ben wakeman : : Journal

Dark Side of the Moon in Decatur

April 21, 2004

So I finally dragged my ass out of the house for an evening and went down to Eddie's Attic to check out some friends reinact the entire Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon in celebration of Clay Cook's birthday. It was awesome. They totally nerded-out and nailed every nuance of this quintessential stoner record that was pressed before most of them were even born.

Clay is a great guy and a masterful musician whom I first met over 8 years ago when I was working in a guitar store. At the time, Shawn Mullins and I were hanging out a lot and he had just traded in this Kent Everett handmade guitar that did not suit him. Clay was probably still in high school at the time when he came in and fell in love with it. He bought it, went away to Berklee music school and later he went on to play with John Mayer in the Lo-Fi Masters. Clay's the bearded one in the middle of the picture below.

Another friend, wonderful guy and consumate musician was there as well. Brandon Bush who now has a steady gig as piano player for Train worked harder than anyone all night behind a Star Trek like array of glowing knobs, keys and levers to reproduce the "atmospheric" synth tracks all over the album. Brandon is one of the kindest people I know. Brandon's brother Kristian Bush of the band Sugarland and formerly of Billy Pilgrim helped us record Greener last year. Brandon is pictured below.

Matthew Kahler also made the scene, stepping in to sing on Us and Them. I have known Matthew for many years now and he has been a good friend and mentor to me and many other musicians in Atlanta. One of the great experiences in my life was doing a short coffeehouse tour with him and Shawn Mullins back in 1995. I learned so much about performing from watching the two of them every night. Matthew, pictured below has a new record out that you should go buy.

The night was punctuated with one bit of comic relief. Kevin Leahy, a tremendous drummer, friend and fellow web geek dazzled the crowd with his note-for-note reproduction of the famed Roto-Tom solo in Time. He was dressed as a Gorilla. When he's not in his fur suit, he is doing session work for just about everybody in Atlanta as well as being the regular drummer for the BoDeans now. You can see him doing his thing below. Behind him is guitarist Hank of the band Amerigo Poppy whom we (Screen Door) played with last year for the 99x show in Piedmont Park.

Maureen Murphy, who I have never met, stole the show on The Great Gig in the Sky vocal solo. She's got a wonderful voice and totally filled the room with it. She is pictured below with Matt Mangano, an old friend of Clay's from Berklee who is a fine musician and highly in demand as a session player.

It was a fun night, and good to catch up with so many folks I haven't seen for a long time. Everybody just keeps growing, the music gets better and better and the journey continues. I feel lucky to know so many talented people who are rock stars. I still want to be a rock star. Maybe tomorrow, after I cut the grass.