I often get asked how the band started or more specifically, “how’d you guys meet.” Well….. (cue dreamy time sequence. Imagine me wearing cloths very similar to the cloths I wear now though I’m probably not wearing a tie-dye.)
Before graduating college, circa 1984, I was offered a job by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Nashua, NH. I was definitely in the wave of computer science majors of that time, although getting a job in 1984 wasn’t quite the slam-dunk it had been just the year before.
Once I settled into the work thing (okay – I never really settled into the office thing) I started looking around for music stores. The one I landed in was Belisle Music in Manchester, NH. I asked if they gave guitar lessons and promptly had a lesson scheduled with “John.” The lesson came and I showed up at a small room in the basement of the store. On the wall was an odd, reverse image poster of Jerry Garcia. I had the same poster on my college dorm wall. I said I was looking for John. John said “I’m John.”
You might be able to fill in the blanks from there. The quick of it is we hit it off, figured out that we both attended Potsdam College in Potsdam, NY (read… ridiculously out of the way place) and both had an affinity for the same kind of music. The lessons progressed, a friendship ensued and at some point I asked if he and his rock band, Lichen, would record some songs with me, as my Band, that I had written. John agreed wholeheartedly and at some point we piled into my VW GTI Rabbit (R*E*D – hello troopers… another post) and looked around for a recording studio to record in. After visiting several studios, one of which featured the recording machine Michael Jackson used on Thriller, we decided to go with Soundlab in Milford, NH, one of whose engineers was, now BR&F bassist, Arnie Ashford. The studio was in an old barn and had a nice warm feel to it.
Not MY GTI but that’s what it looked like!
I practiced two songs with John and Lichen. John said “just play like you normally would” and they would work off of that.
I always thought these recordings came out great. Unfortunately with the master tapes gone, the analog cassette to digital is all that remains. I still think it sounds pretty darn good!
An artifact.
I’ll post both songs though I figure posting one at a time is probably a good idea. The first song is called Smiling Moon. I wrote it probably around 1982 while working for IBM as a college co-op in Kingston, NY. I lived on an old pig-farm. The pigs were gone but there were quite a few rabbits hopping around. I’d take walks on the windy road leaving from the end of the driveway. The highlight of the walk was to be very, very quiet near a certain bend where a very loud and unstable German Shepard lived. The other highlight was a great view of the moon at certain times of the month. Smiling Moon is a time capsule of how I was feeling at that time and of the great work John and Lichen did with the song. John just shreds the solo on a borrowed Strat.
I’m thinking we did this around 1987/1988 but I could be off by a few years.
Note: John and Lichen are still playing regularly and sounding better than ever. Check them out!
Playing on the tune:
Bill McLaughlin - drums
Charlie Windhausen - bass guitar
Ben Rudnick - acoustic guitar, vocal
Diane Zevos - keyboard
John Zevos - electric guitar, backup vocal
Recording and mastering was done by Arnie Ashford.
Smiling Moon by Ben Rudnick and Friends
