More End Of Month Thoughts From The Townedger

In the road of life, I don't know where I'm going
I just follow where it leads down the line

As I conclude this month, I have been enlightened and encouraged to keep playing rock and roll that I have been doing for 35 plus years.  I still have days to which I tend to wonder if I have the strength to make it to the stage and play music, but I have a great bunch of musician friends who keep me going, even in my darkest hours.

The Townedgers have been my side project for many years and many albums to which some get heard, and most don't.  That's the way it goes in life.  Except for Fitting Finales, I really have not paid much attention to that band, opting to try something different with The Wiley Kats, only to throw in the towel after a month.  Work got in the way, but the chemistry wasn't quite right.

As I put together a set list for upcoming Townedgers live in the studio set, I have been looking into more obscure songs or lesser known.  I think I picked about 6 or 7 songs from Light At The End Of The Tunnel for consideration.  However, since We All Sleep Alone made number 1 last year, it would make logical sense to include that song.  Usually, I can remember the words better to Does It Matter or Better Days than I could with We All Sleep Alone but I need to locate the lyrics and revisit it; if not my A and R person will be solely disappointed.

That said, I am open to be available to any band that is looking for a drummer if my job situation doesn't improve.  I'm getting tired of going through the hoops of layoffs for the past 15 years, but I've been there so long that they would have to pay me at least a year severance.   And I could use some time to recharge my batteries so to speak.

There are options on the table of band playing although the gigs would be few and far between.  The most likely scenario would be reviving the Open Highway Band, or perhaps Tyrus/Paraphernalia.  It's hard to get Russ motivated to do the old bar songs of yesterday and I know how he feels about Sweet Home Alabama or Cocaine, and it's golf season and he enjoys that more than hearing a 20 inch crash bashing in his ear.  Plus we really are not keen to practice every other day either.  Since 2009, Russ and I only played together one time and it's like riding a bike.  It's rough going at first but then you get back into the groove quite fast.

Scenario number 2 was the uncertain future of Julie And The Mad Dogs and talk about them breaking up in July.  In previous blogs I have raved about them and being the outsider trying to brush up their set and song list and watching some of their old videos online when Kyle Oyloe was alive but I arrived too late to the party and after he passed away too.  But I started to show up to their gigs and managed to sit in on a song or two. It came down to if Mike choosing one of the two bands he was playing in, if he was to leave, I would have lobbied to play drums.  They have a great chemistry between them, it's pure rock and roll and I really didn't want them to dissolve.  But in the end, Mike could still play with both bands, thus they would continue on.

In this one year of being back in music, Julie Gordon has been one of the coolest and most  inspirational of the musicians that have welcomed me back.  She might be the light at the end of the tunnel, she can sing anything that comes to mind. A missing piece to the puzzle of this life?  Only God knows.

The forth of July will mark 5 years since Dennis Pusateri left this world.  I still miss him and his warped sense of humor, and the nights we would trade cassettes to listen to while processing Pell Grants years ago.  We did reconnect around 2008 at the Wilson Avenue Hy Vee and I'm still bothered that I didn't get to say hi to him the last time I've seen him, while getting Chinese food and racing back to work, I'd would see him later on I figured.  But I didn't plan on seeing him at his funeral the next time.  I'm sure in the afterworld, he's riding his motorcycle up and down Arizona 66 and playing loud rock and roll.  I love you Dennis.