Two years ago, I joined a blues cover band. Three years ago, I “retired” from music. I’ve said it before, I’m really bad at commitment.
In late 2017, I realized that I had unconsciously not done anything musical in a couple of months. No guitar, no songwriting, nothing. Then, instead of picking up my guitar, I wondered how long I could go. I went another month, then another after that before an idea hit me. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll never pick up my guitar again. Maybe I’ll never write another song. Maybe I’m done playing shows. Yeah, I think I’m done.
All in all, I went almost a full year with no intention of ever playing again. Then I fell victim to the only thing I have a harder time with than commitment, saying no.
Long story short, a friend convinced me to play a show and I was hooked again. It wasn’t very long after that I joined the blues band, looking for a way to ease back into playing music without worrying too much about the stuff that made me want to quit in the first place.
As a band, we’ve had a rough go of it so far. We spent the first year of my time with them cycling through bass players and learning how to vibe with each other musically. And year two...well, thanks Covid.
Still, we’re having a lot of fun playing music together and slowly morphing, from a blues cover act, into some sort of psouledelic blues monstrosity.
In October, we went into the studio to cut a couple of songs, one of which is a song that I wrote called Galveston. I’m super proud of the way it turned out. Willy Gibbs, the band leader, produced the song and played guitar. His son, Chris Gibbs, played drums and percussion. And Jimmy Flynn played bass.
This song has not been “officially” released and probably won’t be until we’ve got a few more recorded, but I asked the guys if they were cool with me pre-releasing them on my music blog and they gave the go-ahead.
Comment below and let me know what you think about it. Also, since I've kind of abandoned social media as a growth tool for the moment, I would really appreciate it if you encourage any music-loving friends to check it out and sign up on my mailing list. Thanks so much.
Production Notes for Galveston:
Written by Jonathon Dewveall
Produced by Willy Gibbs
Engineered and Mixed by Dave Coleman
Cover Art by Melanie Dewveall
Guitars: Willy Gibbs
Bass: Jimmy Flynn
Drums/Percussion: Chris Gibbs
Vocals: Jonathon Dewveall