November 22

My parents moved my sister and me to Dallas from Upstate NY in October of '63. We were there only a month when Kennedy was shot. My Dad, who worked in a downtown building, actually watched from street level as the President's motorcade passed. By the time he returned to his office on the third floor, it had happened. My earliest memory of childhood was seeing my mom sobbing in front of the TV set. I asked, "Mommy, why are you crying?" I was three. The first person whose name I knew, other than mommy, daddy, grammy and Capt Kangaroo, was President Kennedy. As we got older, Dad would take us to Dealey Plaza. By the age of six I could point to the window on the Depository Building from where the shots were fired. In 1967 I remember sitting on one of the plaza's stone colonnade arches --Dad lifted us up there -- and watching a TV crew film a documentary of the event. They were interviewing eye-witnesses. The old Texan man being interviewed said, "I heard pop, pop, pop." Whenever we went by the Plaza up on the Stemmons Freeway, we'd look at the big yellow Hertz Rent-a-Car sign with the digital clock on it, which of course stood atop the Depository. It drew your attention to the site like a, well, like a big yellow billboard! (They finally removed it, but not until decades later).

I still have the complete Dallas Morning News paper from Saturday the 23rd. Never a November 22nd ever goes by without me reflecting on the events of that, sad sad day.

In some ways I wonder how much effect that event had on my life. It was sort of the launch-pad of my awareness. I think to be certain, the Kennedy Assasination has cast a very long shadow over my life, and I’m sure there are many others who feel the same.

Last year, on November 22, 2007, Thanksgiving Day, Bernadette's beloved mother lost her battle with cancer. My poor wife has barely had time to grieve. Neither of us can believe it has been a year already.

November 22nd. A day of mourning for The Townsons.

A "Flowery" Slideshow...

Hothouse Flowers were both Hot, AND in The House at Newbury in '89

Look what I just found on the world-wide interweb! I was Googling to see what became of Newbury Sound, the studio I worked out of from '86 to roughly '96, and I found the studio's new web-site, Newbury Media.com. On the site there's a slide-show of the time the Irish band Hothouse Flowers came in to the studio to do a live WBCN Lunchtime Concert, hosted by Carter Alan. This was 1989 and Hothouse Flowers was touring off their huge LP, "People" and its hits from that year. The buzz at the time was that HF were going to be the next U2. As you can see from the pics, there was a small studio audience in there. Keep watching the slides roll and in the very last two, you'll see the band and Carter Alan hanging in the control-room with the guy who was at the console, mixing the show. Yep, that's me with the bad tie-die shirt. My hair looks cool though. There were a few mullets on display that day and I'm glad to say I was not a mulleteer. (Never had one, ever). In the last shot that's me in the middle, surrounded by the band, and with Carter just above me. You can see that at tis point in my life and career, I thought I had arrived. This is where I belonged; sitting at a big recording console with a famous major-label band. I was on the launchpad at age 28. Little did I know then that my rocket-fuel was watered down...

HOTHOUSE SLIDESHOW

Thirteen, Boston Compilation, 1995

The Wicked Smile of Mister Jinx Welcomes The Listener to "Thirteen". I drew The Devil on a napkin originally. I wanted the CD jacket to look like the label on a bottle of hot sauce.

I just signed on to a gig playing lead guitar for The Dave Sammarco Band, a hard-working country rock outfit. I'm not the main guy, by any means. Nope. Dave has a "roster" of players at every position, and I'm the second or third string Telecaster Twanger. His main guy is the incredible Jimmy Scoppa, Boston's Master of the Telecaster, and I'm not worthy of shining his shoes as a country guitar player. The "DSB" plays all the time, all over New England. Between now and the end of the year, I'm playing four gigs, including The Church of Boston on November 29th. The Kilmarnock Street club and restaurant in The Fenway was once The Linwood Grill, a place I knew well. Played there, hung out there, and many a night got shitfaced there. In the mid '90's The Linwood was a happening joint, which brings me to this new blog.... I remember it like it was yesterday...(Sounds of harps and screen gets all swirly)...

It's 1995, and we're having the two night record release party for "Thirteen: Boston Compilation". I had produced the alternative rock tome at Newbury Sound, bringing in one group after the next in sort of a cattle-call style. We left all the mics up and the drum-kit and the bands would come in and I’d press the big red button. The band line-up included Digger, Ten Star General, Serum, Delta Clutch, Cobalt 60, The Derangers and others. We had high hopes for the CD, released by Rick Schettino's Young American Records. Rick was the publisher and founder of New England Performer, now known as Northeast Performer, or maybe it's simply Performer now. At the time, I thought the CD sounded ahead of its time, and I was right. Even now, when I listen to the album, and I have been listening to it lately for the first time in years, it still sounds pretty fresh, if not a bit "grungy". It got good reviews, but the bands were a little new and outside the main core of the Boston alternative scene. The only group still in existence is Delta Clutch, now called The Blizzard of '78. Cobalt 60, who changed their name to C60 in the late '90s continued on Jeff Marshall's Monolyth Records through the mid 2Ks, touring and recording. I was once a Monolyth recording artist myself, back in '86 through '88, but that's a different story.

So we had the CD release party at The Linwood, a two-night Friday and Saturday affair. The Linwood was just getting started as a rock venue. It had been a blues and pizza joint earlier, known more for drawing a baseball crowd due to its proximity to Fenway Park, but now, it was a full-blown black leather-jacket Boston rock club. The Linwood was capturing the spill-off from The Rat, and by '95, the writing was on the greasy, graffitti'd wall of the old Rathskeller. Barry Hite, Landsdowne Street stage-manager and sound guru, had created a new rock outpost on the Fens side of the Ball Park, in the old Linwood Irish pub. He and a few fellow Kenmore ex-patriots (Bob Daley, I think?) were behind making the Linwood the hot new venue.

The first night of the release, the place was packed. It was insane. The crowd was a who's-who of '95 and a big "where-are-they-now?" of 2008. There was Ken Kanavos from Newbury Sound, Deb Catalano, Schettino, of course, Kevin of The Linwood, Jeff Marshall, Radio people like Bill Abbate and Laurie Gale and Janet Egan (Juanita) were there, along with all the band members and their people. I was high on adrenaline (and some other stuff) and to this day I still remember it as being one of the best times, one of the absolute best nights I've ever had in this Boston Music Scene. It was magical and full of energy. The room was electric, with high-voltage performances by the bands, who rocked with total abandon. Even my own surf instrumental trio the Derangers put on a blazing set. It was all black leather, hair and attitudes, and you couldn't fall down in there.
The second night was very mellow by comparison; modestly attended but a good night just the same. It was as if everybody got their groove on the night before and were all nursing giant rock and roll hangovers 24 hours later.
Some bands I know what happened to, others I don’t. Almost all that were part of “13” I’m long out of touch with. I know Delta Clutch is still slugging away as The Blizzard of ’78, and I still talk to Chris Cugini, a producer now in his own right, regularly. Tristram Lozaw, famous Boston Rock Journalist and then member of Serum is still writing about the music. Siobhan McAuley, also ex Serum, is creating beautiful atmospheric music under the name Embrionic with her long-time partner and fellow musician James Bryan McCaffrey. “Jay” as I call him, was in the band Resinsect on “13”. I have been in touch with him over the years, though not lately. Barry Edwards of Ten Star General just moved back to the Buffalo area after decades of being a great guitarist in the Boston Scene, most recently with Cash Monies & The Jetsetter, as well as The Dave Sammarco Band. The only guys I’ve been in-touch with consistently over the years are the Brothers Frazier, Daryl and Mark, both long out of Boston, who were my buddies and bandmates in Digger. But where’s Bow Thayer (of Still Home)? What happened to the guys from Underball or Jehova Starbelly or Scratch? I think Doug MacDonald of Tidal Wave might still be drinking and strumming somewhere. Cobalt 60, or “C60” seems to be done, as far as I can Google.


Hawking "Thirteen" at SXSW Music Convention in Austin, St. Patrick's Day 1995

“Thirteen” was not an enormously successful CD. It was overshadowed by a lot of what was happening in Boston around that time. A year later, I myself produced and released the “Tube” Surf compilation on the CherryDisc label, which made a much bigger splash. But as I listen to “13” I hear good stuff. My recording and production quality was excellent, if I say so myself (and if I don’t, who will?). I hear a lot of analog depth and musicality in the tracks. The CD sounds amazingly fresh today in 2008. Not bad for a CD called “Thirteen” that actually IS 13 years old now. I guess I was right back in ’95 when I proclaimed that “Thirteen: Boston Compilation” was ahead of its time.

Introducing ANALOG PLANET

Hello folks! Well I have some big news! I have started my own company - a web-boutique called Drew Townson's Analog Planet. Yazoo! The Planet sells high-end analog recording gear, including lots of tube stuff. I call it "The Audio Hardware Store...in space!" Great idea, starting a high-end business in this economy, right?

What am I thinking?

Well, I'm thinking I want to start a a genuine high-end thing, based on my own deication to quality, as well as creating a legacy for my family and son. Plus, I was getting sick of the guys I was working for driving in to work at 11 am in their Beemers and Benzes and coming up to me with, "Sold anything today Drew?" "What have you done for me lately Drew?"

What I had done for them is a lot. Made happy customers. Brought in a lot of money...which was not trickling enough back down to me. So I said, "screw it!" and started my own business.

The site's young and buggy and still in development, but hey, go check out Analog Planet!