Music is one of the most important parts of my life. As a child my mother played jazz records around the house. When I was 7 I would listen to the Beatles before going to school. We had "Meet the Beatles" and the Beatles "Second Album." We went to see "Hard Days Night" and "Help." When I was 10 my mother gave me a little portable record player that folded up to be carried. When she bought it, it came with 10 45rpm singles. The first single I bought was "Build me up Buttercup" by The Foundations.
I started listening to all the great 60's bands, Cream, Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, Santana, Black Sabbath, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and The Who. It was maybe the best period of popular music ever. When I was 14 a friend of mine needed a bassist and asked me to join his band. He was also the guy who introduced me to marijuana. I would play along with the records I loved and was heavily influenced by Phil Lesh, Barry Oakley, and Roger Waters. My first bass was a Fender Precision with a Fender Bassman amp.
I saw my first live show in August 1972, an all day concert at the Metrolina Fairgrounds about 15 miles from here. All I remember is that Brownsville Station played right before Chuck Berry. I attended many shows at the Charlotte Coliseum while in high school. For Christmas I got my first acoustic 6 string, A Yamaha FG-180. In the Spring of 1974 I first heard the music of Frank Zappa on a low powered AM station (WRPL). I skipped out of school the next day to drive to Charlotte to buy "Overnight Sensation." At one point I owned over 50 studio albums by Zappa. In 1975 I bought Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks." and started playing more Dylan than ever.
During college I was exposed to jazz and jazz fusion and listened to Corea, McLaughlin, Clarke, Cobham, Davis and many others.
In the 80's I was into New Wave and Punk. I joined a band with two high school friends playing rock and roll, punk, and punked by Beatles classics. We were called The Mods. In 1984 I started grad school and a friend reintroduced me to the Grateful Dead. He took me to my first shows in 1987.
Later that year I moved to Athens, Ga. to work on another graduate degree. Indie music capital of the world. I was in heaven. I sold all my electric equipment so I wouldn't be tempted to join a band (and bought a Yairi acoustic which I still have). Classes, studying and clinical work kept me from the scene for the most part. After I completed my coursework, I was back into the scene.
In 1996 the same guy, Mike, who took me to my first Grateful Dead show, took me to Merlefest, one of the largest Bluegrass festivals in the U.S. I'd been to several Bluegrass shows before but this kicked off an a nine year love affair. I attended Merlefest 9 times in the next 9 years and dozens and dozens and dozens of shows. The lure of the jam was still in my bones. Bluegrass can jam, but I needed more.
I started back to rock shows when I was living with a college student who favored WideSpread Panic and Phish. We saw Further, the Dead, Blues Traveler, and Panic. The she found an ad for JamCruise (4) and that rekindled my love of the jam and offered a way to discover new bands. Between 2005 and 2008 I have seen way over two hundred shows and bands. I flew to Amsterdam (Jam in the Dam 2006) to see Umphreys McGee and the Disco Biscuits and on the second night, on an impulse, took my Fuji S2 camera. Since then I've posted over 9,000 band photos from hundreds of shows.
During the summer of 2008 I developed cancer in my brain, slowing me down a bit. Consigned to the home in recovery, I have discover Torrents (music that can be downloaded without the pesky issue of payment). My tastes have expanded and find myself listening to all kinds of music. Lately I've been into Alice in Chains, A Perfect Circle and Tool. I have tickets for The Flaming Lips and two nights of WideSpread Panic, 24 years after my first Panic show. I have more than a dozen shows on the calendar for March and April.
Here's to Music!
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