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My attempts at musical endeavors over the past few decades…
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Short bio: I took classical violin lessons in kindergarten, piano lessons in fourth grade, and taught myself to play guitar at fourteen. I played guitar and keyboards at my first live club gig when I was seventeen and have been in and out of bands, playing well over a hundred shows throughout my life. Scroll down to view most of the projects I’ve been involved with, from most recent to long ago.

Jan. 14, 2023: TRICIE AND THE PHANTOM PUNKS play Acadia Bar & Grill with CHOKE and Y’MAYA.

Jan. 11, 2023: TRICIE AND THE PHANTOM PUNKS and HOLY HELL support KOFFIN KATS at White Oak Music Hall

Loved every person at this show – Great time!

Jan. 7, 2023: TRICIE AND THE PHANTOM PUNKS headline PRETTY IN PUNK at the Black Magic Social Club with N.I.X., PSYCHO JENNI, BOOF, and DEMONIC HEN.

Dec. 25, 2022: TRICIE AND THE PHANTOM PUNKS play NUMBERS in Houston with 30footFALL, FUSKA, and idiginis.

Nov. 5, 2022: TRICIE AND THE PHANTOM PUNKS play Shoeshine Charlie’s Big Top Lounge with HAUNT ME.

Oct. 22, 2022: TRICIE AND THE PHANTOM PUNKS played its first show at the Black Magic Social Club with Monster Soup and Holy Hell.

Unknown 2022:  Jay Schneider has been sending me music to play guitar on for years, so I’m unsure exactly when TRICIE AND THE PHANTOM PUNKS actually started, but Jay and I were playing the music to one of these songs years ago in New Orleans. While I was rehearsing with BLENDER, Jay had sent me other tracks to record probably solos, but maybe some rhythm tracks. It was all so random that I didn’t really pay attention. The next thing I know, Jay is telling me to come to Houston to rehearse/play shows for the band, that I guess I didn’t realize was actually a band until about May or June. Long story short, ask Jay….

May 1, 2022:  BLENDER finally played its inaugural gig at a Chelsea’s benefit. The set consisted of about eight of Robbie’s originals he had been working on for a year or more before I met him and various covers by bands such as the Stooges, the Damned and the New York Dolls. As the Eureka Springs’ music scene is 90% bluegrass, we knew the community would eat this up, and they did. Was a fun night.

Oct 2021 – April 2022:  Robbie found two great local musicians who took time out of their busy regular gig schedules to undertake his 1970’s punk agenda. Chris Plowman (bass) and Alex Hawf (drums) and Robbie and I began rehearsing for the February gig which unfortunately got snowed/iced out. Here was the flyer. Unsure, but it might have upset a few locals. Eureka Springs isn’t quite New Orleans or New York. Postponed…

Oct. 2, 2021:  So I went out to watch a ballgame at the local pub and overheard some guy talking music. I was intrigued by his gusto and started quizzing him to see if he knew everything about his supposed genre, which was 1970s punk rock. And he did. We had a lot in common as he had played gigs and spent time in New York’s lower east side as well. He mentioned he wanted to play a gig for his 50th birthday the following February and I told him (like I tell everyone else), “oh, I can do that.” And so it began… His name was Robbie Blender.

Oct. 30, 2018:  Freddy Krumins, rock vocalist from Las Vegas, was kind enough to sing on several of my tunes that have been without vocals for years.  Click this link to listen.  Anyone who wants to sing on a track, feel free. There should be 15 Soundcloud tracks without vocals as you scroll down this page.

Oct. 27, 2018:  Played a few songs with my former band, PAIN, at a benefit for fellow musician, John Daniels, who was a monster guitarist in his former hard rock band, LEGION, before I even knew how to play three chords. Sadly, John lost his battle with cancer shortly, thereafter. Monroe will always remember this fun, killer, and badass guitarist R.I.P.

Sep. 4, 2018:  On August 29th, Jay Schneider forwarded a drum track from his friend in Hollywood, Jon White, to see if I’d like to write a guitar part. It appears that these are the types of things we do for fun these days. So the two files below are (1) “Jon”, the aforementioned track in which Jay played bass and Jon plays drums, and (2) “Don”. Don is a song that Jay wrote and sent to Houston drummer, Donnie Reyes. Donnie played drums and Jay did bass and rhythm guitar, but Jay asked me to do a lead track and I pretty much just played over the entire song, sort of like a Foo Fighters track, as that is what he asked for. For the record, I don’t start playing until after the pick slide. 😉 Neither track has vocals.

1 of 2: the heavier track w/o vocals

2 of 2: Jay Schneider’s track

Nov. 23, 2017:  Just like relationships, every band is not a perfect fit for everyone involved, and the show at Nightclub Kolis (The Lounge) in London was my second and last gig as guitarist for Die Fast. Besureis and This Years Ghost also played the London show.

Die Fast at the Marquee Moon Lounge. From left: myself, Tod Waters, Chris Moye, and Rudy Olivarez.

Nov. 4, 2017:  Through mutual friend, Jay Schneider, I found out that guitarist, Chris LaForge, of Houston rock band, Die Fast, had recently passed away and that the band had a gig scheduled in London and was looking for a replacement guitarist.  This photo was taken during the warmup show for London at the Marquee Moon Lounge in Houston. Some Kind of Nightmare and Feels Like Murder opened.

May 12, 2017: *A life-changing event occurred to say the least. I’ll be writing about this day and stories involving everything listed on this page in my book, Astronaut Theory.

Dec. 17, 2016: I sat in with Poor Dumb Bastards on a couple of songs at Rudyard’s in Houston. The Ghost Wolves also played this show.

Nov. 20, 2016: Hanging around with Michael Leach one night, discussing our exes, and came up with this song, “Arch Nemesis.”  There is another collaboration with Michael further down this page.

Arch Nemesis

Apr. 9, 2016: The 25th Anniversary show of Poor Dumb Bastards at Fitzgerald’s in Houston. PDB’s list of former musicians probably exceeds the number of U.S. Presidents. Thankfully, we were able to play an entire set as PDB East (New Orleans) early that day, but due to the number of former guitarists, I was only able to play three songs during the headliner set that night. The lineup for the all day and night event was amazing. The poster below lists the bands.

Byron Dean of Poor Dumb Bastards
PDB 25th Anniversary Poster
Devil Machine
Devil Machine at Banks Street Bar

Oct. 3, 2015:  Myself, Chris Eiffert on drums, and Jay Schneider on bass at Banks Street Bar in New Orleans. This might be the only photo of just the three of us. We laid the tracks for the four songs below, but the cymbal trigger died on two of them (SP + 2RR), and all four tracks are without vocals (thus far). This same night after the Devil Machine set, we played the only gig of Mike P & the Penetrators, which was basically Poor Dumb Bastards (or PDB East/New Orleans) w/o Byron Dean. John Wayne Is Dead also played this show.

1 of 4: sounds a bit like the
pumpkins on the main chorus.

3 of 4: cover of Dead Parade,
by Cobra Lily. No vocals.

2 of 4: not purposely written
to sound like green day.

4 of 4: cover of 2RR by Cobra Lily.
No cymbal track or vocals.

Poor Dumb Bastards at Checkpoint Charlie’s during Creepy Fest 2015

July 18, 2015: Byron Dean, Mike Porterfield, Jay Schneider, myself, and Chase Ayres on drums at Checkpoint Charlie’s in New Orleans during Creepy Fest. I had never played a gig with Poor Dumb Bastards before and only met their guitarist, Mike Porterfield, an hour before this performance. This entire idea of playing in Poor Dumb Bastards was Jay’s as usually the other members of the Houston band couldn’t all take off work simultaneously for gigs as far away as New Orleans. So we formed PDB East so that only the singer and/or the main guitarist would have to show. It actually worked a couple of times, and was a lot of fun.

MTV: June 28, 2012 at NOLA House of Blues

June 28, 2012:  The only time I’ve ever been on MTV was on this date when the Flaming Lips broke the Guinness Book of World Records for number of live performances in different cities in a 24-hour time period.  My girlfriend and I were having a drink in the courtyard at the NOLA House of Blues waiting for the show and a friend sent us this image of a television screen. The timer was for Guinness, as well as this photo. Life’s small victories…

May 21, 2010: Scoop Slone, vocalist for our deceased Cobra Lily band, had been sending me vocal audio snippets from his cell phone and laptop and I pieced them together and created this track I dubbed, “Bad Money.” Scoop didn’t like it. He had originally intended for me to create several different songs with the lyrics in a style nothing like this track. But that chorus (starting at 1:13) is just… I love it.  One of those things that makes me happy inside.

Bad Money

August 2009:  In September 2009, I jammed for about a month or more with two guys near Riverbend uptown. I won’t throw them under the bus, but they wanted to play every cover known to man and seemed to be all over the spectrum musically. Jeff, the drummer, and Gordon, the bassist, would have been great guys to have drinks with or talk music with, but the band aspect was just one of those things that was never going to work. The only thing to come out of this for me were two songs I wrote, one of which I recorded later, with Jay Schneider and Chris Eiffert: “SP” in the Soundcloud player, above.

July 2008:  Spent a few weeks trying to make things work with local New Orleans band, Alexander Fly. I had met their singer and we got along fine, but they had been on hiatus for awhile. Rehearsals occurred maybe twice per month at best, and no one was really in the driver’s seat and it seemed to be a crapshoot knowing what we were doing or what was happening next. All nice guys, but my routine is usually nonstop, and I can’t sit around waiting on people for long.

The Michigan shirt was a thrift shop find. Geaux Tigers! L-S-U ! ! !
3 of 4 Glasgow members are to my right in this photo.

June 2, 2007:  Local New Orleans band, Glasgow, lost their lead guitarist days before the Back to the Beach Festival at Lake Pontchartrain Beach in Kenner, so they asked me to sit in. These guys were probably 11-13 years younger than me, but talented. So they gave me a list of songs to learn over 3-4 days but we never had a full rehearsal and the day of the show, they tell me they only wanted me to play on four songs. Which was almost my original advice to them, that they didn’t need that other guitarist. So this was a one-time-only event. But I liked their band and thought that Sam Craft (violin + vocals) and Jack Craft (guitar + bass) were too gifted to not have a professional music career. I still had those rare, early serial number, two-channel triple recs back then.

Only full-band shot of the Glasgow performance

Feb. 2007:  Bones and I both rehearsed with Hate in the Box after the Cobra Lily split, but I never played a gig with them. I’d have to ask Bones if he ever played live with them, but I can’t remember. Shortly after, I took my law firm job back in New Orleans and Bones eventually moved to Seattle.

Dec. 27, 2006:  Cobra Lily performing “Pinks” live at Kenny’s Castaways in NYC.

Dec. 27, 2006:  Cobra Lily performing “Too Rock ‘n Roll” live at Kenny’s Castaways in NYC.

Dec. 27, 2006:  Cobra Lily performing “Dead Parade” live at Kenny’s Castaways in NYC. Maybe our best song, but I loved them all. This was our last gig as we broke up prior to our next scheduled gig, March 31, 2007 at the Mean Fiddler.

Dec. 14, 2006:  Cobra Lily plays the Pussycat Lounge in NYC. I played this gig with someone else’s amp as my amp and pedalboard had been stolen out of my SUV just hours before this gig, broken glass and everything. But then I found those vintage Mesa amps.

Dec. 9, 2006:  Cobra Lily plays the Cattyshack in Brooklyn.

From left: myself, Scoop Slone, Dominque Gabriel, Bones (Marlon) Montes
Post Cattyshack gig: Scoop, Bones, Dom, Leon
Sep. 15, 2006:  Cobra Lily – Post East River Bar gig in NYC.

Sep. 6, 2006:  Cobra Lily plays Trash Bar in Williamsburg. The week before we played here, I was happy to see Rock City Morgue from New Orleans playing at Trash. They were nice enough to let us hang with them before their show.

Sep. 6, 2006:  Cobra Lily performing “Ichabod’s Wish” at Trash Bar in Williamsburg. Piecing together various riffs of mine with Scoop’s lyrics, this entire song was put together the first night I met Scoop and Dom.

Sep. 2, 2006:  Cobra Lily performs “DJ KISS” at 169 Bar in NYC. In late 2006, the guy who owned 169 Bar was from New Orleans. So that was cool. This song was an instrumental in my previous band, PAIN, to give our singer a vocal break. By the time Cobra Lily was playing gigs in December of 2006, the bass and drums also accompanied, which was definitely a plus. Eventually, this song would bleed into the next song, “M,” and would be an almost seven minute rock n’ roll opus of sorts. This was our first live gig, two friends videoing with two different cameras.

Sep. 2, 2006:  Cobra Lily performs “M” at 169 Bar in NYC. This was always the song we’d close the set with. Again, this was our first live performance. The songs eventually became tighter and the kinks were worked out over the next few months. But the song ideas were always good. Definitely my favorite band of all time, even if nowhere near the most successful.

Sep. 1, 2006:  ASCAP called me a few weeks after I’d put together Cobra Lily, wanting an interview for their Music Pro Insurance partnership, which thankfully I was already aware of as it paid me back for my gear that had been damaged during Katrina. They let me plug my band, so I said sure. Years later, a friend of mine told me he had seen a Music Pro Insurance advertisement on a billboard out West (Las Vegas or Los Angeles) with that knit cap image of me – hahaha.  Here is a link to the ASCAP articles about New Orleans, post-Katrina.

June 15, 2006:  I drove to NYC to join a heavy rock band, Bloodroot. They told me they had two weeks booked in the U.K. at the end of July, so I thought that this was a great opportunity to travel and to get in a band that is actually working. I’m unsure what happened, but the singer backed out of the two-week tour only ten days after I arrived in NYC. The singer was a control freak, which would’ve been fine had he been someone with a name, but he was barely surviving, and certainly not gigging while I was there. After about a month of putting up with the attitude, and lack of rehearsals, I was about to head back down south towards New Orleans but decided to answer a couple of “guitarist wanted” ads, one of which was the band that would become Cobra Lily.

Jan. 16, 2006:  Throughout my life, I’d never learned to love working in an office. For whatever reason, I thought I could do something more artistic and fun. So I gave my notice at the law firm in New Orleans to join a rock band in Philadelphia that sounded a bit like the “Black Crowes.” Perhaps I should write a book on luck, rather than music. I was the there for a week and never met the singer, but instead, the other guitarist lectured me on how to play and what not to play, which fingers to use to bend notes (?, right!?) and etc. Keep in mind, I learned the songs exactly like they were on the recordings, but “things change” as you are probably aware. It might have been ten days later when I finally met the singer and he acted like he didn’t even want to be at rehearsal. I was not happy, and was back in New Orleans by the end of February refusing to put up with what was advertised as a working band: Vinyl Throwback. I spent March through May of 2006 practicing, writing, and customizing guitars while looking for an actual band who wanted to do something more than talk.

Nov. 24, 2004:  Ghost plays Southport Music Hall.
Ghost at 2004 VooDoo Music Fest in New Orleans
From left to right: Steve, Harris, me, Jay, Todd.

Oct. 30, 2004:  Played guitar for New Orleans rap/rock band Ghost on one of the main stages at VooDoo Music Festival in New Orleans. My one regret of this weekend was not realizing the Killers were playing and I missed seeing them, although, perhaps I didn’t even know who they were back then. We, Ghost, played quite a few gigs in New Orleans at clubs such as Tipitina’s, Jimmy’s, Southport Music Hall and the Howling Wolf (before it was the Republic on the river side of the street). The best result of being in this band was meeting bassist, Jay Schneider, and we’ve been close friends since. There were four rappers in this band: Steve Sherman (who was the vocalist for my former band, Leon’s Rocket Car), Floyd Pitcher, Harris Zeringue, Todd Weigel, and Darren (drums).

I customized my neck-through Jackson Soloist with a handmade cast-iron plate to fit inside the floyd rose cavity and drilled holes to pull the strings through the back of the guitar over a tuneomatic bridge. I was always OCD regarding intonation, and considering I hadn’t used a tremolo since maybe 1992, my one thought was “if I break a string, this guitar will be completely out of tune” if I didn’t get rid of that tremolo. I no longer own this guitar or any of my older guitars or amps. It seems that material things aren’t very sentimental to me these days.

Oct. 2, 2004:  Ghost plays Tipitina’s in New Orleans.

Ghost playing Sex Is A Game live at Tipitina’s.

Ghost: Sex Is A Game

2004: Michael Leach, formerly of Dead Orphan, worked with me to recreate one of my songs below, Sex Is A Game. Michael is a good singer and can play any instrument, but his computer completely crashed before vocals could be put on this revamped track that he labeled, Sex Is A Weapon. You can reach Michael here.

Sex Is A Weapon

Mid-1997 to Mid-2004: I played more gigs before moving to New Orleans in 1997 than I’ve played since. I met Kevin Herring, a bassist, in 1998 and we tried to recruit drummers and singers to form a rock band. New Orleans is known as the Big Easy, but it is also the Big Lazy, as people always find a reason to un-commit themselves from projects, rehearsals, or anything in general, because there is always something else they could do, instead. 

Finally, Kevin and I found a dependable drummer from Memphis, Shawn Young, who had moved to New Orleans for a job. Now to find a vocalist who would show up. Memories are fading, but I remember this guy Rob who had been kicked out of the army who could scream, but I’m rather sure he was doing lots of drugs. I do recall this one cool lyrical thing he did for one of my songs, but it wasn’t enough to keep the drama around. Either Kevin or Shawn next found Steve Sherman, a short white rapper, and I was like “oh no.” I was getting out of my metal days, but wasn’t quite ready to dive into hip-hop or rap. But strangely enough, it worked well enough for us to start playing some shows in places like Rock n Bock, Zeppelin’s, and at least a couple of other venues. Shawn named the band, “Leon’s Rocket Car,” after my middle name and his love for classic hotrods. 

Kevin moved to Houston shortly thereafter and Shawn moved back to Memphis. It’s all a blur but I ended up with Paul McDonald on drums, and various bassists. I’d written a bunch of songs between Leon’s Rocket Car, and this band, Led Clampett (or God Complex, as a later singer wanted to change the name). But because of the revolving door of singers and bassists, Paul wanted to quit, and I didn’t blame him. Before he put his drums in the attic, I payed for us to go to a local studio so that I could record his drums and save the songs. I spent a year editing, mixing, recording guitars, and bass parts. Additionally, Kevin recorded bass tracks online from Houston, and bassist Jason Keller who was in the band, Alibi, with me back in 1988, recorded several bass tracks.

The songs turned out well enough, but 15 years later, they are dated, for certain.  Below are links to all of the tracks without vocals. A couple of singers have sang on a few of them, but I need to go through them and see if any represent what I originally wanted, and if so, I’ll post links to those as well.

That’s the end of my 2003-2004 recording project. Sadly, I never found a singer. I recorded a heavy version of “In America” by Charlie Daniels for ex-Pain singer, Cedric Crain, who wanted to sing on it and use it as his semi-pro wrestling theme song when he entered the ring. I’ll post his version elsewhere on this page.

Late 1995 to Early 1997:  I lived in Austin, TX for 16+ months and never ended up in a band that worked out. I never played one gig in Austin. But in comparison, I was the only customer when I walked into Babe’s on 6th Street one night and legendary 1970s rock band, Mountain, was on stage and no one was there. Was an incredible night, but kind of sad…

Sep. 1993 to May 1995:  PAIN dominated the rock ‘n’ roll clubs of Monroe, Louisiana from late 1993 until mid 1995. Fronted by vocalist, rapper and fight-club master, Cedric Crain, PAIN was a rock band in stark contrast to every other local band’s act. Craig Morris and Beaux Ishee provided the insane and original grooves and Terry Brewster gave the heavy rock riffs to the songs that “sold-out” the local clubs (packing them way past fire-code capacity). Althought short-lived, PAIN gave their fans many songs and shows and nights to remember. Although PAIN always wanted more, in the end it was all about fun and rock ‘n’ roll and PAIN did that better than any other local band ever could.

PAIN was formed in September 1993 by Craig Morris (drums), Brian Mills (bass), Jody Winn (guitar) and Cedric Crain (vocals). PAIN was a cover band that played heavy rock songs by bands such as Pantera and Nine Inch Nails. After playing only one gig and with a second one scheduled, Jody decided to move to Florida.   Craig called me on a Monday to learn 45 songs for the show that Friday, which was another packed Tomkat Klub performance. Afterwards, Brian decided to join another local band who was on the outs with their bassist, Beaux Ishee. 

So PAIN and the other band basically traded bassists and although Brian was a good bassist, Beaux had Brian beat on rhythm, grooves, presence and in sheer raw talent. This final lineup (Cedric, Craig, Beaux and Terry) was together by mid-October and six weeks later we had written 4 original songs and recorded a live CD at our New Year’s Eve Tomkat Klub show.  Near the end, PAIN had over 12 original songs, sold out most of their shows, and was the only local rock band to personally rent a city park in Monroe and host a fest of over 2,000 fans. (“Sunday in the Park” at Chenault Park.)

Video of “(I Feel Your) PAIN” at the TomKat Klub.

The four songs below comprised our PAIN Live CD:
(I Feel Your) PAIN
Bad Dreams
Mosh Pit Girl
For Me

The next 8 PAIN tunes were recorded live
thru the board @ either Enoch’s or Cooter Bay
in Monroe, thus the audio quality.

You’re No Good @ Enoch’s
Die And Start Over @ Enoch’s
World of Hurt @ Cooter Bay
All I Want @ Cooter Bay
Hate @ Enoch’s
Real @ Cooter Bay
Swallow @ Enoch’s
Point of View @ Enoch’s

1992-1994: Taught guitar lessons at Ziegler Music in Monroe, LA.

@ Ziegler’s with a custom shop Jackson Dinky $600 pawn shop find

1992: Rehearsals with Scott Hamilton, Danny Shelton, Jeff Neighbors – post Miriah. This was just one of those bands that wasn’t meant to work out for me. Super talented guys, though!

1992: Annie Beach: From left: Clark Hickingbottom, Mark Deville, Nikki Music, and myself at a Battle of the Bands / Car Show in Monroe, LA.  Clark was a last minute replacement for TJ Roy just a few days before the show.  There’s a somewhat funny but not exactly mature story regarding the band name. I sort of blame myself. But I also blame Mark. 🙂  I’ll save it for the book.

Annie Beach (yes, that is a Metaltronix amp)

1991: Wrote and recorded songs with Jonas Hotard, a talented singer with a unique voice, for certain. You can hear some of his newer music here. Below is a cassette 4-track ballad I did with Jonas back then. I actually wrote the lyrics, which is odd, because I usually leave the lyrical content to my singers. Quite a reflective song for a 20-year old. This is making me want to buy an older cassette 4-track and remix all of these old songs at higher quality. *Super low quality… hoping to update soon.

Your Love
Back: Lane, Eddie, Cedric
Front: Tony, Terry

May 1989-1991: Nick Speed.  Tony Ditta told me recently that we first met when he had a band named, Bon Aire. My memory is vague on that. Regardless, after my first year of college at LSU, I returned home to Monroe and over the summer somehow tried out for Tony (guitar), Lane Clark (bass), Cedric Crain (drums, who later sang for PAIN) and Eddie Pearce (vocals, who previously sang for Anyone’s Daughter).

Shreveport: 1⁄2 Rock Bar, 1⁄2 Strip Club. 100% fun!

Once we got the wheels rolling, this band gigged. A lot. Houston, Dallas, Shreveport, Alexandria, Monroe, Ruston, Jackson, Biloxi and I’m positive I’m leaving out a lot of other cities. The first show we played as Nick Speed was at the Cartoon Lounge, a club I would sneak into when I was 15 or 16 to see bands like Kamikaze, with the younger sister of the band’s singer whose husband was getting yelled at by the sound man to turn down his Ampeg SVT and he’d shout back that he wasn’t even mic’d. A polar scenario happened during my first gig with Nick Speed where the sound man was telling me to turn up my solid state Crate 2×12 combo because he couldn’t hear me over Tony’s Marshall half-stack. My only thought then was that this never occurred when I was in Alibi, my previous band.  The next day, I purchased a Metaltronix tube amp.

Nick Speed at the Cartoon Lounge in Monroe.

Shirtless with white pants? I got a little cocky in this band. I recall grabbing beer bottles off strange girl’s tables in the front for slide solos to songs like Rocket Queen by Guns N’ Roses and sometimes drinking from them before giving them back or occasionally smashing them on the wall. No one seemed to care. Crazy days. 

Cedric sang & Eddie drummed on Son Of A Bitch by Nazareth

This was my first band to write songs with others, and I believe it took longer to finalize any parts or songs because there were so many of us in the band. We had about eight or nine songs written when we recorded the six song Nick Speed “Get Some” cassette. The only original song I recall that wasn’t on the cassette was a rather simple blues song called “Legs” where Eddie would sing, “You’ve got your legs wrapped around me.”  Back in those days, the singer yelling “get some” or “suck it” while grabbing his crotch was just part of the show, I guess, and no one seemed to walk away, but I grew tired of things like that and a few other things I won’t mention here, and I quit the band shortly after our recording was finished, before the cassettes arrived.

4-nighter at the Crazy Horse in Biloxi

Every band is a learning experience. It is fun packing clubs, but I’ll be honest, it is easy to be a big fish in a small pond like Monroe. I made more money playing gigs between the ages of 19 and 24 than I have since. The world has changed and no one supports bands. They can view everything on their cell phones. It’s a bit sad, to say the least.  Eddie wrote the lyrics for all of the songs except for “C# (I’ll carry on).”  I wrote those lyrics.  Tony wrote the basic ideas for “Nothin’ To Show,” the band wrote “12:30” together as I hit an open A chord at rehearsal and my strap fell off and I caught my guitar right before it hit the ground, accidentally hitting the C and pulling off causing the harmonics, and everyone yelled, “YES!!” –  LOL.  I wrote the initial versions for the other four songs, until everyone wrote their individual parts.

“Nick Speed: Get Some” cassette wrap. Photo was taken opening for Dark August.
“Nick Speed: Get Some” inside wrap.

Tim McCullar, guitarist for Lollypop Guild, replaced me after I left.  In hindsight, I should have stuck around. That type of music was fading away, but the fun and absurdity of it most likely outweighed not being a part of it. 

I created the Nick Speed logo and Cedric wisely had the black banners made to display on both sides of the stage near the beginning. Eddie drew out the “Get Some” handwriting on the cassette.

This band really was a total team effort. Lane and Cedric dealt with the booking agents, Tony provided the practice space when I did not, and he was usually the mediator when problems arose. Cedric’s van drove us to gigs throughout the south, and Eddie and Cedric knew how to get people to the shows before cell phones and social media even existed. If I did anything non-musical, it was trying to keep them from getting too out of control.

Nothin’ To Show
Forever
C# (I’ll Carry On)
Love Is Lost
12:30
Goodbye
Jason, John, Richard, Terry, and Ray (front).

Oct. 1988 to Mar. 1989: 
I joined Alibi after beginning my first semester at LSU in the fall of 1988.  I was probably nowhere near talented enough to play with these guys, but I was rhythm guitar and keyboards and driven to get better. One way to cure your stage fright is to have all of the power to your gear go out on the very first note of the first song of your first gig at a club. Which is what happened to me with Alibi. My keyboards were plugged into the same circuit as the lights, which pulled any power my keyboards were trying to draw. Took a song or two for us to straighten this out. That night was all it took for me to understand that everything can always go wrong, so to prepare and be ready for it. I never had stage fright again after that show. Jason Keller (bass), John Vaughn (vocals), Richard Kendrick (guitar), and Ray Beaulier (drums).

We played 1980’s rock music, but because i played keyboards, we could throw in Journey, Bon-Jovi, and similar songs that other bands couldn’t do. But there was quite a lot of talent in Baton Rouge back then and many musicians ended up playing for very large acts later on. Richard’s music career is ridiculous as he was the guitarist for Mudbone, Straitjacket Smile, Dark August, Lillian Axe, Near Life Experience, among others. Both Richard and Jason also have played with and worked with some of the biggest rock musicians of the day, recording and producing and etc. These guys are two of the most incredible musicians you could ever hope to work with, and they had zero attitude and were nice enough to let me tag along and learn while we rocked Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas.

More updates to come…

xoxo