The Tyrus Reunion

Over the weekend we kind of a reunion of sorts.  And it started with me cleaning out the bedroom and finding some old pictures and then the ball got rolling.


Tyrus was the agreed name for Paraphernalia which was a band started by myself and Russ Swearingen. While the life history of that band never really stopped, we took a break in 1984 and been on break ever since.  But with the discovery and posting of the band pics actually turned to be a reunion of sorts on Facebook.  Along with Russ, Dennis Lancaster, DeWayne Schminkey and Doug Bonesteel with also comments from Mike Swearningen's daughter and Chris Swearingen's daughter Nicole we got to shoot the breeze for a time and it stirred memories of a long ago and far away place when we all young and hungry to make it to the big time with lots of money and women and power to boot.  But when you're living in small town Iowa, nobody from Warner Brothers or Sony or Universal are going to drive off the beaten path to see you play.

When I posted the band pictures it was an attempt to preserve some sort of historical meaning and since Mike Swearingen didn't have many band pictures up on his site, I thought I passed them on to him over there. The OK Lounge set, where most of the pictures came from, there's not many of them with me in it.  In fact there's are two post shows pictures of myself but the lighting and my shirt made it hard to see. Shawn Ster had the majority of photos taken of him, since he was a guest guitarist and really not a perm band member I really didn't see the need to post all 7 of him.  But the best pictures will be posted for the upcoming blog about playing that final night in 1984 in subzero temps under a full moon, giving our best shot before going separate ways of work, family and life itself. 

Tyrus wasn't a great band but the core group were good friends and still are today.  What we lacked in musicianship we made up with total reckless abandon and full speed ahead.  I love these guys and even though we will never be on stage together again, we learn to say never say never. Anything can happen.

But for now I'll enjoy the memories of how we got there.