My new monitors arrived (along with all the free stuff in the package deal I got), so I’m stereophonic once again.  And it’s a good thing too because I just got some more tracks in, and I’ve been excited to hear them in the proper context.  I got a new batch from Grant, which are great, and I got some from my friend, Julian Martlew.  Julian is probably the person I would most describe as my mentor.  He was certainly the first person I ever played with, and he took me under his wing and set me on the path.

It was the first day of my sophomore year in college.  I’d started playing bass just a scant few weeks before, during the summer break.  I was moving into a new dorm, and as I stepped into the hall, bags in hand, there was Julian, sitting in his room (first on the left by the front door) rocking out.  I don’t remember what he was playing, but it was loud.  He kept it up the whole time, and the last thing I carried in past his door was my bass.  He stopped playing and followed me into my room, guitar and little Gorilla amp in hand and said, “Hi, I’m Julian, let’s play!”  Of course, I was scared out of my mind, because I’d never played outside my bedroom before.  Long story short, a couple of months later, he’s putting a band together, and they ask if another guy in the dorm can borrow my equipment since I was the only one around with a bass and amp.  I said no, so they asked me to play.  YAY DEFAULT!  I had to get up to speed in a hurry, and in less than 3 months after I first started playing bass, I was in my first band, and I never looked back.  If that hadn’t been such a great experience, I probably wouldn’t have kept it up all these years, so I have Julian to thank for a lot of that.

When we met, he was all about a weird blend of Bob Marley and the Scorpions with a liberal dash of the Blues.  Now, he plays Americana unironically.  At least it seemed unironic when I saw him on a sideman gig recently.  He’s lending his lap steel prowess to my little effort here, and so far it sounds great.