In the spirit of this week, I’m going to dedicate this blog to giving thanks to people who have mattered to me personally as it relates to music. I did a whole blog post on the women who encouraged me (and discouraged me in a way that was motivating), so I won’t be repeating those ladies here.

Starting from the beginning and proceeding in generally chronological order…these are the people for whom I am thankful.

The first person who showed any interest in my musical curiosities was my mother. She rented me a clarinet in fourth grade so I could be in band. She rented me another one in fifth grade and I quit because the teacher was mean. Then she used birthday money for all four of us to purchase a cornet so I could try that. And I quit because the teacher was mean (it was the same jerk – not sure why I thought a change in instrument would make a difference). Then in seventh grade, we moved to New Jersey, I met an awesome kid who lived diagonally across a couple of streets from me who was a MAJOR influence. We’ll get to him in a minute. My mom and dad bought me the same Casio MT-100 keyboard my new friend had for Christmas in 1986. It was the best day ever. I had an INSTRUMENT. I could make sounds and figure out songs. It had rhythms in it. It was so much fun! A few years after that, we made a deal that if I made Honor Roll I could get a nicer keyboard with full-size keys. For Christmas of 1988, she also got a guitar for my brother Bobby, and let me help pick it out and get it all set up. I even got to go to the music store and help pick out an amp. I kind of stole it from him later. I feel bad about it, but we’ll get into how much I love Bobby (he became Rob when he got to about 6th or 7th grade) a little later.

So moving on to the second important person – Steve Parise. He was my friend when I was 8 and 9 when I lived in San Dimas, California, home of tasty waterslides – I hear the high school football rules, too. But back to the story. Steve’s family was very musical. I may be misremembering some of this, so I will update if I’m wrong, but his mom and dad ran some sort of percussion ensemble, so Steve was way into music. We were in band together (he played Alto Saxophone), and he eventually went on to become a most excellent drummer. But that was after I moved away. Steve liked a lot of music I couldn’t really “get” at the time, but we both bonded for our love of pop radio (KIIS-FM – which you can sometimes hear my voice on, today, thanks to the day job), and rock. He was the only kid I knew that was as obsessed with KISS and AC/DC as he was with Michael Jackson and The Go-Go’s. I thought that was an incredible way to be, so I guess you can credit Steve for nudging me into being a Musical Schizo. Because it was all cool. Thanks, Steve. The big ears I have for music might not be quite as big as they are without you.

Sliding back to my mom for a second, since we’re on the “big ears” topic, I have to thank her for buying music for me when I was little. She definitely didn’t have to get some of the things she got, but I loved it so much. I remember the two K-Tel albums I had back then, “Night Flight” and “The Hit List” which had a lot of popular songs of 1980-1982 on them, and I ate them all up, because when you’re 8 years old, you don’t really think about what people might think about what you love. And Men At Work’s “Business As Usual” – that rarely left the turntable. I still have that one saved to my phone on Spotify. It’s a masterpiece, in my opinion. And I would be remiss to not mention my Dad’s support over the years – he always put up with our racket, most likely in hopes that we’d write “that hit song”, but though that never materialized, his ambition for me definitely stuck in the back of my mind. And I definitely have to be thankful for my parents’ record collection. I stole everything, and it was wonderful. Let’s get back on track, though…

When I lived in Fremont, California, one of my best friends was Greg Gardner. Greg is notable in my life for being the first kid I knew that had a guitar. And he was taking lessons. Which was crazy. I remember his guitar was a black Ibanez – I’d later learn that it was a Stratocaster-style guitar. I thought it was SO COOL. I used to share any sort of crazy guitar things I heard with him, and I remember one occasion where I loaned him my dad’s Chicago Transit Authority record so he could take it to his guitar teacher because we were freaking out about the song “Free Form Guitar”. His teacher thought it was cool. I felt like a hero. Greg never really stuck with music, but having the guitar around when I’d be over at his house was sort of big for me. It definitely made me interested in playing. That would be later…

Next I’d have to give thanks for my friend from when I lived in New Jersey, Ty Phillips (he’s the one from diagonally across the streets). Ty was a tall kid from a nice and very creative family. His mom is a relatively famous author (though she only had one or two books out when we were little). His dad played guitar and liked rock and blues stuff (though I admit I don’t think I ever saw him actually play in front of us). Ty and I bonded over just about everything. We both loved music (he was studying trumpet), comedy, cars, BMX freestyle, and skateboards. We both had little brothers. He was smart and sensitive, like me. We used to write little jingles and stuff, and do “radio shows” which usually involved busting out his Casio MT-100 at some point to make silly music. He was way more advanced in his understanding of music than I was, but it was so inspiring. I desperately wanted to understand it the way he did – which was kind of funny because he was basically just starting, too. He was around until the summer after 8th grade, and is still the only friend in my childhood who actually moved away from me. I was always the one leaving after a few years. He made me want to be a musician. After that, it wasn’t “if” I had a band, it was WHEN.

After Ty moved to the Chicago area in the summer of 1987, I was kind of desperate for someone to connect with about music stuff. Not terribly long after that, I met the Murphy brothers, Dan and Mike, who were a few years younger than me. Their mom actually hired me to watch them during the summer of 1988 when she had to work. It was fun mostly because I got paid to hang out with a couple of great kids. Dan was a drummer. Dan’s friend was this boastful and annoying child named Scott Dickscheid who was an aspiring guitarist, and desperately wanted a “Jade Green Ibanez”. Scott’s very attractive and nice sister Stacie was in my grade at school – we had biology class together. But that isn’t necessarily something I’m thankful for, though I do recall biking past their house with my cousin and seeing her laying out by their pool getting a tan. She was kind of a star at our school – always in the theatre productions, and later ended up being a professional actress and agent. But now we’re on another tangent because of a kid that used to annoy the shit out of me and his hot sister. I should also mention that Stacie and Scott’s older brother Chris was a pretty excellent drummer (or so I thought – what did I know at the time?). I think the thing with Scott is that I was mostly just jealous that he was closer friends with Dan and Mike. I was kind of just the babysitter and kind of pathetic hanging out with middle schoolers when I was in high school. It was a weird relationship and I was in a very awkward, desperate, and sad time in my life. Anyway, back to the POINT of mentioning Dan. Dan’s drums were set up at the house, and he would let me play them sometimes. I LOVED it. I’m sure I was terrible, but having that experience with drums helped me understand how drum parts go together and the basics of playing the drum kit. So I’m thankful for that. We also listened to a ton of music and watched MTV a lot. Dan was the first person who tried to turn me on to Rush. I didn’t get it. Three years later I did, and they’re still probably my favorite band of all time. But hey, timing. That was the last blog. Thanks to Dan! (and sorry to Stacie if she reads this and is embarrassed by it).

Now, one of the most important people in my musical development – someone who probably has no idea how important his presence was to my advancement as a musician or my continuing love for it: My brother Rob. Now, I’m sure he thinks it’s just the whole “stealing the guitar” thing, and later the “stealing the bass” thing, and yes, those two things definitely were part of me becoming the musician I am today. BUT it’s important to note that I wasn’t trying to steal anything. I just got obsessed and didn’t care enough about how it made him feel. I wasn’t always the best big brother, unfortunately. Rob getting that Sears Telecaster copy that looked like Prince’s Hohner guitar and a Gorilla combo amp for Christmas was a major event for me. I just wanted to play it. All the time. I even convinced him to keep it in my room, since he was sharing a room with his twin. Eventually, he sort of lost interest and I just kept on with it. I traded him a semi-rare baseball hat for it once we moved to Bakersfield, which was sort of a shit deal for him, but he really wasn’t using it. As he tells the story, I forced him to trade me. He’s probably right. I think I’ve blocked out a lot of my shitty behavior when it comes to my brothers. After I went away to college, Rob decided he wanted to play bass, so I helped him acquire his first bass – an Arbor Precision Bass copy, white with a black pickguard.

Here’s a picture of me playing it in 1992:

He loved it and started playing like a fiend. After a move to Pennsylvania, we eventually played music together, and this bass was the bass that launched my bass-playing career when I rented it from him to play with the illustrious “Magic Garden” for a few months in early 1993.

But back to Rob himself. We always had a very close bond – my Mom assigned each of her older boys one twin, and Patrick got William, and I got Robert. He was “my baby”. But that responsibility also meant I was pretty hard on him sometimes. I loved when he started playing and we got to play together, even if I corrected him a lot. It just brought me immense joy. I don’t tell him that enough, I don’t think. Hopefully he will read this. He was also kind enough to let me sing for one of his high school bands, and we had a band together called Porque (pronounced “pork”). Later we formed our jam/swap instruments band, Jivetown Jimmy and The Knights of The Purple Cadillac, and we traded off on drums and bass. His twin William played guitar along with our brother-from-another-mother Caleb. We’ll cover those guys a little later. I don’t know how much more I could say about how important it was to have Rob be into playing and have him play with me, but it was huge and I am very thankful.

One of my best friends in my Bakersfield years was David Decker. He was an odd and interesting kid that almost no one at my Catholic high school seemed to understand. My little group of friends did, though, and he was kind enough to let us in to his crazy little world. We bonded over guitar, and frequently would jam together when we’d stay over at each other’s houses. We’d sit near each other in the multiple classes we shared, and it was non-stop guitar talk. I don’t think I would have even thought about the pentatonic or blues scales had it not been for him laying them out on paper and showing me. And I always felt like I could learn anything when being encouraged by my friend. As she grew up, she realized that her biological gender didn’t match what she felt, so she transitioned. Please ignore all the “he/him” pronouns I just used – they’re more a matter of how I’d describe them at the time than anything. David Decker is now Tammy Lynde, and she is an awesome person that I am very thankful to have had as a friend for so many years.

I’m also thankful for Jason Gerena for being another guitar buddy in my senior year of high school. We bonded over Stevie Ray Vaughan and Nuno Bettencourt.

I am also thankful for my brother William (aka “Billy”, among other things). He started late (a few years into living in PA), but he had a personality on the guitar from the start, and that always impressed me and encouraged me to have my own voice and focus on what made me special. We had fun in the JTJKPC days, and he still plays some when he drags out the guitars – he has a bunch of kids and his youngest, Samuel, LOVES music. I think if we lived closer we’d play together a lot more. I’d definitely be trying to teach Sam everything I know so he could get an early start.

I am also thankful for my friend Domonic Woodring – who was part of Porque and is still my pal to this day, always up for a chat about some 80s debauchery and good old rock and roll.

I am thankful for my brother-from-another-mother Caleb P. Rose. His enthusiasm for playing has always been an inspiration to me. Watching him grow as a musician and a tone snob has been fun, and I’ve always been motivated to do more when I see him doing musical stuff. I really wish we lived closer to one another so we could play some music together on a regular basis. I think it’d be fun.

It’d be silly to mention Caleb without mentioning the amazing gentleman Caleb introduced to me – Ryan Kennemur. Singer-songwriter, guitarist, leader of the excellent band “Dragmatic”…and all-around wonderful human. He’s another person I need to live closer to so we can do music stuff. I’m thankful for you.

I am also thankful for all my musical compatriots while in college – my freshman-year roommate Lote Thistlethwaite, dorm-mates Scott Reiter, Gary Vetter, Marco, and Doug Weinberg. Shippensburg buddies Joel Niemann, Mike Leib, Jason Jones, Bill Brown, Mike Circo, Merle Stepler, John Nelson, Josey Bjurström, Jason Hurst, and Ai Blakeslee.

I am very thankful for my former bandmates in Slaphappy – Jon Kretzer, Dennis Miller, Mike Craig, Rob Kisfalusi, and Brent Perry, for being there as I discovered myself as a performer, singer, and bassist. I wouldn’t be where I am without you. And thanks for all the fun times in the non-musical parts. I love you gahz…

I am thankful for the people in the Dial-9 family – Chris Condon, John Palmer, Ron Rodriguez, Chris Burks, Bryan Smith, Larry Schroeder, and TJ Overman. Fun times but way too brief.

Of course I am also thankful for my bandmate pals from other Jacksonville-era projects – Tim Farren, Doug Scott, Joe Fortunato, Jim O’Callaghan, Chris Booras, Nate Dickinson, Mark Frank, Chris Ashton, Steve Snelgrove, Matt Connell, and Emerson Merriewether.

I am eternally thankful for my Roman Holiday pals, especially Ned Cullen and Lee Thompson, but also Rob Wade, Greg Gonyea, Mike Jaramillo, Casey Lewis, and Patrick Burns.

I am very thankful for my other Austin music friends, especially Mandy Prater, Paul Betts, Robin Mordecai, Shawn Abrams (he’s back in Jax now, though weirdly I didn’t know him there), Ed Webb, Bobby Jamerson, David Houston, Heath Allyn, Marc Swearengin, Stuart Bailey, and way too many more to mention individually…

Penultimately, I’m thankful for my brothers in Chandler and The Bings, Patrick Soler, Alon Bernstein, and Jason Smith. You guys are awesome and I can’t wait until we’re able to get out there and start making people sing and dance again.

Lastly, I am thankful for you, for reading my words. I hope you stay safe and healthy this holiday and through next year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

TMS