Just got home from listening to my dad’s band play.
All my life my dad has been in one band or another, good bands, great bands, brilliant bands, but I was always too young or too cool to really pay attention.
Pops has the kind of taste in music that Rolling Stone hires as a contributing editor. He always knows what’s cool from the past and what’s going to hit big in the future. Never conforms to trends and just plays good deep down dirty soul music. The older I get the more I realize that his musical ED as a child has influenced me more than I ever wished to admit.
I grew up in Austin, Texas, also known as “The Live Music Capitol of the World” and more than lives up to that name.
Austin shaped much of my personality and now that I don’t live there anymore I feel like I was given a gift I didn’t appreciate till I lost.
Anyhow, as a drummer, my Dad is the master of controlling the mood and tempo of the music, thus controlling how fast people drink and get to dancing.
Tonight I felt like I was in the movie “Eddie and the Cruisers.” If you’ve never seen it or any of it’s sequels, it’s worth it. Really good. Honest.
Tonight was possibly one of the dawning moments in my adult life. SHIT! My dad is pretty damn cool…
There were around 30 people crowded onto a tiny dance floor (and a bar load of people dancing in their seats) going crazy over Hank Williams, Roy Orbison and Little Feat. Throw in a bit of their own stuff, which happens to be pretty great, those songs that you just can’t get out of your head, and the place was going crazy.
I couldn’t stop smiling, I was proud of him, like I’m sure he’s proud of me watching me race…
I realized tonight that I’ve grown up. My dad and I are no longer at odds. We are no longer just father and daughter. We are friends.
I can’t stop crying.