I had a conversation with my good friend Bryan Shelby this afternoon (as I was herding two tired and hungry boys) about the fate of our band. I suppose this is something of a foregone conclusion, but apparently Gypsy Mountain is on "permanent hiatus." That's a shame as this was one great band. The nucleus of the band was always the interplay of Bryan, Wes McKinney and me.
This post is not an overt (or subtle) shot at my friend Wes, but over the last year Wes has become increasingly distracted and distant. I understand part of that wholeheartedly. With Bryan living in Connecticut and he working one week on, one week off in California, it has been a real feat to keep the band functioning (even as a part-time venture). Still we could have done a much better job of organizing our activity, and try as I might it just wasn't happening.
I'm not going to go into a blow-by-blow of how this thing finally fell apart, but I will say that just as in 2006, I have made every attempt to keep the band alive and I think Bryan has done just as much work in this direction. And yet, we've spent the last nine months asking ourselves, "Where's Wes?" Hopefully, we all meet again when things are more normal and the band picks up where it left off. The things is though, after five years of off-again-on-again crap from Wes, it would take one hell of a gesture to convince me his heart is in the game.
But all is not lost. Gypsy Mountain or not, I'm ready to make the proverbial next record. I guess that makes "the Usual Suspects" my main project too. How strange.
In real world terms the Usual Suspects has always worn two hats. First, it's acted as a side project to the implied "main project" that I always tried to let GM be. On the other hand, it was simply a way of saying "all the wonderful musicians I've always played with" when Wes wasn't around or wasn't choosing to make himself functional or available. You know it's pretty funny that almost EVERY one of my musical co-collaborators has appeared at a solo or Usual Suspect gig... Even Joe Tynes, who I have so very rarely played with in the last 6-7 years.
If there's a silver lining to all this I suppose it's that I no longer feel the least bit of guilt about moving forward with new projects. That may sound kind of strange, but consider this: as a songwriter building up a stable of new material, I have to pick and choose where and with whom to use it. That's not to say that I'm really restrained in the live arena (all my musical co-conspiritors, certainly including Wes, have always been open to my original material, regardless of origin). But as someone who wants to maintain a workable and working live band and who wants to continually put out new output, I must have a name to work under, whether that's Gypsy Mountain, Retroverb or my own and at some point you have to have songs to put on records under those names. Make no mistake though, no one is served by continually changing the band's name (and it now looks like one of the main obstacles to that has removed itself).
So I guess this "permanent hiatus" has made my musical direction simpler. I know I'm blessed with a lot of really talented musical friends, too. I'm always so thankful for this, because, to quote Keith Horton, "without them, I'm just an ass with a guitar."
At this point the only thing I'm missing musically is a lead guitarist. As a guitarist myself, that seems such an ironic thing: when I was younger, it seemed like every musician I knew was a guitar player. Now I'm surrounded by all these really talented drummers, bass players, harmonica monsters (yes, Leigh James, I'm talking about you) and one long-haired keys player.
When I was in college, I saw this poster in Brough Commons (the main dining hall at the University of Arkansas) saying "Johnny Marr Where Are You?" I don't know why I'm still thinking about that fifteen years later, but it was an interesting way to advertise for a guitarist (and that's exactly what the band or musicians in question were doing, and they made no bones about saying they liked the Smiths). So [Mike Campbell, Peter Buck, Joe Perry, Duane Allman, George Harrison, Billy Harvey, Dave Stewart, Luther Perkins, Keith Richards, David Evans, Nels Cline] Where Are You?
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