ben wakeman : : Journal

Dylan Turns Six and Eddie's is Still the Place to Be

November 14, 2006

It was another busy weekend for the Wakeman household. Dylan is now officially six years old and he had three separate parties to insure that the date was properly marked -- one for family, one for his friends at the "jumpy place" and then one at school. I'm really having a hard time letting him grow up -- as if I have a choice. I just want him to stay my baby forever. He's a big boy now and has many big ideas. He has decided that he wants to play the violin. This morning when I left for work he was swashbuckling through the house in his pjs wearing an eyepatch and a skull cap bandana terrorizing the cats with his pirate sword.

After his "jumpy place" party on Sunday, I went over to Eddie's Attic to participate in a songwriting workshop with Ed Roland of Collective Soul. For me, like many Atlanta songwriters, Eddie's has been like a second home. Much of my musical education I owe to that place. The spirit of the place is about collaboration and this event was simply a more formalized embodiment of that concept. This is the second time I met Ed Roland and I was equally impressed with his humble, approachable nature this time around. After the workshop, he invited me to sit down with him for a few minutes and chat.

In keeping with the wonderful serindipity that I have come to expect from visits to Eddie's, I happened to bump into one of my favorite artists from the last couple of years, Peter Bradley Adams. He was half of the duo eastmountainsouth who released a stellar record a couple of years ago that I bought for everyone on my Christmas list because I liked it so much. He did a short set to open the show for Ed who played a full set later on. We swapped CDs and talked briefly about his upcoming move from LA to Nashville.

There was yet another great songwriter at Eddie's that night as well, Michael Tolcher who has found a lot of commercial success recently. Eddie told me that Michael used to work the open mic there for two or three years in a row and it makes total sense. Most of the really good performing songwriters I know have at some point worked this scene and been taken under Eddie's wing. I can remember twelve years ago when I was there religiously every Monday. It's a great place to learn and grow in a very organic way just by being around and watching your peers.

On this same night I finally met Kristen Markiton whom I have heard so much about through mutual friends like Kristian Bush and Kevin Leahy. She's a fantastic singer who just released her first CD back in February. She, along with an old friend of mine, Brett Norton and I hung out on the patio for a bit and talked about the struggle of balancing dreams of a music career with the realities of feeding a family and just staying sane. I'm certain this conversation happens at the Attic with a different cast of players every single night ;-)