Monday, October 6, 2014

Sat in with Don Randi

In my life I have had the honor of sharing the stage and playing for some of the legends of all time.
Dave Roe who I saw play bass for Johnny Cash live 4 times and who was in Johnny's band for 13 years played several shows with the PCB & and on a couple of our records.
Willie Chambers of the Chambers Brothers I hold on a par with his peers like Sam Cooke & Aretha Franklin. He is a dear friend and we have shared the stage dozens of times. A living legend.
A couple years ago Mick Taylor, who was a driving force behind the Rolling Stones' best records, showed up at Pappy & Harriet's with a borrowed guitar explicitly to sit in with us for a song or 2. 2 hours later we were all quite inebriated and he was still just jamming along with everything. It was magic. We've had our share of hall of famers in the crowd like Green Day coming to see us at the Kibitz Room 3 weeks in row.
Anthony from the Red Hot Chili Peppers came to several shows. To be fair, I think Anthony was only there because he wanted to fuck my girlfriend. But he did say we were his second favorite band in LA. In case you care, his favorite band in LA at that time was comprised of virtuosic 12 year olds.
And I must also say that some of my close knit family of band mates have been in some of my favorite bands of all time like The Vacation and continue to tour with people like Sheryl Crow and Dwight Yoakam and Leonard Cohen and Jack White.
Anyway tonight a magical and auspicious thing happened again. I went out to the Valley. By myself on a Saturday. I have never done that in and of itself in all my 38 years of living in LA. But it was to see pianist Don Randi and his band Quest at the club he owns, The Baked Potato. He accosted me between sets requesting that I sit in with them. I found some charts for him and his amazing band and I sat in with them for a song. If you don't know who Don Randi is here is a primer:

He played on Good Vibrations, God Only Knows, Help Me Rhonda, These Boots Were Made For Walking, Elvis '68 Comeback Special, with The Mamas & The Papas, Dean Martin, Lou Rawls and on several hundred other culture defining hits as a member of the legendary group of session musicians called the Wrecking Crew.
And so with that another dream came true.

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