In the early nineties Rick had a little extra money and an extra office room.
He bought an electric guitar and electric bass and started jamming.
Deb, who was his nanny, would sing kids songs around the house
but Rick had no idea about what was to happen next.
She went to one of the jams, just to hang out and party,
but when she walked up to the mic and started singing acapella, she shocked everyone there!!!
Rick would always forget a chord in a cover tune so he decided just to start writing...
"It was cool, Deb was at the house everyday, I’d write lyrics, play the piano, golf and whatever during the week;
and, on Fridays we'd jam from 6 til midnight, thats where the magic happened.
I would introduce a chord progression I'd developed and liked during the week, we’d start jamming on it,
Deb would flip through a binder filled with lyrics and come up with a vocal melody, most all were first choices...
During one of those times when the bass player would disappear for a while, we used to say "Dave's not here";
We started going to a local songwriters night at City Cafe. It was small; no PA,
I would bring an old National Brass guitar and Deb would sing...
It got to the point where the audience was requesting our songs, which was cool.
It was also a time when we would imbibe while we played; I think it was to help with our "stage presence"...
One evening we finished our songs and left the stage and we were approached by a guy who said he'd like to record us.
We kinda laughed and said "yeah right" but he insisted we give him our number and he'd be in touch.
Not long after that he visited one of our jams and we agreed to a recording venture.
We built a makeshift studio and with a newly purchased console
and a 16 track analog machine we began this new journey.
We chose 9 songs, our favorite being SUMMER OF OUR YOUTH, which became the title cut.
We enlisted the aid of some of south Louisiana's best players and within a few months our project was complete.
It was released on CD in 1999, on the bands own label, Blue Funk Records.
As we enter our twilight years and the sun is beginning to set,
I thought it prudent to record all of our songs for posterity and the joy of going through that process.
After 12 or so tunes were in the can, we found a similar tone to some and put together "SUGARCANE"...
"STRANGERS", a different feeling project, is now complete...
That's a wrap!
We had such fun pretending to be Rock Stars and recording 27 or our tunes...
Such fun it was, ya'll enjoy...