A Great Evening Of Surprise And Music
12.29.05 (10:43 pm) [edit]"And here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice."
- Bob Dylan
I knew about this when I wrote last night's entry, but it wasn't set in stone yet - I got to see Katie tonight.
Sheryl and Sean (her friend I talked about last time) came up to Indy so Sean could see his kids. He's recently divorced with two kids, living two hours from them. Sound familiar?
I only talked to him for a couple minutes, but between that and talking to Sheryl, I felt SO much better. It was a very, very nice visit. His daughter was sick, so he only had his son, sitting in the back of Sheryl's new van in his booster seat next to Katie. Little Sean is five. He and Katie had a lot of fun together earlier in the day, apparantly.
They dropped Katie off and went away for an hour and a half. A short time, but it was wonderful. She came in and jumped on the bed and told me how happy she was to see me again. She crawled under the blanket and I heard a familar noise. Her head popped out. "Daddy, I tooted in here!" We laughed our fool heads off. Fart jokes with the kid. It don't get much better than this.
We went to the store and came back to draw with colored pencils. She talked a lot, and it was just a great time. It wouldn't have happened if not for Sheryl and Sean being so nice as to give us this time together. It meant a LOT to me.
I felt that the field was levelled. Talking to him and to Sheryl, now knowing his divorce situation (which is really a lot worse than mine) I know that he knows EXACTLY the feelings I talked about here last night. He has to be feeling them himself now that he's away from his own children. And just a really nice guy. For the life of me, I can't think of who it is, but he reminds me of someone I've known, another musician. I really enjoyed tonight. Wow. Who could imagine? It doesn't change the basic feeling of powerlessness being this far from Katie and not being able to have mor einput in things, but I feel better all the way around about it.
Dennis showed up a few minutes after they left. We got off to a rocky start (weak performance, technical issues) but we hit a groove and managed to get four songs recorded, a couple quite well. Lay Lady Lay, The Needle & The Damage Done, Well All Right, and Love Hurts. I have to put backing vocals on the last two and do some creative reverb/eq work (and I'm NOT an engineer, I have to say) but I think we're just about ready to hit the road with this thing. We have to add a few more songs, but that will be easy. Dennis suggested that I sing two or three tunes, which I was going to suggest anyway. After yesterday's adventure, I've decided to take on Dylan and do Stuck Inside Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. Not sure which others yet. I've got a pile of stuff semi-ready to go (I'm still planning on the solo thing once this is rolling) but I want to get the strongest stuff out there. I love our concept- we have yet to learn anything released after 1972. I love that purism in this context. I want to try a lot of different ideas, and this one is perfect. There's a hell of a lot of variety to be had even just within the time period we are covering, and we've got a few unique arrangments to foist on unsuspecting listeners. (I think our Time Of The Season is especially interesting, and it's really very simple.) I like working with Dennis a lot. He knows what he wants, I give it to him. Bam. There ya go. Of course now we have to find GIGS for this shit, which should be interesting. We'll see.
Lots of band activity coming up. New Years Eve, then a week off. Then five gigs in six weeks. I need the money bad, and I'm looking forward to picking it back up after nearly a month off. I wish the Cincy band was still going, it's been August since we've done anything, but oh well. With that band, I mostly just miss having drunk girls flashing their tits at us. There's definitely a place for that in my heart. But mostly I just want to make money playing bass. I NEED to do this. It feels good to lock into something that I feel total confidence in. Dammit Jim, I'm a bass player, not an engineer.
Dylan and his blondes are massaging my ears. I'm feeling strong. Reasonably healthy, albeit with a few concerns. As mentally sharp as I've been in years. Not saying much, but fuck it. i'm movin' along.
Your debutante just knows what you need, but I know what you want,
Dougie