Athens, Ohio
I have such fond memories of Athens, Ohio. It's the home of Ohio University, my alma mater, it's where I met my husband, and it's the site of the world's best and possibly largest Halloween party. The best costumes he and I ever had were when we dressed up as each other. He got an awful lot of attention from the guys that night, which was weird on a couple of levels, but primarily because it was very interesting how much the guys enjoyed flirting with a guy who was obviously dressed up as a woman.
Aside from the extravaganza known as Halloween, though, Athens always had a great music scene with lots of local bands worth hearing. Even I was in a band for a while--a jazz trio, of all things (guitar, trumpet and vocal). I sang standards like "God Bless the Child" (a la Billie Holiday), "There Will Never Be Another You" and a few "newer" things, like Carole King's "So Far Away." We didn't play out too much, but it sure was a lot of fun while it lasted.*
In my heart, of course, I wanted to be in a rock 'n roll band, but that never materialized.
So in light of all that reminiscing, I'm very pleased to have found this band called Southeast Engine, who are from Athens. They've got a pretty straightforward, driving guitar-led sound, with some introspective lyrics to go along with it. The energy that comes across in these songs makes me think they'd be a blast to see live. Their newest release, A Wheel Within a Wheel, came out Oct. 16th, but they have several others dating back to 2003.
Southeast Engine--"Quit While You're Ahead" mp3 off A Wheel Within a Wheel (buy)
Southeast Engine--"We Have You Surrounded" mp3 off A Wheel Within a Wheel
*Once I also won second place in a "singing in the bathtub" contest at a bar with my girlfriend Chrissy. We sang Hall & Oates' "Deep River Blues" and won a t-shirt, which I still have. Good times.
Hall and Oates--"Deep River Blues" mp3 off Daryl Hall and John Oates (buy)
One other side note. The guy who got me started in the band was an interesting fellow who was always kind of secretive about his past. Well, turns out he wasn't quite who he seemed to be. In time, we learned that he was a convicted felon who'd done time for rape (he told us he had been in the service) and he happened to be married to two women at the same time. Later we found out that he committed armed robbery in a town in the next county. All this is true. And the thing is, he was a really great guy. He was generous and kind and I never felt scared to be with him. Well, not too scared. In retrospect, when I think of all the time I spent alone with him, it could have been quite dangerous, but nothing bad ever happened. Plus he always had great smokes, if you know what I mean. Good times indeed.
Holy crap Marcy, that last bit is abit unnerving. I've been to Athens near
Atlanta a good few times and would move there if we could, but we can't.
Ohio Athens sounds cool !!! And so do Southeast Engine, need to check when
i get home from work !!!
i didn't find out most of that stuff about him until after i left town,
more or less, so it wasn't really an issue when i knew him. looking back on
it is scarier than it was at the time! athens, ohio is smaller than athens,
georgia, but it's still way cool!
I love the thought of you and your friend singing that song together! So
cool! (One of the few Hall & Oates I can still listen to without cringing,
too.)
it was a lot of fun, i even have a tape of us singing it. as far as that
guy goes, i have so many good memories of him, i learned so much from him,
it was just a shame that he turned out to be a con man, for lack of a
better term. i mean, the jail time i could understand, he wanted to start
over, but why he never told us all about his wife and kids and then even
went on to marry someone else--that was beyond me. : )
RSS Add-Me
