You're My Blue Sky

As per one of my most recent posts, I talked about my first band I was in; Blue Sky. Steve Dutcher came up with the name as the two of us were on our way to see the Allman Brothers Band in Bakersfield on July 30, 1999. I can't remember whether Dee Dee was in the band yet or not but it doesn't matter. She probably was. We played a junior-high carnival that year and, nerves aside, pretty good. That was August of 1999. We opened up with the ABB's Don't Want You No More > Revival and it was a pretty decent gig. The next gig we played was an interesting one, one where photos and even an audio recording exist. We played a small Christian club that was trying to attract live music and bands; we played and were probably the biggest group in the place that night. What was cool was the fact we played an electric set (something I barely even remember) and an acoustic set. Chris, our drummer, had his wonderful wife, Connie, sit in on second female harmonies and Chris, Steve and sometimes myself, backed the ladies. Man, we were Fleetwood Mac meets the Eagles. I have three memories of the entire gig: the first was a newly-married couple who lay on the floor liking us so much the husband said, "I could stay here all night." The second was my damned guitar's neck was tweeked enough that I struggled to keep the B-string in tune; I fought the dumb thing all night, and with new strings, I believe I lost. The third was our cover of the Eagles' "Seven Bridges Road" which was a song we'd pulled out early in our jamming as a song that we wanted to define us; while we played some Linda Ronstadt and Mac that night along with a couple of country tunes and some Doobies (Bros., that is), this Eagles tune brought goose bumps to me then and it does every time my friend Chris plays me the audio tape. We copied the '80 incarnation of the band (I'm still searching for the version from the '77 tour) with Dee Dee singing Henley's part, Chris on Glenn Frey's part, Steve on Joe Walsh's part, Connie singing an octave, I believe, of Chris's part and myself on Timothy B. Schmit's part. We did pretty well through the song, though I was still nervous bluegrass-picking my way through the first two verses. There's a part of the song, though, that's a capella, and when we hit the part, "and if ever, you decide..............you should go-oooooooooooooo-oooooooo-ooo....." We were BETTER than that damned Laurel Canyon band I so wanted to be for so many years; one day when Don and Glenn hear that tape (when they walk in and ask to front Chris's band like that other journeyman singer!), they'll be stunned to hear we one-upped them. Ten years, burning down the road...