Driving on tour with Carmaig de Forest through Minnesota, 1990something, there is a frightening wind storm, skies are grey or black, car feels like it is rocked, over the radio surprising news Jerry Garcia died and Carmaig needs to pause, I don’t understand, but he’s a Californian, a big part of his younger memories had the Grateful Dead’s music in the background. Someone once told me people can barely remember details about their lives and I think about that lots, when I try to retrace things that happened and notice how much has gone to the void.
Carmaig and I did many shows, many people and places, only a few vivid memories have stayed with me, like his sadness that highway evening about Jerry. I didn’t know much about the Dead or California but I remember the Binder Specialist van dying outside of Davis, California. A Dodge Ram, belonging formerly to a company with a fancy sign on the side – Binder Specialist, whatever that means – I appropriated the name for my band and we looked impressive, or at least the sign did. Lost so much money fixing cars, every musician does. Musicians should take an auto course or at least listen to car fixing podcasts and develop their understanding of how to trouble shoot. Over the years rebuilt two motors, one transmission, repaired 3 ball joints, did rust work many times, probably stopped 7 times by police and maybe 6 speeding tickets.
We had a sound guy that time in Davis but the chemistry wasn’t good between him and the band, that is a deal breaker. You are only on stage for an hour tops otherwise you are in each other’s faces, if you don’t enjoy the company it is torture. Trapped in a tornado with Carmaig, no problem.