I can’t believe it’s been ten years since the Mike Farley Band released their album Halfaworldaway.

Around that time I was playing keys in the Tony Lang Band, playing guitar and producing music with Tom Smith, and writing and performing with the nascent version of drunkdude69.  The TLB split a number of shows with the Mike Farley Band, and I was friends with Jeff Beam who played bass in both projects, so I was frequently in attendance when they played to great crowds at the Odeon concert club and elsewhere.

It seems like yesterday that I watched their CD release performance at the Odeon.  I remember wanting to smash my hands with a hammer as I watched Jeff Nagel play guitar like a rock star.  Mike’s songs were amazing, and Jeff Beam and Joe Rohan held down a pounding rhythm on bass and drums.

So on Sunday night it was like stepping into a Cleveland music time machine.

The show was excellent – lots of fun and energy, a room full of people who were psyched to enjoy some original music, and a great venue in Brothers Lounge on Cleveland’s west side.

It was fantastic to see some folks I hadn’t caught up with in a long time, and to meet some new friends as well.  I got goosebumps while listening to the band play their set, which included a guest appearance on bass and vocals by Brian Dossa, who replaced Jeff Beam on bass after Jeff headed to Nashville.

It made me remember the excitement of playing original music for an appreciative crowd.  There was some talk about the band putting some new material together despite the guys living in different areas of the country.  I think the tools exist for that collaboration, and I hope they do it (um, I’ll throw down some Hammond tracks if anybody’s interested).

Whatever they come up with I’ll be in line to get a copy (along with lots of other folks).

Today would have been my grandfather’s 90th birthday.  Every July 10th I tip back a few manhattans in his honor.

When I was in my early teens I desperately wanted a pro synthesizer.  I had my Casio, of course, but I wanted to get into the realm of real gear.

There was no way, of course, that I could afford the eight or nine hundred dollars required to buy a serious keyboard. I campaigned tirelessly for that ultimate holiday gift, but it never materialized.

One summer while I was staying with my grandparents, they took me out to a few music stores so I could check out keyboards. I fell in love with a KORG DW-8000, and the music store sales guy even offered to throw in a few extra banks of sounds (saved on a cassette tape, nice).

My grandfather was very unsentimental, a career air force pilot and general hardass.  But he dropped the coin to get me my first pro music gear that day.  I think about him every time I play, and I never forget his birthday.

Happy birthday Pappy, wherever you are.

I read somewhere that Cinco De Mayo is actually only celebrated in one state in Mexico (Puebla, the state in which the Mexican army bested French forces on the 5th of May in 1862).  Thanks goodness tequila companies have appropriated the holiday and sanctioned it for celebration by drunk dudes and drunk dudettes everywhere.

Have a fun time celebrating, but don’t do anything dangerous.  At least not while naked.

Generally I’m not big on sitting in with a band, or going to jam nights.  Even though I guess I can hold my own when it comes to playing, I’ve never felt like I’m good enough to just randomly jump in.

However, there are exceptions.  Last weekend I had a chance to go see Thomas Reed Smith (a.k.a. TRS) do an acoustic show at Rider’s Inn in Painesville Ohio.  It’s been a while since I’ve been able to see TRS play – for a few years he wasn’t playing, or I had gigs when he was.

Tom and I have been working on music together since 1999 when I produced his debut album “I Need A Change“.  It was my first attempt at producing for someone else, and was a real learning experience.  Tom’s band for that record was comprised of what was left of the Foonspeeders: me, Mike, and our old drummer Scott Haumesser.

In addition to doing the recording for the record, we also promoted the album by playing a considerable number of gigs.  We called them “iron band” gigs because we would do an hour of TRS music, then a couple hours of Foonspeeder music.  As a result, we knew the TRS songs well.

We started work on Tom’s follow up record in 2002, but as a result of the same forces that kept our own “Funk Out With Your Junk Out” album from completion until 2008, it has lingered unfinished (I am on a mission to make sure it is finished this year).

In late 2008, Mike and I got together with Tom and ran through some songs in an acoustic rehearsal.  It was stunning: we played these songs like it had been yesterday.

So when Tom offered me the chance to sit in on “Go Now”, which was the very first tune we worked on for his 1999 record, I was thrilled to join him.  Somehow there’s nothing like the feeling I get when playing music that’s so familiar, and to share the playing with someone else (not to mention the people that were there to listen) is a true joy.

Thanks, Tom.

The other remaining blog entry from the old DD69 blog, recently unearthed.  This one is from 3/8/2006.  Entertainingly, the album I referred to (Funk Out With Your Junk Out) wouldn’t be completed for another two years.

I’m simple; everything else is complicated

Agh. Mixing work, music and drinking all in the same night is a severe drag. I think I could mix any two of the three (work + drinking might be interesting) without feeling irritated, but tack that third one on there and… well, did I mention that it’s a drag?

Okay, my gripey gripe is really unfounded. I should be happy that the newly ‘k-billy’ infused double-d-6-9 rehearsed tonight. It was liberating to play and sing the songs with some fresh perspective, and Chachi sprinkled in some very groovy new rhythms to boot.

I love the feeling of being swept up into the cyclone of performing music. It strips away everything outside of the act of playing like stripping bark off a tree. Suddenly I’m not there anymore, not thinking about working or washing the car or doing the dishes – I’m not thinking of anything at all. I’m just doing what I’m doing. Usually with my eyes closed. Kind of like sex, but ultra-pure and not requiring any tissues for cleanup.

Will we satisfy the fortune I pulled out of the oversized cookie I got on Valentine’s Day which said, “drunkdude69 will gig one time each year”? Who knows? As much as I’d enjoy dropping smacktacular punkfunk bombs on unsuspecting (and possibly drunk) music venue patrons, I’ve come to enjoy the feeling of leaving gigs with decent pay in my pocket. But then again, we do have pretty cool merch to sell. And a new album in the works. Jeez. No one told me life was going to be so complicated.