Editor's Note: We are interspersing some of the previous 150 or so blog entries with current material. Here is a "rerun" of our post introducing Don.
Several years ago, Becky, Darby, and I attended the Bark Festival at Squaw Valley -- 2 days of wine tasting, music, and dog-related paraphernalia. It was a fund raiser for the Tahoe-Truckee SPCA. But the dogs and people in attendance generally did not want for much. The vendors offered a wide-array of products. Jewelry. Organic and natural foods. Animal artwork. Everything for a pampered pooch and pampering “dog parents.”
There, as we were heading into the parking lot, I noticed a couple. The guy was wearing a Pyronauts tee shirt. I went, “Whoa!” And showed him my Pyronauts hoodie. At the time, that hoodie was a one-of-a-kind as I had taken a hoodie to the silk screener on the day that he was running the tees.
We introduced ourselves. They were Don and Lori. They too had a pampered pooch and were fans of the Pyronauts and friends of Paul. Don was learning surf guitar from Paul. We spoke about Paul’s contagious enthusiasm for surf music and his guitar prowess.
After that and over a couple of years, Don and I saw each other at the Pyronauts’ gigs. We rode in the Pyro-Van to see the Insect Surfers on a “Surf Sunday” at the Utah Hotel in San Francisco. We spent an afternoon with Paul Johnson and Gil Orr listening to them spin stories of surf music and tell us about how they wrote some of their famous songs. Along with Paul, we jammed a couple of times. Don certainly was further along the musician continuum than I.
But I only knew Don as “Don.” He had no last name or nickname to me. I also knew that he was an electronics whiz. Somewhere along the line, I inferred from something Paul said that Don built his own tube-driven spring reverb unit.
A separate tube-driven spring reverb unit is the gold standard for playing surf music. True affectionatos say that no pedal or onboard reverb can duplicate the sound of a separate reverb unit. I have three reverb pedals and am not satisfied with the sound that I get. Maybe someday, I will own the gold standard. Don, however, had built his own.
We had 8 original songs. The bucket list entry. Two guitarists. A drummer. We needed a bass player if we were to record. “Bass player?” became a recurring question.
In November 2010, as Paul and I were trying to schedule out recording -- and rehearsals? -- he emailed me the answer to our recurring question. “Don will play bass.” “I didn’t know Don played bass.” “He doesn’t really but he will learn for this.”
Let's see. Don knows and loves surf music. Paul recommends him.
My response to Paul was, “Great!" Wow, we have a band.
Several years ago, Becky, Darby, and I attended the Bark Festival at Squaw Valley -- 2 days of wine tasting, music, and dog-related paraphernalia. It was a fund raiser for the Tahoe-Truckee SPCA. But the dogs and people in attendance generally did not want for much. The vendors offered a wide-array of products. Jewelry. Organic and natural foods. Animal artwork. Everything for a pampered pooch and pampering “dog parents.”There, as we were heading into the parking lot, I noticed a couple. The guy was wearing a Pyronauts tee shirt. I went, “Whoa!” And showed him my Pyronauts hoodie. At the time, that hoodie was a one-of-a-kind as I had taken a hoodie to the silk screener on the day that he was running the tees.
We introduced ourselves. They were Don and Lori. They too had a pampered pooch and were fans of the Pyronauts and friends of Paul. Don was learning surf guitar from Paul. We spoke about Paul’s contagious enthusiasm for surf music and his guitar prowess.
After that and over a couple of years, Don and I saw each other at the Pyronauts’ gigs. We rode in the Pyro-Van to see the Insect Surfers on a “Surf Sunday” at the Utah Hotel in San Francisco. We spent an afternoon with Paul Johnson and Gil Orr listening to them spin stories of surf music and tell us about how they wrote some of their famous songs. Along with Paul, we jammed a couple of times. Don certainly was further along the musician continuum than I.
But I only knew Don as “Don.” He had no last name or nickname to me. I also knew that he was an electronics whiz. Somewhere along the line, I inferred from something Paul said that Don built his own tube-driven spring reverb unit.
A separate tube-driven spring reverb unit is the gold standard for playing surf music. True affectionatos say that no pedal or onboard reverb can duplicate the sound of a separate reverb unit. I have three reverb pedals and am not satisfied with the sound that I get. Maybe someday, I will own the gold standard. Don, however, had built his own.
We had 8 original songs. The bucket list entry. Two guitarists. A drummer. We needed a bass player if we were to record. “Bass player?” became a recurring question.
In November 2010, as Paul and I were trying to schedule out recording -- and rehearsals? -- he emailed me the answer to our recurring question. “Don will play bass.” “I didn’t know Don played bass.” “He doesn’t really but he will learn for this.”
Let's see. Don knows and loves surf music. Paul recommends him.
My response to Paul was, “Great!" Wow, we have a band.