Not too long ago I was reading an interview piece in Offbeat magazine, which is a local music magazine in New Orleans, and one of the questions the interviewer asked was, “what was the first tune you heard as a child?” Now I can’t recall the answer in the article, but I can tell you what my answer would’ve been. I sat there at our table and remembered the first time I recognized music and how it affected me.
My mother is the reason for my rhythm. She introduced me to Motown and Cuban music and Rock n Roll and the “Cha-Cha.” She may not know it, but the day she put on The Four Tops – Reach Out (I’ll Be There), she changed my world.
As a kid I had never heard anything so epic. That haunting opening line that gallops and snaps into a perfectly paced rockin’ groove, the melodies working within the instruments, and of course the voices – I thought Levi Stubbs was singing to me. I remember listening over and over again and getting chills each time the song started and every time they snapped into the chorus and their harmonies rang out over the instruments.
It was unreal. That song changed me. It was my catalyst, that and Gloria Estefan, but that’s a different story… TONIGHT we’re in South Haven, MI at Foundry Hall! Show time is 7:30pm!! See y’all tonight!
Boots!
Dirty Bourbon River Show 