While i was living in Norway in a lovely little town called Frederikstad about three years back, I had the great pleasure of meeting up with some very cool guys who have a great Rock, N, Roll band called " The Walking Tree,s " This is the Story of how i met them and how i discovered my now all time favorite band BrianJonesTownMassacre !
It all began with me being kicked out of my then girlfriend,s house ,as she could not stand that i spend so much time bashing away on my electric guitar, clearly listening to my pentatonic scale practice hour after hour had finally taken its toll .
So to cut that particular long story short , I found myself forced to live in the back of my estate car. Every budding guitarist.s should I think own a half decent, but spacious estate car , as this is not only tremendously useful when moving amps , guitars and friends , but in the said situation, it can be seen as most definitely a life saver, as Norwegian hotels were to my total horror, absolutely expensive !Luckily the Norwegian winter was still a few months away so no risk yet, of being discovered dead in my car by some unsuspecting old lady ,out walking her dog , finding me frozen stiff by the icy westerly wind of a Norwegian winter.
I had taken to driving in the evenings to sleep on wonderful place I had found in my explorations just across the river from the city center. Where the owners of beautiful traditional wooden boats kept their lovingly restored " pride and joy " safely tied up on wooden pontoons which followed down the banks of the river. It was so peaceful there and the water and smell of fresh varnish made me feel at home and somehow closer to my floating home tied in the Canarian port of La Gomera, seemingly so far away now .
So for a good week this strange way of living for me continued as i desperately needed to sell this car which I had bought for a small fortune just six months before to enable me to work. As there was no way I was driving it from here to my favorite haunt La Gomera by road some 4000 miles, where indeed I had no need of a it as the island is small and I walk just about everywhere on foot or take mt bicycle for longer distances.
So while desperately waiting on this call from a willing buyer with cash for me, I spent my time driving around this little known town to me, aimlessly looking for fun and cool people to talk with .
It was on a beautifully sunny but snappy morning while i was partaking in my usual " tit cafe du matin " that I got talking to these cool looking guys on a table next to me .The conversation really took off and they told me of their band and their love of Psychedelic rock, which just happens to be to my taste too. I told them that I had just started playing guitar and how I loved it to the point of being a hobo living in the back of his car . They all laughed seeing the comical side of what had happened to me.
Then, and too my total surprise one of the guys, Emil said to me with a smile, " hey man, we are practicing tonight in our local, you wanna stop by and maybe play a bit ?!!?? I was like What !!! ?? Really!!? Me !!!? the 50 year old wanna be rock star who had just lost his woman for wanting to play more than he could !!?? Had actually been invited to play with what was apparently a fairly famous rock band in region. I tell you right there i knew these people were real special and there was a sudden wonderful feeling of emancipation and joy that filled my heart as there still a flame of hope now of escaping my till then deflated and depleted darker minded self.
So at eight , the designated time I rolled up in my little Audi home from home to find the guys sitting in the sun outside this old empty garage.We drank lots of coffee like most self respecting Norwegians do and laughed together for awhile, there really was a good buzz going on, we felt it all for sure.
Then we all went inside and they began setting up their stuff and i sat quietly and watched as they in the next second broke into their stuff !Wow it was so awesome to feel the totally brutal cutting sound of live music being played so hard and well, my entire being racing now to its beat. It was right there I think that all my previous pain and sorrow of my predicament and love lost melted away as my soul was filled with the rhapsody and power of these amazing musicians and beautiful people.
Once they completed what they had intended to work on they all looked to me and said " Go fetch your guitar man !" To which I said " Erm ! Sure !" as I do admit that right there I questioned if I could possibly play at these guys level , seeing as I had only been playing for 6 months seriously ! But there was no going back I knew full well, as the real me wanted to play with these guys so badly to see what it could be like. So i grabbed my stuff and i set it all up. When i produced my guitar, a lovely black shiny semi acoustic by Washburn they showed their appreciation for my choice of axe, which did help calm my nerves. So i plugged in and off i went, into my small collection of simple chord progressions in the style of blues which was the cause of my separation just two weeks before. But to my surprise in no time we gelled to one almighty hustling sound which was just the best drug you could hope for ! As the empty old garage was filled once more with this trashy hard sound I live and breathe to play. I was ecstatic and my dream of being part of a rock,n,roll band had finally in some strange way come true!!
We are all great friends now and i should say that Emil even allowed me to come sleep on his couch the night after this great evening of rock,n,roll and so with that, my somewhat lonely and difficult hobo car sleeping days were at an end .
Emil the bands singer has such a great knowledge of this new and fabulous west coast garage band sound, so much music which i myself never knew even existed. This particular band that i choose to share with you is one of his favorites. Perhaps you know them already ? Maybe not ? But i seriously recommend you watch this Hilarious documentary on this amazing band with powerful and enchanting melodies.
They go by the name of the BrianJonesTownMassacre and they must go down as one of the craziest groups ever to hit a stage!
Enjoy their Vibe, Feel their music and remember Steem Free always people !! ; - )