink this or we'll bust the bar for a violation". Welcome to Mexican law enforcement.
I heard about a singer from San Diego who would often play across the Sea of Cortez from Rocky Point in the Baja California town of San Felipe. His name was Gary Seiler. One day a mutual friend, John Hibbert, lined us up a gig to perform together at Juanito's Cantina in San Felipe. Gary was a showman, an entertainer who knew how to work a crowd. He once played a five hour set moments after breaking his picking finger in a ceiling fan while greeting his fans on stage. (He got through that gig with a little help from Jose Cuervo) We instantly clicked and ended up playing several crazy gigs over the coming years in that cantina in San Felipe together. He even invited me to sing with him on his first CD, "Livin' On Dreams". We sing together pretty often these days, both north and south of the border.
Speaking of musical duo partners, that first year in Rocky Point I also got a chance to go out to South Padre Island, Texas and visit my old buddy Matt Theiss. After all these years, Matt was basically a local legend on the island. We did a show together, shared a few stories, one or two rum and cokes, and amazingly didn't get thrown out of any Holiday Inn's the whole trip. While on the island, I snuck in a solo show at a place called Amberjacks. As my luck would have it, a major hurricane blew through the date of my first scheduled gig and the island had to be evacuated, so there were considerably less people than we had expected. But it was great to see Matt again and sing together after all so many years. He has an awesome new percussion and harmonica player, Alan, and is now part owner of a restaurant/bar called "Parrot Eyes".
I put out my fourth CD, "Going Coastal" that year. With my brand new email list and website, I was able to market it in ways I could never market CDs before….so although it didn't quite crack Billboards Hot 100, album sales outpaced any previous CD by a long shot. The band did an awesome job and I was really excited with the project. Three songs from that album ("Blue Blue Water", "Somewhere South Of Somewhere" and "Uncharted Courses") got picked up and released nationally on various tropical compilation CDs. A newspaper review in "The Arizona Republic" helped to expose the CD to some new fans, too
As the year 2000 rolled around I continued to sing in Rocky Point, although I eventually left Margaritavilla and moved on to nicer places like "The Black Dog", "Balboas", and "Pancho and Leftys". Places where they actually charged you for the tequila and occasionally asked for ID. I made some memorable trips north that year, joining my buddy Gary Seiler at the San Diego Parrothead Club Anniversary Party in March. I did a solo set and also played with Gary in front of about 700 partying Parrotheads. It was incredible and I've returned every year since. While in San Diego that year, I also played in Mission Beach at "The Beachcomber" …also down in Chula Vista at "The Galley" and another place I still perform on every Southern California trip, "Bob's on the Bay".
Two months later, I headed north again, this time back to my old stomping grounds of Yarnell, where I performed at the annual "Yarnell Days" celebration. Adela came with me as I performed at the American Legion Hall and a local restaurant/bar. She got to meet a lot of folks that 'til then she had only heard about. We stayed with my friend Shawna Shelley, who had always been kind of my "agent' when I first started out in Yarnell….making sure my clothes were ironed and rounding up crowds for my gigs. She and Adela hit if off immediately, and our second day there Shawna convinced her to take a pregnancy test. Adela did, and you guessed it….We made Shawna promise that she wouldn't tell until we called our parents, but by the time I started singing that afternoon at the Legion, everyone in town was coming up and congratulating us. Word gets around quickly in Yarnell!
When I called my mom the next day from down the road in Aguila, she told me my granddad had died. I was sad for my grandmother but happy my grandfather had gone home to be with God, where my grandma soon joined him. One life ends, another begins. We toasted my grandfather and the baby that night as I sang in the bar formerly "Bill's Place", now "Jim's Lazy G", owned by Jim and Roxanne Goddard….(By the way, Jim converted half the laundromat into additional bar space and I've never had to sing between the washers and dryers again!)
I based out of Puerto Penasco through the end of 2000 and met some great, fun people there…in fact, I still run into people all over the States who have seen me sing in Rocky Point. And I still make the 350 mile trip from San Carlos up to Rocky Point a couple times a year, playing on the waterfront patio at the Playa Bonita Resort and doing annual beach parties for John "There's Always Manana" Gorman's gang and the crazy folks at Playa Dorada just outside town. Both of those places are totally my scene…we have great times, the sunset views are gorgeous and the whole family is welcome. And playing right on the water kicks butt over playing in a bar (or former prison) any day.
With a baby on the way, we decided to change course. We wanted to have him down south in Guaymas, but then spend his first year or so up in the States. I had been away for a long time and wanted my folks to get to know Adela and spend time with the baby. We said goodbye to Rocky Point and the many friends we had met, and headed to Guaymas where Marcos was born on January 13, 2001. I told Adela I was taking him for a drive one day, but actually took him to out to Cochorit beach where I gave him his first dunk in the Sea of Cortez. Right past my old beach shack and in front of my dream house we would live in a couple years later. Wanted him to touch that water before we headed north for the States. It would be a year and a half before we returned. So many good memories, but time to move on. Adios Mexico! Be back soon….
