I had been doing the Gram Parsons Birthday Hoot, as part of the “House” band for sevaral years. It is held at Threadgills, held every year on, or near, Grams Birthday. I had also been doing Will Taylor’s “House of Wills” tribute to Willie nElson and Bob Wills.
I got the thought that I should do my own “Tribute” show. Well, the first famous band I ever met was Badfinger. I loved that band and they were the kindest people. The leader of that band, Pete Ham had listened to me play the first song I ever wrote and he said “Don’t ever stop writing and don’t ever stop playing”. Sadly, he committed suicide afew years later.
I thought THAT is that band I will do. No one in Austin had ever done their music in a “Tribute” show. I have been an Austin musician long enough to have peer credibility, so, I started calling around. I though about who I knew and how they sounded, what they played etc..
My first call was Jeff Tveraas, a multi talented pal, who is also a Badfinger freak. He would sing and play lead guitar, note for note…just like the record.
I wanted strong singers, who were also great players.
I have worked with LeeAnn Atherton in many musical adventures. We would play songwriters “In The Round” shows together. I called her for background vocals on a session for my Country band, Stop The Truck, and she did 11 songs in one afternoon. She would listen to the song, once, and then say “Just got to the next part”..bang…bang…bang, just like that. Her amazing talent is that she will sound like the singer that she is harmonizing with. I asked her to play rhythm guitar and sing, lead, as well as, background parts.
I also know another amazing musician/singer named Juliann Banks. She plays great bass or guitar and sings beautifully.
My “dream” drummer is Rich White. He played with Stop The Truck for a while and has been a friend for years.
I asked the man behind the Gram Parsons band, Patterson Barrett to play keyboards and sing. I used to pay to watch him with The Austin All Stars, every Monday night, at Steamboat on 6th street, when I first moved to Austin. He, like Jeff, can play many instruments, well, and he is a great producer,
Speaking of Producers, I asked my best friend, Courtney Audain, to play percussion, some keyboards and a little bass, so Juliann could front the band when she sang lead. His shared vocal, with Leeann”, on “Maybe Tomorrow” is may favorite song of the night. Tesslyn Green is the angel voice on the left.
It turned out that one of my dearest friends, Tesslyn Green (some Austin people knew her as Lin Parafin, back in the day) was coming to town. She has a beautiful high voice that cuts through, clear as a bell, in a vocal mix. I asked her to learnt the songs and join us…and she did! She also came to town for the second show we did months later. Linny!
When I told my best friend, Jamie Zemarel, we are doing the show he said “I’m coming down!”. Now, Jamie, was my best friend but he was also my idol as a teen. He had a a band that played summers in Ocean City, Maryland. Gaawd, I was jealous of him. He has done music and theater his whole life, We grew up singing harmony to Badfinger songs. Jamie said “You can give me something to sing or I’m just gonna sit in the front row and sing LOUD!”. Of course, we gave him a song to sing but he also supported the harmonies on every song. He and Lin were the butter on the bread that night. You can hear Lin up in the rafters…love it!
My old reggae sound man, Mark “Dino” Eastwood mixed the show and he might have even added back ground vocals from the board.
It was a stellar show. In the audience were friends that I hadn’t seen in years, Rush Evans, Jim (J.D.) Dixon and even my sister, Margaret left the house for that show! I could not be prouder of the musicians who made this dream come true for me. Thank you.
At the end,we got asked to do an encore. We had run out of songs so I played “Walk in the Rain” from The Magic Christian soundtrack. I always loved the song and it seemed like a nice way to sing off, very intimate.
I, often, am asked to do this show again…..maybe we will……
My Entertaining Life-Steve Carter 