Back in 2014 I made Forthcoming Trains, an album that borrowed some of my original material that didn't fit the original sound that I had in mind. Except for Knocking On Heaven's Door which Bob Dylan wrote and somehow I thought covering that would score some cool cred. But as the record got played, mostly on Lucky Star Radio (We All Sleep Alone made number 1 for three weeks off and on), but this started up the idea of playing one more time in a local band, to play the original songs in front of people and one last attempt to play rock star before I turned 60.
Karen Waters was the one that suggested that I get back to playing again. I'm not sure what processed her into saying that but I did venture out to Checkers earlier in the year and hung out at the back while Bart Carfizzi scoured for people to play, but I made no effort to play. I was still dealing with stage fright that wouldn't go away (or Asperger's for that matter) but one night after work, I jammed with Rodney Albaugh on a couple of songs and well, he's the one that got the ball rolling.
I eventually made my debut at Wrighleyville on this day in 2015, playing to the house band of T Ray Robertson and Guitar Dave Bonham, I did a couple songs on drums, undisciplined as hell and playing too loud and too fast. But the house drum set was terrible, a warped pair of hi hats, a couple of trash can lids as cymbals (there was a Paiste 302 bronze that actually sounded decent) and a twenty dollar drumset that made me long for my old Ohio Arts flashing light toy drum set. 31 years removed from the OK Lounge and occasional sighting, mainly 1991's jam with The Routers, a band that my former boss Greg Nutter was part of. A 1993 Attitudes jam with a husband wife group, to which my lack of playing slowed down their groove. Then after that, back to the basement, back to the music room to record as The Townedgers. But in 2015, I was the newbie, a veteran of the original music and band but to the rest of Cedar Rapids and other places, just another unknown.
I didn't keep a log of what I did back then. It was usually crap like Hold On Loosely, Mustang Sally, Brown Eye Girl or the all time drunkard's fave, Free Bird. When Russ Swearingen finally joined me in August, we jammed to Rocky Mountain Way and perhaps Rock Me Baby. Russ and I tried to get something going off and on but we never did get off the ground. Perhaps in 2006 with John Field, we could have gotten something going, but the flood of 2008 ended that, John Field lost everything and his sanity and Russ and I tried with another bunch of folk in 2009 but I didn't think we had much going.
While the first jam was a case of getting over the jitters, I didn't shy away and returned back to the basement, instead I continue to go to various jams and interact with more players and beginning to fit in musically, tho the usual complaints of too fast and too loud was commonplace. Bart and Tim Duffy hosted the Rumor's jams till Bart quit and Tim moved to Georgia and Terry McDowell took over. And somehow I was always there, ready to pick up and practice with the legends of this town. And there are many legends that I did play along with, Dennis McMurrin, Craig Erickson, Tommy Bruner, Dan Johnson, Rare Earth bass player Randy Burghdorf, Brook Hoover, Al Hendricks, Tommy Giblin.... all figured into me finding my own groove.
While I finally got over the stage fright on drums, the next step was to play guitar and sing, which then The Acousta Kitties got me to play a few songs later on. Eventually one of them, Julie Gordon would become a bigger part of this life, but in a perfect world Kyle Oyloe would still be alive, and they would still be together. But nevertheless, Julie has been a musical partner tho, they have been few and far between. But I have shared the stage with her with Dreams Of Arcadia or The Mad Dogs or even The Acousta Crabbies. I have shared the stage with Lorie Parker, Cathy Hart, Belinda James, Tiffany Mahenery, Cecie Stark and Kimberly Kat Blue, but my fave moments remains when Julie Gordon sings the songs.
When you're a musician, music is a part of you till the day you die. Oh, I could retire and return back to my old life but the urge would come back and take over again. Why it took 31 years is a matter of ambition. To be honest, I didn't have much of that when Paraphernalia/Tyrus closed up shop. Wrighleyville no longer has music jams, and we lost fellow people along the way, Kyle Oyloe, Tommy Patterson, Ron Dewitte, David Bosier to name a few. Bands come and go and somehow we came full circle. I did managed to play in some good bands that never pan out, The Wiley Kats, with Timothy Wiley, good guitar player, Ben Benyard, underrated bass player but didn't have the ambition to keep playing. The Egads, with Belinda James and Mark Randolph, Larry Alexman had a great batch of songs to play but family life kept him from the stage and Mark's bi polar issues doomed him from the beginning. And The Boy Scout Hippies, which will always be Ron LaFluer's band. Now I'm in Blues Rox, with Kris and Brian Bries for over a year and a half and it's fun to watch Kris branch out to be one of the better blues guitar players in town. With Russ playing bass, it's like Paraphernalia all over again. Out of all the bands, Blues Rox is the last great hope for me to be in a band that might turn out to be something special. Kris is only 20 and he has his life ahead of him, I'm sixty and on perhaps my last go around. But the last go around has been going for six years. As long as I'm not dead, I look to the next day that I take the stage, behind the drums or with guitar in hand.
I hate to think the next six years will go by this fast, by then I'll be 66. But as long as it's fun and as long I can hold a beat (be it fast and loud) I'll continue to play the rock star.
'
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.