times are hard for dreamers

now playing: poco, "midnight rain"


did i say something yesterday about being optimistic?

had a long (almost two hour) conversation last night with quin, the hammond organ player in one of my bands, stone road. he's been having some health problems and has been overrun with his business lately...and as such, he's taking a leave of absence for a couple of months.

all this time, i'd been looking forward to getting through the glut of gigs that we had at the end of the year so that we could get back into a regular rehearsal schedule for a month or so and start tightening some screws, but this serves to delay that process somewhat. in some ways, it needn't do so, as donnie and i have some serious work in front of us to tighten up the interplay between us - and this need not affect that. i just have this perception that this reflects a dissipating of motivation on quin's part, although that never really felt apparent during our conversation last night at all - he was pretty straightforward with regards to what was going on with him, and i respect that. after all, it's a leave of absence, no notice was given. it's just hard for me not to take this personally, that's all - because so often, when someone leaves a band, that's all it's about...personalities. i've often said that putting a band together is similar to getting married several times over, because being in a band with someone is a pretty intense relationship...in my mind, anyway. i know that to someone who hasn't experienced this, it probably sounds trite or melodramatic, but i think it's true. in order to do your best work with other musicians in that particular setting, you really have to have the proper circuits open between everyone. this isn't to say that i can't walk into a situation with a handful of guys that i've never played with before and do my thing...i can.

i guess this is where my marriage analogy really bears fruit...you can walk into a bar and pick someone up and follow through and you'll most likely have had a pretty good time at the end of the night, when the dust settles...but there's something that you gain via the familiarity of a companion - an understanding of each other, of what and what not to say, of what works and what doesn't...and you form a common bond that outshines the temporary form over time.

i really feel like i have that with this group of guys...quin included. which is probably why it's hard to keep from taking this personally. i just have to remind myself that it's a leave of absence.

he's our secret weapon, though. no one else does what he does.

there's no replacing him. actually, if i think about it...

right now, there's no replacing anyone in this band, should anything go south for whatever reason.

arrogantly, i've always thought that my perfect band would be a clone of myself on every instrument. i think, though, that this band may be about as good as it's possible to get at what it is that we do. i've had a number of conversations with my buddy mitch about this - about appreciating what it is that we have, and relishing it when the opportunity presents itself...mitch was there for our last show together for the foreseeable future, and i'm glad that i can say that.

we'll miss ya, quin. hurry back, brother.

we'll keep your bench warm.

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came up to bed last night at around 1:30 am, and amelie was on tv when i came into the bedroom...why is this movie never on at a decent hour?

i love the conversation between nino and the man (men) in the picture on the card that amelie left on his bike...one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

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oh, and the jodi album project, discussed last month, is back on again - now that the distractions of the holidays are behind us...her song list has changed a few dozen times, and i think that what's gonna happen is that we're gonna move ahead with getting together and just rolling tape and recording whatever feels best, and working further on the ones that call out to be worked out past that. I'm thinking of it as the Johnny Cash Method, for the moment.

i've all but decided that i'm going to do an albums' worth of john gorka songs. whether they'll actually make it onto a disc or not is unlikely, save for a few one-offs for friends here and there, but that was probably a safe assumption to begin with.

of course, this time tomorrow i may blow that off, too.