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Ain’t No Use in Baitin’ the Hook when You’re Fishin’ in the Drainage Ditch: An Abridged History of My Music Career

I’ve scraped the bottom for a little while But then I’ll brush off my bruises, and I’ll crank out a smile I see the surface, and it’s not too far But no one told me life would be so hard It’s all relative, so they say So, I guess we’re all related in a relative sort of way I’ve got a question, and I’ll pose it to you Just what in the #@$% are we goin’ to do?

The folks who know me well enough to really know me, they know that long before I had any thoughts of becoming an economics professor, I pursued a career as a rock ‘n’ roll musician. I’ve never been shy about it. The truth is that I never had any intention of becoming a PhD energy economist or a professor. This career is what I settled on after my run at rock stardom felt like it had finally come to an end and I walked away from it for good.

While the many people who were along for the ride know the story and lived it with me, the people who only know me as an economics professor (or as Jamie’s husband) generally do not know the full history of my roughly 10-year music career, aside from maybe hearing a brief anecdote or two in casual conversation. Now that I’ve grown older and more secure in my academic career, I finally feel comfortable baring my soul a bit more fully with those of you who weren’t there.

I should note that I’m leaving out all of the NSFW details of the many shenanigans and capers that I and my bandmates and closest friends got ourselves into during those years. We had fun—maybe sometimes a little too much fun. And while there were certainly moments that, if I had them to do over again, I would try to make better choices, on balance I have no regrets. Nor do I have any regrets about walking away from it when I did and transitioning to a different career and life path. It was a hell of a trip, but now I’m quite happy to have a stable life with a loving family. That said, if I hadn’t had the guts to shoot my shot with music, I wouldn’t be have found the success I’ve enjoyed in economics.

One practical note before we get going: Below I have embedded several audio files and some YouTube videos of many of the songs that I have written and performed over the years. Most of them are professionally mixed, high-quality recordings. So, if you want the full experience, don’t just listen to them on your crappy little phone or laptop speakers. Get your headphones or plug into a good stereo system (with sub-woofers, so you get that bass)!

Okay, here we go…

Chapter 1. Begin the Begin

A ghost appeared within my dream As they sometimes tend to do I stood there crying as she whispered in my ear Oh, you boys, I’m proud of you

My best friends and I were in high school from 1990-1994, which I consider to be the last great burst of mainstream rock ‘n’ roll in America. MTV had emerged in the 80’s as the center of the pop culture universe, and by the 90’s the music industry was throwing off the shackles of overproduced pop and hair metal in favor of edgier and more organic rock. U2 had catapulted out of Ireland, conquered America, and became the biggest band on the planet. The grunge scene—led by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden—was taking over Seattle. Here in the Southeast, R.E.M. and the Black Crowes were reinventing what it meant to be a southern rock band. The L.A. scene was oozing with bands like Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots, Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rage Against the Machine. In the Midwest, the Smashing Pumpkins were rattling windows in Chicago, while Nine Inch Nails were forging angsty industrial metal in Cleveland. And in the Northeast, the Pixies and the Lemonheads dominated college radio stations in Boston. Meanwhile, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses were larger-than-life rock gods, aggressively taking heavy metal to the masses without the absurd makeup and hairspray that was the default for hard rock bands of the 80’s. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It was a great time to be a teenager, and I was convinced that I was put on this Earth to be right in the middle of that rock ‘n’ roll revival.

Around 15-16 years old is when I started to teach myself to play the guitar. My dad had played the guitar as a young dude and still had a couple of his old axes, which I commandeered and started making noise with. I had no idea what I was doing, and I was too arrogant (and maybe a little lazy, too) to think that lessons would do me any good. Instead, I just sat in front of my stereo with my favorite music—pause, rewind, play, repeat—and tried to make it sound like what I heard coming out of the speakers.

It wasn’t long before two of my best friends, Rob Jeter and Jeff Capps, and I were writing songs together. The fourth member of our group, Kris Burana, did not play an instrument, but he was no less a music fan. The songs we wrote back then weren’t necessarily very good songs. They were mostly silly or corny—basically what you’d expect from high-school boys. But we had a lot of fun doing it. Below is a screenshot from a camcorder video, circa 1993, of Rob and I performing a tune we wrote called “Butterfly of My Soul” (ugh… super cheesy). We thought it was great, but watching the video now, all I can hear is how horribly out of tune my guitar was (which is precisely why you do not get to watch it).

The four of us—smartass GenX children of the 90’s—were collectively bound by music. It was what we lived for. It still shapes our friendship, decades later.

Chapter 2. SQUIRREL PANTS: My First Real Band

Take a page from history Try to solve the mystery And if you’ve lost because you’ve won You’ll find you’ve only just begun

You read that right. Squirrel Pants was the name of my first band, which I formed at age 18, during my (first) freshman year of college at the University of Memphis, in fall of 1994. We thought that name was hilarious. I don’t remember how it came about.

I was not quite confident enough on the guitar yet to play full-time in a band, so I was the lead singer of Squirrel Pants. (Just that statement itself is funny to read out loud.) The drummer and bassist were guys who graduated from my high school the same year as me, Kris May and T.J. Boland. The lead guitarist, Blaine Lester, was still a senior at my high school, and the rhythm guitarist was my friend Josh Malahy, also still a senior but at our rival high school, whom I knew from church youth group (Josh and I still maintain a solid friendship). We then added the great Patrick Dodd as a third guitarist, also a senior at my high school at the time.

We played at parties, mostly, covering songs like “Girlfriend” by Matthew Sweet, “Hummer” by Smashing Pumpkins, and “Down by the River” by Neil Young, which Patrick sang. It wasn’t long before the band realized that Patrick was a better singer than me and gave me the boot. I was mad at them for kicking me out, but for the record, Patrick was a better singer, and I never held any personal resentment toward him for it. He’s a great dude, all around, and went on to have a nice career as a blues-rock singer/guitarist in Memphis and the Southeast. He was even a contestant on NBC’s The Voice in 2012. He was on Team Adam! (I’m not sure I would have been able to turn down Shakira, if faced with the choice myself... Angelita del cielo.)

Chapter 3. Split Open and Melt: Phish Tour (1996-1997)

When they ask where the music comes from All the songs of a broken kingdom They’re supernatural

I first saw the psychedelic jam rock band, Phish, in June of 1995. I was immediately hooked, and they quickly became my favorite band of all time. By summer of 1996, I had flunked out of the University of Memphis (because I stopped going to class) and decided to follow Phish on tour. Phish’s guitarist, Trey Anastasio, made me realize that, actually, I sucked at the guitar. He was like some sort of magical demigod who had tapped into a different plane of consciousness. I pretty much worshipped him, in a nearly literal sense. Phish shows in the mid-90’s were a kind of quasi-religious experience for their throngs of uniquely devoted fans. If you weren’t there, you simply can’t understand what it was like.

Around this time, I was also working in restaurants and had moved out of my parents’ house and into a house with some friends in Midtown Memphis. The local music scene was really picking up steam then. I was playing guitar extensively during this time, trying to get better, writing music, and looking for some guys to start a new band with. Turns out one of those guys, Tony Walsh, was already one of my main Phish tour travel companions, but I won’t get ahead of myself. [Fun note: In the Phish YouTube video link above, Tony and I were somewhere out there in that crowd. If you look really closely, you might see us.]

[This page is far from finished. If you made it this far, you’ll have to check back later. The best is yet to come.]