Living Colour – Vivid

One of the cool things about working in a record store is discovering new music. When I worked at Dustys, this was definitely encouraged. In the summer of 1988, I distinctly remember walking in one afternoon and Dusty was excited about an artist named Tracy Chapman and her self-titled debut album. It’s funny looking back at this time. We all listened to the album and we were all in agreement that this was a very good album.  This got me fired up to find an album that I could be excited about and that could be my own personal discovery. We would take turns with the other employees to open an album for in-store play. We would get all kinds of literature on new acts and new releases.  So, when it came my turn to open one for the store. I had started doing some research. There was a one page info sheet from Epic Records/Columbia records on a band called Living Colour. I don’t remember what the exact wording was on the bio sheet. But, there was something about that both Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger had seen the band Living Colour in a NY club and were “blown away”.  At the time, I was a huge Jeff Beck fan and I figured that kind of celebrity endorsement was worth checking out. The other thing that intrigued me was that (in 1988) this was a hard rock band consisting of African Americans.  Guitarist Vernon Reid had started a movement of musicians called the Black Rock Coalition. This movement was made up of Black musicians that wanted to play rock…not dance music…but heavy rock. This was a big part of their bio and press statements. In 2011, this idea sounds dated and almost absurd. But, in the mid to late 80’s, it was just an odd sight to see black musicians playing rock…especially heavy rock. You would see black musicians playing some kind of watered-down dance R&B (a la Michael Jackson or Prince) and of course the rise of Hip-Hop and Rap was happening too.  One article I had read singled out bands like Fishbone and King’s X as the exception. King’s X was a favorite of mine with their lead singer (African American) Doug Pinnick in a trio with Texans guitarist Ty Tabor and drummer Jerry Gaskill.  Rock & Roll was founded by black artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino and by the 80’s it was a foreign concept of seeing black musicians rocking out! So, I decided to crack the seal on this LP and drop the needle on some Living Colour Vivid.

From the opening riff of Cult of Personality, I was hooked. This band was inventive and heavy and the rhythm section had a groove that was positively beyond words. This is how I discovered what a groove was. I could sense the heaviness. But, I could also hear and feel the funkiness in the playing. As with many of the albums I was listening to in those days, I dubbed a copy to cassette. With that cassette copy, I was usually walking across campus with my walkman and the rhythm on the second track I Want to Know was perfect for a good pace from off campus parking on the rush to class. Middle Man was the next track. By this time, the band was starting to get some airplay on MTV. I remember that their sound was diverse enough to be featured on the channel’s Sunday night alternative showcase 120 Minutes along with the Saturday night Hard Rock/Metalfest Headbangers’ Ball.  I just remember the interplay between drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Muzz Skillings to be something really detailed and intricate or maybe it was the bottom to top drum fill before the second verse!…or both!

I seem to remember that Middle Man got the initial airplay and then the Cult of Personality was then added into heavy rotation! I myself got a little tired of that track. But, there was an awesome performance of Cult of Personality when the band appeared on Saturday Night Live. By this time, singer Corey Glover had grown his braids very long and had added some color to the tips. So, when he bounded around the late night stage banging his head, it looked like an elegant Indian headdress. It was just an awesome sight to behold! I remember watching this clip on videotape at my friend – Forrest’s house. Forrest was living in his mom’s basement at the time. Forrest had the volume on this cranked. His mom yelled out, “Forrest, turn that down!”.  My record store misfit brother replied “But Mom, it’s Living Colour!! THEY ROCK(or rule)!”  She didn’t care whether they rocked or not(or even ruled for that matter). I still look back and laugh about that one!

For me, this music was incredible to take in. It was heavy and aggressive, yet it was improvisational and inventive. There was a groove to it and it was slamming in the assault. There was also social commentary about the state of race relations in America. Open Letter to a Landlord was a song about how the neighborhoods where these guys came from. Some may have been referred to as slums. But, these guys knew these places as their homes. All of a sudden, I was a white college kid from the middle of Nebraska becoming educated by this band. There has been a lot written about rap and hip-hop in the 80’s and 90’s as the voice and commentary of the black community. Well, I didn’t relate to the hip-hop culture. But, I would listen to the music of Living Colour. Another song that caught my attention was the song Funny Vibe.  Just for the color of someone’s skin, they were still getting judged. I myself was guilty of this a few years later when I had moved to Omaha. I had gone into the bathroom at the Westroads Mall at the same time as a black man and I purposely put my wallet in my front pocket because I thought I would be pick pocketed.  I felt so bad. Here I had been opposed to profiling and stereotyping blacks as criminals in central Nebraska where you may see a few blacks on the UNK college campus. Then, I got to Omaha and was working at a music store where many Rap and Hip-Hop CD’s were being shoplifted daily. So, it was only natural to think that the target audience for that genre would be the ones stealing it.
After I had a listen to this album, I praised it and recommended it to customers. We obviously played the album in the store. But, I noticed that the hard rock customers were the ones that I was selling this to. When I would ask for their opinion of the album, the common answer I would hear is: “This is a really good album for a BLACK rock band!”  At the time, I was in a Sociology class just called “Social Problems”. We were required to write a paper on a social issue. So, I wrote about my experience working at a record store and how customers had referred to this album as “pretty good for a BLACK rock band”.  There’s the racist comment right there. It shouldn’t have mattered whether or not what the color of the band members was. This was an awesome debut album. I wish I could find that paper I wrote for my Social Problems class.  I really felt proud of myself that I could relate something that I loved (like music) and apply it socially and academically to college courses.
As the album continued, so did the whole continuity of the music. The band covers the Talking Heads tune Memories Can’t Wait. This made me dive into the catalog of Talking Heads albums. That’s a great thing about music and bands who cover other artist’s songs. If you like a song, go back and check out the original artist.  I’ve always loved doing that. Of course, there’s always someone who always proclaims to like the newer version over the original. But, that’s another topic altogether.
The next song Broken Hearts was a song I wasn’t going to write about on this. But, when I dialed it up on my player, I was lured in by the funky slink and heavy drum intro. It just all moves together to make a great album.  From there, the album goes into Glamour Boys.  I always felt myself to be a misfit and never fit into any kind of social clique and I wasn’t about to be one in college. I supposed I could have been placed in the category of “Band geek”.  But, I had my circle of friends and I wasn’t about to pay a membership to be somebody’s friend. I was never a pretty boy. I was a long hair, mullet wearing, rocking misfit. I was never a slave to fashion. I bought all my rock t-shirts at Dustys. So, I could relate to the subject of Glamour Boys.  I hated the idea of joining a fraternity. Looking back, I had quite a few college friends that had joined fraternities. I didn’t. It just wasn’t my thing. In my mind, The stereotypical frat boy was a pretty boy and as the song states “I AIN’T NO GLAMOUR BOY!”  A couple years later, my musician friends in the band –The Untold would play this song and (as always) they nailed it.
The last two songs start with a howl from lead singer as he screams the question…”YEOOOOOW…..What’s your favorite colour, baby?!”  Of course, it’s LIVING COLOUR!  This is so rocking and slamming and funky. It just takes a hold of the listener and doesn’t let go. I remember being drawn into this aural experience and then the next track transitions into Which Way to America? The original LP version of this is actually shorter than the CD version. This was just an intense album.

I loved my rock in the 80’s. But, I was getting tired of all the “bad boy” GNR wannabes and 2nd generation Aerosmith hair band clones that the seemed to be coming out of the LA music scene. I loved my thrash bands like Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth. But, a lot of the stuff from that sub-genre got old too. This was just a funky rocking slamming breath of fresh air. I always felt so energized after hearing this album.
With their celebrity approval and endorsement from Mick Jagger, they opened up for the Rolling Stones (along with Guns N’ Roses) on the Steel Wheels tour. The band would follow up in the 90’s with Time’s Up in 1990 and Stain in 1993. Time’s Up won the band a Grammy for best Hard Rock album. They toured on the inaugural tour of the Lollapalooza festival in 1991.
By the time, they released Stain in 1993, The music landscape was a lot different. The grunge movement of Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam had become the popular groups of the day and everyone seemed a lot angrier. I no longer felt as though I was a “young tough living in a world of hate”. I was into a lot of contemporary blues artists and bands like Blues Traveler.  I bought Stain but found it hard to get into. Shortly thereafter, the band recorded a cover of Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love for the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie True Lies.  The band broke up shortly after that. Guitarist Vernon Reid recorded a solo album as did vocalist Corey Glover.  I had a little interest in them but never bought them. Corey Glover also did get some time on the road with the touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar in the role of Judas.
The band eventually regrouped in the early 2000’s.  I’ve been interested in hearing the new music. But, I never have given it a good listen like I did with the debut album in 1988. 
According to 1001 Albums....

Lead guitarist Vernon Reid...add in vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun, and the extraordinarily gifted bassist Muzz Skillings, and Vivid can still rest its case as a truly original recording, one that takes in thrash, hard rock, reggae, funk and rap.

The album is a definite moment of discovery in my music store career and will always stand up as a lifetime favorite.  In 2011, they may be referred to as just another band from the 80’s….and maybe they are. I hope people remember them as a great band …period and not remember them for the color of their skin!  Take a listen with your ears and not your eyes!

Clash – London Calling

When musical “revolutions” in Rock n’ Roll are highlighted, there is usually around 3 or 4 acts listed for each “movement”.  Early Rock n’ Roll can be narrowed down to Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Little Richard. The British Invasion is always highlighted as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who. My British 70’s Hard Rock triumvirate would be Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. The Seattle Grunge movement usually highlights Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. When it comes to the Punk movement of the 70’s, The top bands that are listed are the Ramones, The Sex Pistols and the Clash.

 

For myself, I was pretty much an ignorant naive kid when it came to the punk movement. One of the first times I heard of the Sex Pistols was as part of a punchline on the CBS sitcom “Alice”.  Believe me,  it wasn’t funny enough to repeat. Most of what I knew about punk was the funny fashions of safety pins(on clothes or pierced into cheeks), leather, and mohawk haircuts.  I met a kid at church camp in 1981 who was a fan of punk rock and continued to repeat only one line from a Sex Pistols tune. I honestly don’t remember what that song was.  I once was asked from the high school debate coach/teacher to be a timekeeper for informative speeches in our local competition. One of my fellow classmates did a speech on the Punk rock movement. So, I was educated in that sense. A lot of the punk movement morphed into what became known as “New Wave” music in the early 80’s….or at least that’s what it seemed like with the fashions of the funny haircuts and neon colors.  So, I came to realize that Punk was more about a musical ATTITUDE against the “old” guard and the self indulgent “dinosaur” rock that was big in the early 70’s than it was about fashions. So, this blog will be about the band( and the album) that still stands on top of the heap of great rock bands no matter what the category or genre.

By the time I entered my high school years, The Clash had made a splash in the mainstream pop world with the song Rock the Casbah. I also vaguely remember seeing the Clash on ABC’s answer to NBC’s Saturday Night Live which was the show FRIDAYS!

When I saw them on FRIDAYS, I was into bands like Styx, Journey and ELO. I spent most of my high school years as a hard rockin’ kid. So, the Clash was not a band that was on my musical radar. It wasn’t until I went to college and met a bunch of new friends with different musical tastes. First, I met Shaun..who I had met at KSC music camp. In my blog on YES –Fragile, I reminisced about Shaun educating a bunch of North Platte kids about what Punk Rock and Hard Core really was. Suddenly, the pop-metal I had grown fond of became somewhat hollow. Shaun was definitely a friend that I could spend time listening to music and hanging out at a record store with. Another friend that was instrumental in my discovery of the Clash was my "Dustys’ Brother” – Forrest. I’ve written before how Forrest and I had very different tastes in music when I started at Dustys Records. I don’t think Forrest liked my tastes in Hard Rock/Heavy Metal when I first started and I wasn’t a big fan of bands like R.E.M. and the Smiths. But, that changed over time.

Everyday at Dustys, we would bring in music to play during store hours. We were all fans of different kinds of music. So, it was inevitable that you find something outside of your listening “comfort zone” that made your ears perk up. There would be days where Forrest would show up with a handful of Clash CD’s or LP’s.  He would proclaim something like “I am in a big Clash mood today!”  So, he would put on his Clash CD’s in the store player, stand at the counter while he lit up a cigarette and he would mouth all the words to the songs. As I would listen, I got wrapped up in the rawness and then the diverseness of the Clash.

At the end of the 80’s, it seemed that all the media outlets came up with “Best of the 80’s” lists. There was much talk about what was the best album, the best selling, etc. I was in my final year of college at the University of Nebraska-Kearney(then known as Kearney State College). I was surrounded by a slew of friends who were big music fans and we would talk about music to all hours of the night. In 1989, Rolling Stone magazine published a special issue spotlighting what the magazine considered the “100 Greatest Albums of the 80’s” 

Many of the albums were ones that we had grown up with and were absolutely gigantic albums of the 80’s like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, U2’s Joshua Tree, Springsteen’s Born in the USA,  and Prince’s Purple Rain.  But, at the top of the list was the Clash’s album London Calling.  This was a surprise to many of us. Even looking back now, I’m a little puzzled because the album was released in 1979. According to RS, the album was released stateside in January of 1980. Back then, Rock fans turned to Rolling Stone magazine for everything important in the world of popular music. So, I was intrigued to the reason why this was at #1 as the “Greatest album of the 80’s”  But, Rolling Stone magazine says it is. That gave me at least a reason to look into it. 

I didn’t have anything against the Clash. I actually enjoyed the raw feeling they had to their music. But, I stayed compelled to having a copy of this album. I bought a used CD copy of it while I was living in Omaha in the early 90’s. But, many of the CBS records releases on CD in the 80’s were subpar in sound quality. So, the 90’s was a time of many “Remasters”.  The original copy I owned was an 80’s/less-than-stellar recording. I kept telling myself I wanted to own a copy of London Calling.  I sold my old used copy in thinking I would replace it soon. I didn’t replace that copy till this past December. It wasn’t until years passed that I really longed for this album. It was a matter of memories from Dustys and it was obviously something different from my almost steady diet of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Van Halen.

When I listen to this album, it becomes more than a “Punk Rock” record. Yes, these guys had the angst of a rebellious rock band. But, these guys weren’t just bashing away at their instruments. I had read that bassist Paul Simonon didn’t even know how to play the bass when they started the band. But, this album was an intelligent album of different and varied styles. According to RS Magazine’s 100 Best Albums’ article,

“Kicking and screaming across a nineteen-song double album, skidding between ska, reggae, R&B, third-world music, power pop and full-tilt punk, the Clash stormed the gates of rock convention and single-handedly set the agenda — musically, politically and emotionally — for the decade to come.”

Ska, Reggae, R&B, Third World music and Punk?…all this in an album from a bunch of “punks” in the 70’s? As a teenager in the early 80’s, I wanted to hear Hard Rocking distorted guitars especially if they were shown in the same issue of Hit Parader magazine as Van Halen. These weren’t things I had opened my mind to. Then, that strange time in many young men’s life happened…..College!  I found I loved the rhythms of reggae and ska. In today’s music environment, all of those ingredients of this album are prevalent in current music. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, the floodgates opened for many Third World music artists and sounds. They had definitely “broke the barriers” the punk movement had inevitably put up for themselves with the album London Calling!

When the Clash was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it was a very big year for a bunch of artists.  The Clash, AC/DC, The Police, and Elvis Costello were all inducted that same year. I’m usually interested in a couple of artists and that’s it. That year, I was wrapped up in the whole thing.

Around the same time, vocalist/Clash leader Joe Strummer had passed away. So, the tributes meant a lot more. That year at the Grammys, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Little Steve Van Zandt and Dave Grohl all stepped up to pay tribute to Joe Strummer.  It was very powerful to me and it sparked my urge to own this album yet again.

So, I bought the album this past December on CD and it’s been on my MP3 player ever since. I love the sound of the “English-ness” of it. Joe Strummer’s vocals are so raw. I find myself just entranced by his raspiness. I expect him to lose his voice at any second. Mick Jones cockney accent flavors the album with his own identity. Paul Simonon’s vocals and pulsing bass keep everything in pounding of the punk attitude.  Topper Headon’s drumming was more than just “punk” drumming. It encompasses all the genres the band had jumped in feet first to embrace.

I’ve spent a long time on and off writing this particular “memory” for my blog. I have second guessed how my friends that read this will interpret it. I was not a punk fan. I don’t go out looking for a punk record to buy.  I don’t claim to be an expert on the punk movement.  This album may have started from one of the bands of the punk movement.  This is not a punk album. This is an awesome Rock and Roll Album and I absolutely love this album and don’t regret at all buying this at all.

National Record store day! April 16, 2011

As I’m writing this…Today(according to various sources) was National Record Store Day.  For myself (and many of my friends), the record store is a big part of our childhood, teenage years, college years and our over all personal history.  Most of the stuff I write in this blog involves memories from my days of working at Dustys Records in Kearney, Hastings and Grand Island Nebraska.  I cherish all the memories and experiences I gained from that time at Dustys. The earliest record store I remember from my childhood was in the North Platte Mall and it was called “the Brass Ear”. It was very early 70’s sounding.  I remember seeing many KISS, Frampton and Parliament albums at that store. Other stores I remember in North Platte were Rustic Records, Dailey Records, Sound Outlet, Murphy’s Modern Music(both instrument music store and record store) and then Monte’s Sound Systems. In 1980, I went to Camp Comeca church camp in Cozad Nebraska and met a kid from Kearney Nebraska and he had a t-shirt from Dustys’ Records. I honestly can’t remember his name. But, I remember he used sing a couple of lyrics from the Sex Pistols over and over. I kept that idea of Dustys Records in my head for years after that. Somehow, it represented some kind of great oasis of endless records. 
Much of my fondness for record stores began after the assassination of John Lennon in December of 1980. The local NBC affiliate- KNOP in North Platte did a story on the death of Lennon and the release of his album Double Fantasy and they talked to the owner of Dailey (or was it Daily) Records.  Suddenly, I would spend my weekends thumbing through record bins looking for Beatles albums and the Solo albums of Ringo, George, Paul and John….. Mostly Ringo since he and I share a common birthday.
As I entered my Freshman year of High School, I became more interested in the drums. My parents bought me a used snare drum and I had participated in Elementary and Junior High band. That was all fine and good. But, a 14 year old teenage boy wants to pound out rhythms on a full 5 piece drum set. So, I convinced my parents to let me buy a used kit with the money I had in my savings account and they would pay the remainder and I would pay them back by mowing lawns for extra money the following summer.  When I got my drum set, I began taking drum lessons from a friend of the family named Jerry L.  One of the first drum set instructional books Jerry had me start on was Carmine Appice’s Realistic Rock. The book had little plastic sound sheets that had the sounds of Carmine playing drums along with the exercises in the book. I’m not sure what it was. But, those drums sounded really cool to me. They were big and boomy and I wanted more. At the back of the book was a discography of the albums Carmine had played on including his solo album called Rockers.  Both the book and the album had been released in 1981 and I had discovered this in 1982.
 

After reading through his discography in the back of the book, I found myself on a quest to own everything Carmine had played drums on.  That would be a major undertaking. But, it was a challenge I felt up to and it was fun to discover all these bands. He had played with Rod Stewart in the 70’s and those were easy to attain. He played with Ted Nugent on Ted’s Atlantic records debut Nugent.  But, the band that intrigued me was a band that was at the top of Carmine’s discography list. The name of the band was Vanilla Fudge. I had never heard of them. But, here they were on my Carmine discography list. So, if I ever found a Vanilla Fudge album, I would buy it.
Fast forward to the spring of 1984.  I was an active member of many music ensembles in high school. I was in the swing choir, madrigal, band, orchestra, jazz band and a few others I’m probably forgetting.  That spring, district music contest was held at Kearney State College Fine Arts building.  I remember one of my music classmates had a break between competitions and decided to walk from campus down to Dustys Records.  He came back and said he’d been there and I thought “I’ve got to go down there too.”   So, I convinced a couple of friends to walk down to the store with me and I was in awe. I don’t know what I was expecting. But, I liked what I saw. I walked the whole store. I came to the “V” section and found a copy of The Best of Vanilla Fudge on LP.  But, here I was about to get back on a bus back to North Platte in an hour or so. I want to hear this now.  So, I asked someone behind the counter, “Do you have this on cassette?” Looking back, I think it was Eric Blume who flat out said “No.”  Then, this tall man with a deep voice said “…but we can order you a copy!”
 
That tall man was obviously Dusty. I told them I was from North Platte and I didn’t know when I’d be back.  If I’d only known then that I would be back many many many times after that. I bought the Vanilla Fudge album that day. I really liked the music department at KSC(not yet UNK) and I absolutely loved Dustys Records.  So, I had a good idea where I wanted to attend college in the fall of 1985.
My parents moved to Hastings in the fall of 1984. This was my senior year of High School and I wasn’t about to move to another town and school for my senior year. I found a way to stay in NP that year. I lived with my older sister Kathy and her family for the majority of the year.  About once a month, I would drive to Hastings to see my parents and my brother Mike.  But, I would always find a way to make a detour through Kearney to stop at Dustys. Even when I went to KSC Senior day to visit the college in the Fall of 84, I made sure I stopped at Dustys. I even remember buying the Michael Schenker Group album MSG on cassette because it featured drummer Cozy Powell.


I started my freshman year at Kearney State College(now the University of Nebraska at Kearney) in the fall of 1985. It didn’t take me long before I found a way to head down to Dustys everyday and weekends. Everyday, I had Marching Band rehearsals till about 5 o’clock. I had auditioned for the KSC Jazz-Rock Ensemble as a drummer. I didn’t make it for my freshman year. But, a bunch of my friends did. We would usually go together to the campus cafeteria for supper. So, they would have rehearsals after Marching Band and I would have an hour to kill. So, in that hour, I would eventually dedicate that it to hanging out at Dustys. I have no idea how much time I had spent there. For me, time stood still. I would start in the Rock section in the A’s and just make my way around the room (and the alphabet). I would just go crazy taking in all the different music. In the fall of 1986, Dusty had a contest drawing for a CD Player and various increments of gift certificates.  You entered by entering your Social Security number. After about a month or so, I won a $60 gift certificate. The week I won, I walked into the store and saw that my social security number was posted. I jumped up and down and I was so excited about winning $60 of free music. I was always there. I remember hearing music I had never heard before. I heard Steve Schwarting play Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. I heard the Replacements Please to Meet Me and John Hiatt’s Meet the Family. In 1987, Dusty moved the store from 23rd street to around the corner on Central Avenue.  It was a bigger store and still a great place to hang out.  It didn’t take long that Dusty began to know who I was.  It’s odd for me to look back at that time because Dusty went from being some sort of gatekeeper of volumes of music to a father figure and a lifelong friend.  In the fall of 1987, I was asked to contribute to the lists of current faves.  This was a list that usually consisted of the employee’s current listening habits along with a couple of loyal customers too.  I was excited to put my list up and share it with customers that came into the store. 
Then, on November 11, 1987, Eric Blume told me that Dusty had asked me to come in and talk to him about something.  That day was Veteran’s Day and the KSC Marching Band had been asked to march in the Veteran’s day parade down Central Ave in Kearney. I marched in the parade and then stopped in to talk to Dusty.  He was planning on opening a store in Hastings. Since my family lived in Hastings, He had asked me to take a semester off from college and help Steve Schwarting open the store there.  I was happy to do it. But, I had just signed up for second semester classes that very morning. Not a big deal for Dusty. He asked me if I would work there over the Christmas break and then on weekends and I would work at the Kearney store during the week.  Once again, I was elated, excited and enthused about this new job.  This was something I had always wanted….a job at a record store. 
 
Dusty would tell me things like “AC/DC may not be your favorite band…but it keeps the lights on in this place!”  When the subject of shoplifting came up, Dusty even told me that (at one time) he thought I had been stealing from him when I was a customer because I used to spend so much time in there and I looked at everything.  I used to look in amazement at the store displays that Steve Schwarting would make with the promotional materials. So, when I started working for Dusty, I wanted to make the promo displays. I loved doing that.  I took a Lionel Richie life-sized display covered with poster board and drew a life sized version of Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie. It was so much fun. I made friends with Bob and Forrest. Forrest had been working for Dusty a few months longer than I did. Forrest was the R.E,M., U2, Smiths, Replacements fan. I was the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal fan. When Bob started in the summer of 1988, Bob brought that an all around music fan who really loved a good sing along song. These two guys became lifelong friends and brothers to me.  We really had a mutual admiration and respect for each other’s musical tastes.  I’m sure I played a few albums one too many times and drove the others nuts. But, we learned to love some stuff we never would have even touched in the past. I have many fond memories of listening to the Cramps and the Clash with Forrest. Forrest also had the Clapton Crossroads box set and we would listen to that on a Sunday afternoon from noon to 5. I have memories of Bob and I listening to Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter and lots of John Cougar Mellencamp with Bob playing his Mellencamp style air-guitar in the aisles. I always tell the story of Bob coming to me once..very seriously and he says, “Dave, I have this song that’s been going through my head and I’m thinking about buying it on CD.” I asked Bob “What song is it?” He says “It’s Amarillo by Morning by George Strait.” We had been such strong rock fans that Bob may have felt embarrassed about being a country fan. Our mutual respect had grown to the point that it didn’t even matter. I think we had secretly grown to love music beyond our “comfort” zones.  Forrest was a big fan of Dwight Yoakam and I soon began to embrace country  and absolutely loved the Kentucky Headhunters(among others).
During my spring break in 1990, I traveled down to Austin Texas with my college friend Kevin. Kevin grew up around the Austin area. He raved and raved about how cool 6th street was in Austin. I was a big Stevie Ray Vaughan fan and so It only seemed right to go to Austin for Spring Break. So, the first night we got there, we went out and checked out 6th street.  I still tell the stories of the diverse music that was on the street. Every “store” front was a nightclub and there was all kinds of different music there. There’d be a pop band in one bar, a jazz fusion band in another, a hair metal band in another, a blues band in another. It was amazing to watch. I can still smell the steak fajitas grilling in the Texas spring air.  But, part of the rest of the week was to take in as many music and record stores as we could. The one store that I remember was called “The Inner Sanctum”.  It was so overrun with LP’s and promotional materials. But, it was really really cool! I bought an LP copy of Queen’s A Night at The Opera and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. I used to have a really psychedelic poster for the place. Still, when I think of classic record stores, I think of this place in Austin. We saw a bunch of live music that week too. From King’s X at the Back Room to Whitesnake at the Frank Erwin Center to Stefan Grossman at the University of Texas Student Union.
I graduated from college in the summer of 1990. I started the search for an after college job.  Once again, Dusty offered me another job at the store in Grand Island. There, I worked with Doug and Jayson.  They were fun to work with too. Jayson and I shared a love for guitar based hard rock and metal and also for blues based guitar stuff too. Jayson was the biggest Gary Moore fan I have ever known. Doug and I would work together and have talks about all kinds of different of music….most memorably was the J.Geils Band. That year from 1990-1991 was a great year. This was the year that Van Halen released For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Metallica released “The Black Album”.  We listened to a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan that year because Stevie had died in the summer of 1990. One thing we all enjoyed was listening to SRV in the store. I remember many mornings opening the store and listening to the Vaughan Brothers album Family Style. 

Dusty closed the doors to the Grand Island store in September of 1991.  So, I was off to find another job. I talked to a college friend that actually worked at the Record Town store as the store manager. I asked her if the company she worked for was looking for any management positions in any of their stores. She did some checking and found out that the TransWorld Music Corporation was looking for an assistant manager in their lease operated store called Music Avenue in the Montgomery Wards store at the Westroads Mall in Omaha. I drove down to Omaha and stayed with my sister Connie and interviewed for the job. The district manager liked me and offered me a job. I started on September 30th, 1991 …just in time to get things ready for 4th quarter and the Holiday season. I soon made friends with my manager Don O.  I still remember the first day we worked together that we had to stock a bin of CD’s and cassettes and one of the artists was Harry Connick Jr.  At the time, I had jokingly started to call him Harry CONEHEAD Jr.  Don didn’t like that I made fun of his name. But, we soon got over that.
Working at Music Avenue was a different environment than Dustys. I had to wear a shirt and tie to work. Dusty used to say, “I don’t pay you enough to wear really nice clothes”.  I felt weird listening to my favorite heavy rock stuff in the Mall environment.  So, I basically fell back on a lot of my blues favorites like SRV, Gary Moore, and of course Eric Clapton.  The fall and winter of 1991 was also when the Seattle grunge movement began happening. All of a sudden, it felt like all the heavy guitar stuff I liked in 88 and 89 was now being accepted as mainstream. Metallica was popular and it just felt odd playing these albums in a Mall environment. I had heard Nirvana’s album Bleach the year before in the Grand Island Dustys store and I wasn’t impressed much. Then, Pearl Jam was huge. I found out later the band was an offshoot of the Seattle band Mother Love Bone. I had loved that band. But, no one knew Mother Love Bone was.  All of a sudden, the MTV VJ’s were telling me about Nirvana and Pearl Jam and they were telling me “YOU GOTTA GET IT!”….My immediate reaction when someone tells me that is NO I DON’T!  I was toning down my listening preferences. I preferred bluesy groove oriented stuff like Blues Traveler instead of tuned down doom and gloom from Seattle.  In fact, one of the bands (and album) that blew me away when I was working in Omaha was the Blues Traveler Travelers and Thieves album.

I eventually was promoted to store manager of the TransWorld store Tape World at the Crossroads Mall in April of 1992. In fact, I started the day after Easter and had just seen Van Halen at the Civic Auditorium the night before. I made friends with my Assistant Manager Kevin. We shared a lot of the same musical likes. We both had grown sick of the “angry young man” stuff from Seattle. We would actually spend hours in the store listening to Fleetwood Mac Rumours and the Doobie Brothers greatest hits. We were scolded by our district manager because He wanted us to play something a little more current.  At this point, I became very disillusioned by the way TransWorld sold music. LP’s (or Records) were long gone by this time. It was all CD’s and Cassette tapes. But, my district manager always referred to it as “product”.  It was always “blah blah blah PRODUCT…blah blah PRODUCT!” As a music lover and collector, it was more than just a “product”
While I lived in Omaha, I had a whole handful of different record stores to go to on my days off. I would go to a handful of the Homer’s stores in Omaha. I would check out the cut-out bins at the stores in the malls. I would go to Dirt Cheap Recycled Sounds in the old market. Eventually, I was ….uh….fired from my job as manager at Tape World. They had a nicer term for “being fired” and I have since forgot what that term was. I went to work for Blockbuster video shortly after that. While I was there in Omaha, I got a phone call (or letter) that Dusty was putting together a newsletter for Dustys Records with pictures, new releases and back to the “Current Faves” list and would I like to be a guest contributor with my current list. I was more than happy to send back my list. I think about this time that Dusty started to use the phrase “Because the Music Matters” on the store T-shirts and advertising.  At least I seem to remember seeing that phrase written on the finished newsletter when it came in the mail.  This was definitely different than referring to it as just a “product”. But, that wouldn’t be just a one time call and correspondence from Dusty. A little later, Dusty called me in May of 1994 and said he had a job for me back in Kearney if I wanted it.  It didn’t take me long to think about it. I really liked Omaha. But, I realized that all the record stores and live shows that would come to Omaha were just a big financial temptation to me. I needed to go back to Kearney for some reason. It was calling me back. I missed my friends in Kearney and I missed Dustys Records too.
Dustys stayed open for another year after that and closed the doors in August of 1995.  The town of Kearney had become bigger with the chain stores of Target and Wal-Mart selling a lot of the mainstream albums of the day at a price lower than what we had at cost. The big mega media store of Hastings Music, Books and Videos had come to town in January of 1995. All those made a huge impact on Dustys. We employees were told that Dusty was closing the store and we would sell off all the in stock merchandise. No more ordering CD’s…nothing. It truly was a sad day. In those days, I would come into work around noon and work till close at 8 or 9. On that August day, I came to work and found the front door was locked at mid-day. I walked around the store, went in the back door and was told that Dusty had sold the remainder of the stock to another retailer. So, we needed to start boxing stuff up. We did and we did it fast. Dusty had some shelves in the back of the store that he kept some of his vinyl collection. He asked if I wanted the shelves. I took them home to my 3rd floor apartment and added my collection of 600-700 LPs to my new shelves.  Jayson (who I had worked with in GI) had been working at the Kearney store too. He had a handful of LP’s that he didn’t want anymore. So, I took those off his hands too. Of course, Dusty had stopped stocking LPs in about 88 or 89. I kept collecting. I ended up with about 700 titles in vinyl form. I had a decent turntable and would listen to many of them.
As I said before, when I had a day off from my jobs, I would find a way to seek out record stores and music.  I did that so much in Omaha and even Kearney and Grand Island.  What is really sad now is that there really isn’t a record store (or CD store) that stocks much of what I’m interested any more (especially in Central Nebraska).  With the advent of the internet, if we (as consumers) are interested in a new release, we can go online and research it. We can sample 30 seconds of songs from an album.  You can subscribe to Napster or Rhapsody for $10 a month and hear any number of albums either online or on a smartphone.  But, there is just something special about spending hours in a record store with big 12”X12” album covers. Nowadays, the only place that I can find the kind of music I want to hear on CD is at the Hastings Public Library.  They have an extensive CD library because someone donated their CD collection to the library in 2001.  From what I can see, the person who owned this CD collection, was a regular patron to Dustys because many of the titles we used to rave about are in the racks there. 

The idea of a “National Record Store Day” is a very noble idea. But, I think it’s just a little late.  Dusty sold out all of his Vinyl LPs back in 1988-1989 to convert it all to CD’s and Cassettes. Back then, I held on to a “Vinyl is awesome” mentality.  Then, I caved and bought a CD player and a decent stereo to listen to it.  Eventually, I replaced most of my favorite LPs with a CD copy.  Then, I realized my BIG RECORD COLLECTION was some kind of ploy to impress somebody. Was I trying to impress Bob and Forrest. They live in Seattle now! Was I trying to impress some music fanatic I had yet to meet….or was I just trying to impress myself.  I did enjoy a lot of the stuff I owned. But, a lot of it I didn’t.  So, I sold most of it to the Antiquarium in Omaha.  I knew what I liked and most of the stuff I liked, I had a CD copy of it. I had gone many years of not listening to some of this stuff.  I have an ironic story about the day I got rid of my remaining records.  I had packed up my car with the remaining LPs and drove to Omaha.  I had to find a parking spot close and yet lug all my remaining LPs to the store.  At the time, my wife and I had separated and heading towards a divorce. While I was lugging boxes, my cell phone rang and it was her.  She basically had to tell me something wonderful our small son had done.  It was at that moment I realized that my son had become more important than having a ton of music and trying to impress someone with how many records I had.  He didn’t care.  He was just happy to have me as his Daddy!

Do, I miss having access to some of those old records? Yes I do.  A few months after I had sold my albums, my old friend Mick told me there was a turntable with a USB cord to convert old LPs to Digital….DOH! 
I look at the experience of hanging out at record stores like those childhood times of wonderment.  Among those experiences are going for Ice Cream with my older sisters and parents in the family station wagon, stocking up on sacks of candy from the candy counter and take them to Saturday movie matinees.  I feel like an old man reminiscing about record stores and the glory days of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  But, these are events from my childhood that still seem special because they really aren’t there anymore.  I can’t think I’m alone with these memories.  
 

Van Halen – 5150

Everyday for the past year or so, I’ve tried to post a video celebrating…This day in Music. I post a video celebrating the work of an artist or an event in music history. I’m not that “encyclopedic” with my trivial knowledge. I get most of my daily knowledge from http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/. Within the last month or so, a couple of dates that hit me was the 25th anniversary of the transitional(and controversial) release and tour of Van Halen’s 1986 album 5150.

Van Halen had been my favorite band during my high school years. The band represented everything I wanted in rock. They were cocky and full of confidence. It gave me the confidence I needed during my teenage years. I had followed the band religiously. I would buy a copy of Hit Parader and Circus magazine every month just to read more articles about Van Halen. But, I was always annoyed when a magazine would have the headline or “poster” of Van Halen and it would all be about David Lee Roth. I thought Eddie was the greatest guitarist in the world and Alex Van Halen was one of my early drumming favorites too. To me, the band was more than just David Lee Roth….and I still think that!
This was such a great time for me. I had started my freshman year of college in the fall of 1985. Around that summer and fall, it was announced in the music press and MTV news etc. that the band had split with original singer David Lee Roth. This was big news. But, then all the articles usually included a footnote that journeyman rocker Sammy Hagar had been recruited as the new lead singer. As I’ve written before, I had been a regular patron of music and record stores at that time of my life. In High School, I had bought quite a few of Sammy Hagar’s solo albums. I had VOA, Three Lock Box, Standing Hampton, Live 1980, (debut solo album) Nine on a Ten Scale and his collaboration with Journey guitarist Neal Schon HSAS-Through the Fire.  I had listened to these albums front to back and I was a fan of Sammy. But, they didn’t seem to light me up like a Van Halen album would. They just seemed a bit pedestrian or generic sounding and with a lot of filler tracks. So, I was very hesitant about the new collaboration with VH.
Then, in March of 1986, all of a sudden there was a buzz about a new Van Halen album. Even Modern Drummer magazine had Alex Van Halen in a Paiste cymbal ad with parenthesis next to his name as listed from the band “Van Hagar”.  I have never liked that nickname for the band and try very hard never to refer to the band under that name.  I would travel home on weekends to Hastings from Kearney. My parents had moved to Hastings from North Platte early in my senior year of High School. So when I would come home to Hastings, I didn’t have a lot of friends and would spend a lot of my time with my brother Mike. One of those times coming home from either Kearney or the Hastings Imperial Mall with my brother, I had ejected the tape in my car stereo and caught a little bit of a song playing on the radio. As I listened, I thought that the guitar tone and drums sounded familiar and then I thought the vocals sounded familiar too. Then I realized it was the new VH tune Why Can’t This Be Love.  It didn’t sound like the stuff they had done with Dave. But, it had energy to it and it felt fresh.  A few weeks later, during Spring Break, the family(Mom, Dad, Mike and I) drove over to Grand Island for a day of shopping.  I think at the time, Grand Island had about 4 record stores.  The Conestoga Mall had a couple of stores. I was in the Record Town store flipping through the cut-out bins and noticed as I perused the whole store that they were playing VH-5150 in its entirety. By this time, I had heard Why Can’t this Be Love many times and really liked the groove and the semi-scat singing Sammy did with the guitars in the chorus. Then came the slammin’ double bass drums of Alex Van Halen and the double time excitement of the song Get UP!  I stood in the aisles of that store with a smile on my face. I may have even asked the employee the obvious question: “Is this the new Van Halen album?”  Looking back, I knew that it was and I really liked what I was hearing.  I knew one of the stops that day would be a trek over to the Grand Island Dustys Records store. I had become a big patron of the Dustys store in Kearney. So, I was going to support Dusty with this purchase and buy the album when I got over there.  We got back to Hastings later that day and I put that album on my turntable and recorded it over to a cassette soon thereafter too. I was pumped on this album. I liked the energy that Sammy gave the band and the fire that the band gave Sammy.  My one complaint about the production on this album was the lack of bass guitar by Michael Anthony. If you listen to the early VH albums, Mike’s bass is very prevalent in the mix. My other big complaint is Alex’s use of Simmons electronic drums for his rack toms. When he used those drums, he automatically dated the record and made it an album from the 80’s.  As a drummer, that has always bugged me and (at times) prevented me from really enjoying the album.
At the time, It seemed I was buying either a new album every month (or every week). But, I would inevitably come back to that new VH album.  I even drove back to my old hometown of North Platte to share my excitement with my old high school buddies(and VH fanatics).  Imagine my dismay, when my buddy Kent bought the cassette and tells me… “You know what Dave…I don’t like it very much!”  This became an issue of discussion for many years for Kent and I and many music and Van Halen fans. Kent and I had many conversations about the music from the Dave years and the Sammy years. Many fans have always said that the “Diamond Dave years” were their best because Dave was such a great frontman/show man etc. I did have fond memories of cruisin’ around NP with VH blasting from boom boxes, ghetto blasters, walkmans and car stereos. But, I was enjoying 5150 from the same band only with a new singer. David Lee Roth and Van Halen represented my high school years and Van Halen with Sammy represented my college years.
Later in the spring semester, my fellow music department classmate Tim Cline tells me that he and his brother had got tickets to see Van Halen in Omaha on Memorial Day weekend.  I thought it was cool but I still wasn’t sold on the whole Sammy as the new singer. How would they be live? Then Tim called me again and said he had an extra ticket and did I want to go.  Are you kidding? This was VAN HALEN! Even if it wasn’t with DLR, I would get to see my favorite drummer and favorite guitarist in my favorite band LIVE. YES I”m going!  Tim, his brother Randy, their cousin Korry and their friend Joe G were all going and getting a hotel room after the show. So, this was a great big rock concert road trip to Omaha! So, five of us piled in a car. We drive to Omaha and get lost on our way to the Civic Auditorium. For some reason, the first few concerts I saw there, I always got lost trying to find the place.

 

A couple of the guys wanted to watch from the floor and some of us wanted to watch from the stands. The Civic Auditorium was usually general admission seating in those days. So, we could push our way to the front if we wanted. I remember standing on the floor to begin with. The opening band was the classic rock band (and FM radio staple)BTO-Bachman Turner Overdrive….not a bad band. This crowd just wanted to see Van Halen. You could tell because the crowd would just start chanting “EDDIE! EDDIE! EDDIE!!!” After BTO left the stage, the crowd started to push forward. It was much more than I could take. So, after awhile, I decided to go watch it from the stands. I’m not sure where. I never actually took a seat. I just stood and watched the show standing up. I remember the band hit the stage and I remember Alex was wearing a baseball cap and it was hard to see his face. But, they hit the stage with the band’s cover of the Kink’s You Really Got Me.  So, right off the bat…a classic tune from the classic lineup. That should make the crowd happy! Then, into Sammy’s tune Only One Way to Rock!  Then onto Summer Nights and Get Up from the 5150 Album!

I was just on fire about the whole thing! The Concert was simply awesome. All the guys (except Sammy) took a solo. Alex took a drum solo on his (now antiquated) Simmons toms and Ludwig Snare and Bass drums. He really is one of the great drummers of all time(in my opinion).  Michael Anthony took a bass solo that was just a screaming mess of distorted bass sounds. I really did not like it! It was loud and painful to watch. When Eddie took his guitar solo. He played every little bit of his signature licks from the early years. He played the solo from Eruption; The instantly identifiable tapping intro of Mean Streets were followed by the reverb delay of Cathedral from the album Diver Down.  As he played those bits of Cathedral, I thought back to my teenage years in my friend Mick’s basement listening to Diver Down and being told that the sounds I was hearing were made on a guitar and here I was watching Eddie play it.
The band was all smiles and the show was completely high energy. They pulled out Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love from their debut album and Sammy sang the whole song on top of the lighting rig. Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE! This would be a concert memory for the ages!

Most of my memories of this show are prompted from watching the live home video released later that year titled Van Halen: Live Without a Net.  But, I do remember when they came out for the encore and hit the stage with Alex hitting that all too familiar opening drum riff that John Bonham got from Little Richard’s Keep a Knockin’   I’m talking about Led Zeppelin’s song Rock and Roll. I had become enamored with that song after playing it in a battle of the bands months earlier. Led Zeppelin hadn’t reached the now legendary status they now have. But, their popularity with a lot of people my age were growing at that point. So, When Alex hit that intro, I was jumping up and down and screaming like a man on fire. The people in the seats around me stared at me like I was possessed.  But, I didn’t care. This was a band that got me jacked up excited about Van Halen again. If I had any doubt about Sammy Hagar when I came into the concert, I was completely converted. I came back from that concert and consumed everything I could on Van Halen. MTV aired a special that summer called “Van Halen Unleashed” I dubbed this off from a friend of mine and watched it constantly.

I saw Van Halen two more times with Sammy on lead vocals. I saw them on the Monsters of Rock tour in Kansas City on July 10th, 1988 (3 days after my 21st birthday) and April 19th, 1992 (Easter Sunday). 
There are many people who still don’t like what Sammy brought to this band and that’s okay! We all have our own opinions. But, as I have looked up the many many many live performances of the band with both Dave and Sammy fronting the band, IMO…Sammy is the most consistent singer with this band. The band seems incredibly more tighter with Sammy! The energy is higher and the performance seems more genuine than the “showbiz” phoniness that DLR displays onstage.  I have compared the two frontmen to my own growth and maturity. David Lee Roth was the “Dave” I wanted to be in High School…..very hip, cocky and filled with enough self confidence to say just the right thing(and not with the assless chaps)…..  But, Sammy is more like who I really am. I am your friend, I want to hang out with my friends. I want to be happy with my friends making music and talking about music.  Dave’s rehearsed answers really got very boring and tired over the past 27 years. There was never an honest answer in any of his interviews. 
As most VH fans know, Sammy was basically forced out in 1996 and went back to his solo career while the VH brothers made one album with Gary Cherone on vocals. Sammy reunited with the band in 2004 for a tour and 3 new songs on a double CD Greatest hits package. It didn’t last and Sammy went on to form a new supergroup called Chickenfoot featuring VH bass player and backing vocals maestro Michael Anthony, superstar guitarist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. For me, when I heard the Chickenfoot debut, it reminded me of the high energy and good feelings I associated to the 5150 album. I credit most of that to the great vocal interplay that Sammy and Mike Anthony have together.
This past month, Sammy released his own autobiography about his career in Rock and Roll and the music business called Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock.  He’s been on a big press tour for the book. I’ve peeked a couple times at some of the chapters. Most people may think that Sammy has a lot of ill will for Eddie and Alex Van Halen. But, as I look at these old clips, I see a band with a genuine love for each other.  I’ve held onto this era of the band as one of the greatest bands ever. I have great memories with friends and family when it comes to this album. When I started writing this blog, I went back and looked at a bunch of the old videos. At the time, the band didn’t have time to shoot actual promotional videos. So, MTV edited the performances from Live Without a Net and added Best of Both Worlds to heavy rotation.  I saw it a lot and until I looked back on the performance, I didn’t realize what a great bond these guys had onstage.

Gary Moore – The Irish Bluesman Feb 6 2011

Today is a sad day for the fans of Guitar based Rock and Blues Rock music.  Sadly, guitarist Gary Moore died in his sleep last night and right now there is no other details available.  If you were to look up (or google) Gary Moore right now, most of the headlines will read “Thin Lizzy Guitarist Gary Moore dead at 58”. But, for fans like myself, he was more than just the guitarist for Thin Lizzy. Yes, he played in Thin Lizzy for a time. He was a good friend of Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott.  Gary Moore could also be credited for rejuvenating his career in the early nineties when he basically changed from being a hard rock guitar slinger to a soulful bluesman. Tonight, I’d like to talk about my memories of Gary Moore.
I first remember hearing about Gary Moore in my early teen years of reading Hit Parader magazine. I remember seeing his albums in the local record stores I would frequent in North Platte.  Drummer Ian Paice(from Deep Purple) had recorded and toured with Gary Moore in the early 80’s after Paice had been playing drums for David Coverdale in Whitesnake and between the much publicized reunion of DP in 1984.  So, I was familiar with the name but not his music.  Later, I obviously found out about involvement with Thin Lizzy. 
In my college years at Kearney State College, I would often try to find a TV to watch an MTV show called Heavy Metal Mania.  Since we didn’t have cable in the dorm rooms, you usually had to share the TV lounge with others from your floor or the entire dorm. So, I would sometimes try to find a lone TV (possibly on campus) at the student union and watch it there. I distinctly remember seeing a Gary Moore video where he was performing live with a small camera attached to the neck of his guitar. It looked very cool and sounded even better.  As I have been searching for this video, I have discovered it was a duet that Gary Moore was doing with his former Thin Lizzy bandmate Phil Lynott called Out in the Fields. I loved how the song sounded and felt. I still can’t express how cool it sounded.

 It wasn’t very long after that I started working for Dustys Records and found that the Gary Moore album Wild Frontier was one of the promotional records that the store had for in-store play.  I honestly believe that the first record I played as my first turn as a Dustys Employee was Gary Moore’s Wild Frontier.  I absolutely loved the Irish/Scottish Highland rhythmic feel to the song Over the Hills and Far Away. I had no idea what the geographical regions were. But, it sounded very unique, individualistic and downright cool!

I soon learned that in Dusty’s Grand Island store was another employee that had a love for Gary Moore. Jayson Obrecht was a guitar player and a fan of anything involving an electric guitar.  I would soon find out that he was a HUGE fan of Gary Moore. Gary would release another album in 1989 called After the War.  This featured drummer Cozy Powell who was a favorite of mine and it was generally a good rock album.
Then, in the summer of 1990, Dusty received a promo cassette of Gary Moore Still Got the Blues.  The tape didn’t have a lot of artwork on it and it didn’t seem to be anything fantastic by the packaging.  But, I remember popping in the cassette and just being blown away by awesome blues album he had put together.  By this time, I had become a big fan of the burgeoning blues-rock scene that had been spearheaded by Stevie Ray Vaughan.  In fact, Jayson offered me a ticket to go see Stevie Ray Vaughan at Fiddlers Green in Denver in July of 1990.  As we started our road trip to Denver, one of the first things Jayson asked me was “Have you heard the new Gary Moore Album?”  I had and we were both in agreement that it was good…very good!
In September of 1990, I moved to Grand Island and began working at Dustys there. I slept on Jayson’s couch for about a month while I found a place to live.  I then realized that Jayson was a BIG GARY MOORE FAN! He had all of his albums on CD and had some videos too. That’s what I liked about Jayson.  Many fans and musicians have an artist that they love and obsess about.  As a drummer, I had been a huge fan of Carmine Appice since 1982 and had collected many of his recordings.  Jayson was like that only his “hero” was Gary Moore. 
Jayson had done an in-store promotional display for the Still Got the Blues album.  It was very impressive. I had seen a Guitar magazine article (or review) for the album and I remember reading “You either love Gary Moore or you’ve never heard Gary Moore”.  I told Jayson this and he added that to the store display. 
We would listen to the album over and over.  The record company sent the store a promotional copy of Gary’s live concert titled One Night of the Blues.  Since Jayson was the major GM fan, it was definitely his to own..no doubt about it. I actually found it for a good price at a second hand record store in Omaha about 3 years later.  On this video, Gary had Mississippi bluesmen Albert King and Albert Collins playing with him.  That was when I found out that the song Oh, Pretty Woman was originally an Albert King song. Gary also paid tribute to the great blues players like Billy Gibbons and Stevie Ray Vaughan in Texas Strut.  He paid tribute to the father of British Blues John Mayall with a version of All Your Love.  It was then that I learned about lesser known guitarist Peter Green who had joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers after Eric Clapton.  I also found out that he would go on to form Fleetwood Mac with John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.
Dustys in Grand Island closed and I moved to Omaha in 1991 and eventually moved back to Kearney in 1994.  Jayson, myself and my brother Mike formed a blues trio called BOOGIE CHILLUN and (of course) we had to play Gary Moore blues tunes. We actually played All Your Love and Walking By Myself.

In 1994, Gary Moore joined up for a “reunion” (of sorts) with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce from Cream.  They called the band BBM(Bruce Baker Moore) and they put out an awesome blues trio album that Jayson and I ate up.  I can still remember being blown away by GM’s guitar playing on it. So, we added the song City of Gold to our blues trio set list. I loved playing Ginger Baker style drums. Mike was a fan of Jack Bruce and well….I already told you about Jayson.  I’ve got a video performance of BOOGIE CHILLUN.  I should try and get that transferred to put on as an attachment.

This morning, I played drums for my church Praise band and after the service was over, I checked my Droid phone for Facebook updates to find that guitarist Joe Bonamassa had reported that Gary Moore had died. I immediately googled the news story to find out it was true. I sent Jayson a text as soon as I could. I thought of him simultaneously.  I’ve been posting Gary Moore videos all day since I found out.
For me, Gary Moore was another artist that took me from my love of hard rock and helped me transition and educate me about the music known as the blues.  I don’t think I would have appreciated Albert King or Peter Green as much as I do if it weren’t for Gary Moore.  I am deeply saddened by his passing. I never knew him personally. But, I feel that if you are effected by the emotion an instrumentalist can convey without uttering a single word, or find something that resonates for you, then you know (maybe) just a little part of that artist.
Thank you Gary! You may be gone from this world. But, you won’t be forgotten!