25 Years Ago Today!
PostPosted:Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:57 am
My band, The Kind played together for the first time 25 years ago today.
I have told this story many times, but . . .
It was my 20th birthday and some friend from Ferum College were supposed to come up to Blacksburg to play my party. Ferum College is in Franklin Co., VA and in case you haven't heard of it, it's the moonshine capital of the world. Needless to say a few jars of liquor sans the revenue stamp made its way to my house and drinking commenced in the early afternoon. After several more various substances showed up, my friends suddenly found themselves in no condition to play music. The previous year I had met the people who I would begin a 25 year journey with this evening. I had done a couple of acoustic gigs with Mark McLeod (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and with Wendy Jaffee (now Wendy Godley - lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and since there was gear set up and no one to play we grabbed a few other folks (Tim Taylor - drums, Keith Cooley - bass, Alex Hamilton - keyboards, and Dave Ruggio - guitar) and played a handful of songs. I don't remember anything we played that night or much at all about the party other than having a lot of fun . . . too much fun. We never had any intention of starting a band and this ad hoc group played around a few times without a name for a few months, then we figured we would get a name and start booking gigs. We're still at it 25 years later and have had a plethora of members and friends pass through the group, Wendy and I are the only two founding members still playing regularly but most of the others check in a few times a year and we have an open stage policy for anyone who has played in this group to come back anytime. We have never had ambition to do anything other than play music and have fun, we have played mostly Dead tunes and related hippie music though have a handful of originals.
Blacksburg had a really great music community back in the early days. Not only was there a lot of great players but the was no competitive atmosphere and we all sat in and had a fairly interchangeable group of folks to play with - many of them I still see and play with today. Here's to the Electric Woodshed, The Dayz, Quadrant 4, Not Shakespeare, Bob Margolin, and all the others I have been lucky enough to play with over the years.
It has indeed been a long, strange trip - here's to 25 more years!!
We're playing the "official" anniversary gig at the Pine Tavern in Floyd, VA on March 12.
Here's some early pics - I was playing the Les Paul:
Here we are today:
I have told this story many times, but . . .
It was my 20th birthday and some friend from Ferum College were supposed to come up to Blacksburg to play my party. Ferum College is in Franklin Co., VA and in case you haven't heard of it, it's the moonshine capital of the world. Needless to say a few jars of liquor sans the revenue stamp made its way to my house and drinking commenced in the early afternoon. After several more various substances showed up, my friends suddenly found themselves in no condition to play music. The previous year I had met the people who I would begin a 25 year journey with this evening. I had done a couple of acoustic gigs with Mark McLeod (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and with Wendy Jaffee (now Wendy Godley - lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and since there was gear set up and no one to play we grabbed a few other folks (Tim Taylor - drums, Keith Cooley - bass, Alex Hamilton - keyboards, and Dave Ruggio - guitar) and played a handful of songs. I don't remember anything we played that night or much at all about the party other than having a lot of fun . . . too much fun. We never had any intention of starting a band and this ad hoc group played around a few times without a name for a few months, then we figured we would get a name and start booking gigs. We're still at it 25 years later and have had a plethora of members and friends pass through the group, Wendy and I are the only two founding members still playing regularly but most of the others check in a few times a year and we have an open stage policy for anyone who has played in this group to come back anytime. We have never had ambition to do anything other than play music and have fun, we have played mostly Dead tunes and related hippie music though have a handful of originals.
Blacksburg had a really great music community back in the early days. Not only was there a lot of great players but the was no competitive atmosphere and we all sat in and had a fairly interchangeable group of folks to play with - many of them I still see and play with today. Here's to the Electric Woodshed, The Dayz, Quadrant 4, Not Shakespeare, Bob Margolin, and all the others I have been lucky enough to play with over the years.
It has indeed been a long, strange trip - here's to 25 more years!!
We're playing the "official" anniversary gig at the Pine Tavern in Floyd, VA on March 12.
Here's some early pics - I was playing the Les Paul:
Here we are today:
