Q: How Many Stupid People Can You Fit In South Florida.

A: All of them. Today, I was doing deliveries in Stuart and I had my IPod going in the car. I have a playlist entitled "Songs" where I just dump random stuff. It was playing through the list and "Everybody's World" by The Grays came on. I must've listened to it ten times in a row. I haven't heard the Grays "Ro Sham Bo" in a long, long time. For a while, I couldn't listen to it for two main reasons. One: It reminds me of a time in my life when things were really confusing. I was living in Denver and not really knowing where my life was going. Second; Artistically, it was hard to listen to because it was so good and it made me feel inferior. Everything does but, at that time, I was feeling pretty good about my writing and this album came along and made me want to quit. It is so well written melodically and lyrically. Production-wise, all the instruments sound great and there's more than a few nods to the Beatles.

I was introduced to this album by my friend and songwriting partner, Pat Goodwin (he also introduced me to a lot of things I still listen to today....The Muffs, The Posies, The Fastbacks, etc.). The day it came out, he went out and got it and we devoured it. Soon after, they came to Denver (Mercury Cafe?) and we had to go. We got there early and Pat brought his video camera. The guys were just hanging around...I don't think many people knew about them. They said it was OK to film and we did (in the youtube clip (which was posted by Pat) you can see me whiz by at about 2:51 to save a falling guitar). The show was unbelievable. Afterward, we hung out with them until we had to leave (see photos). We ended up seeing them the next time they came to Denver (I think they opened for the Smithereens) and they remembered us and it was all friendly. It was Jason Falkner's birthday so we drove him to my apartment (I tried to wake up my girlfriend with "Jason Falkner's here!!!" to which she replied "Who?...I don't care") and I gave him my James Brown boxed set he was admiring. On the way back to dropping him at his hotel, we made him listen to our demos and he said he liked them. We didn't hear much from them after that and they quietly faded away.

A long while passed when Pat brought me Jason's first solo album and (the way I remember it) told me we could audition for his band. It never happened but it was nice that he remembered us and our music. Jason went on to have a solo career (he also plays on the new Beck album). Jon Brion is a big producer with lots of credits to his name. I never heard anything from Buddy Judge (last sighting was Amy Mann's Whatever) and Dan McCarroll I thought I saw on Austin City Limits a few years back playing with somebody I don't remember. I still love "Ro Sham Bo". I think it's an amazing piece of work. "Nothing Between Us" is still one of my all-time favorite songs and "Everybody's World" is a delicious slice of modern psychedelia (and sounds a lot like like "Rain" by The Beatles...another all-time favorite). Pat moved to San Francisco and I followed him there. Our band lasted awhile and I quit over something stupid and I burned a bridge that I really regret. Last time Kris and I went to SF, I ran into Pat at Amoeba Records and there was a strangeness there that saddened me (the photo was our "Carpenters" parody).

I really miss him sometimes. I remember us having a Lennon-McCartney type competition while songwriting. He'd bring in a great song and i'd go home and try to compete but I couldn't write as well as him. He was/is very talented and I hope to patch it up with him sometime in this lifetime. Someday, i'm gonna have to blog about my Denver/San Francisco days so i'll have a place to go back to when my memory REALLY fails me. Today, I picked up the Strat and Tele. All is well now. Tom turned the humbucker around and it really looks weird but it plays bettter. I'm gonna have to get a new pickup but I have to save some money.