Football!

Something not too many people know about the band: three out of four of us played high-school football.

Abby

I met Abby a couple of years ago while having coffee with some dear friends. As the conversation took its twists and turns, I found that the two of us had a couple of things in common. She did some running and I had just completed my first ultramarathon. And we were both passionate about music.

Artist Profile: My Chemical Romance

As mentioned in a previous post, I've been out of the popular music scene for a couple of decades.

That's been mostly great. I hear tell that the quality of musical output over that period really took a dive. And, with what little of it I've heard, I tend to agree.

I don't think Stillwater Black ever really broke new ground, but I think we were good at what we did. And that's all I want out of any performer in any given genre. If you innovate, great. But at a minimum, the work of a mainstream artist should be representative of the best the genre has to offer. And, in much of the contemporary music that I've been exposed to, I have not heard that to be the case.

But I don't listen so much. Chris has and does. And as my musical mentor, he's been kind enough to point me in the direction of some really great music.

The first thing he lent me was My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade.

The album came out in 2006. The band dissolved a full four years before I'd ever heard note one, so really late to this party.

Media, flipped

Twenty years ago, I walked away from Stillwater Black. I stopped playing music. I stopped listening to music. I got rid of all of my recordings, CDs, cassette tapes, and videos. I stopped listening to the radio. And I got rid of my television set.

Back in the studio

Chris and I got together this past Saturday. Finally.