Gov't Mule saved my life, Stevie Ray Vaughan kept me sane and Jimi Hendrix taught me how to be a black man...a black man who loves Dylan, no less. We all have some many different things that inform our choices and influence are decisions but I really think the above statement is me in a nutshell, a little hyperbolic but pretty close to the truth. I was blessed with common sense and empathy. I was raised by loving parents who wanted the best for me and did what they could for me. For better or worse I was introduced to the arts at an early age, and as a kid being forced to dress up and to go to a musical when we visited family, I definitely thought it was the worst. To be given books as birthday presents - no matter how much I loved to read - it was the worst. All of those events, situations and circumstances brought me to a place where I was ready and willing to receive Jimi Hendrix as my personal savior - to irreverently borrow a phrase - but I'll come back to that.
Saying Gov't Mule saved my life is quite an exaggeration. My life didn't need to be saved in the most dramatic sense but it definitely needed something. I was living alone in Baton Rouge. I had a few friends and a dead-end job. I didn't talk to my family much and I didn't really know what I was doing with my life. Which I thought was a little ridiculous considering that I had a BA from a prestigious university and was closing in on 30 years old. What I did have was access and enough disposable income to enjoy club shows in both Baton Rouge and New Orleans and Relix Magazine. I had been on the fence about the Grateful Dead for several years. I had had crushes on an untold number of hippie chicks with their relatively wild abandon and flowing dresses. I loved classic rock but I was very much a heavier rock fan and the West Coast rock didn't really do it for me. Anyway, Relix had want ads and articles about tape trading and this really fascinated me. I had designs on becoming an Ethnomusicologist or folklorist so I knew well the concept of field recording and had read enough to understand tape trading but I had not participated.
Saying Gov't Mule saved my life is quite an exaggeration. My life didn't need to be saved in the most dramatic sense but it definitely needed something. I was living alone in Baton Rouge. I had a few friends and a dead-end job. I didn't talk to my family much and I didn't really know what I was doing with my life. Which I thought was a little ridiculous considering that I had a BA from a prestigious university and was closing in on 30 years old. What I did have was access and enough disposable income to enjoy club shows in both Baton Rouge and New Orleans and Relix Magazine. I had been on the fence about the Grateful Dead for several years. I had had crushes on an untold number of hippie chicks with their relatively wild abandon and flowing dresses. I loved classic rock but I was very much a heavier rock fan and the West Coast rock didn't really do it for me. Anyway, Relix had want ads and articles about tape trading and this really fascinated me. I had designs on becoming an Ethnomusicologist or folklorist so I knew well the concept of field recording and had read enough to understand tape trading but I had not participated.
