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Let's begin by dispensing
with third person. No great rock historian, Rolling Stone
staffer or college intern looking to break into the field of public relations
is being paid to offer insight into the artistry of John Young. I'm
John Young. I'm not famous. I'm not glamorous. I'm a
musician looking to share some of my songs through my CD Lonely With
Me. As long as I have the space to do so, I figured I might as
well also share a little bit of information about the journey that culminated
in this album.
I've played on the fringes
of the Pittsburgh music scene for 15 years. The most popular project
I was involved with was the band Fusebox. The original line-up of
the group featured guitarist Steve Morrison (late of the Affordable Floors)
and the amazing rhythm section of bassist Andy McDuffie and drummer Matt
Rutkowski (who continued to play together in the fine bands Kill Bossa
and the Goodies). We all wrote songs and sang, and the big melodies
and vocal harmonies were plentiful. Our Live Better Electrically
album was played a lot on Pitt radio station WPTS in the late 80s, and
we always seemed to fall into fun live shows. We had no less fun
when Paul Mosey replaced Steve; in fact, we had many an amazing night doing
semi-regular gigs at the old Creswick Inn and even made it into a Spin
article on what happened in rock n roll on December 15, 1989. (We
played a gig on a night it snowed a lot woo hoo!)
I spent most of the 90s
playing in the Pundits with guitarist John Bell, bassist Mike Shanley and
a succession of fine drummers: Kip Ruefle, Scott Turri and Steve Seel.
Troy Cramer filled in when the other drummers got sick or quit, and he
is widely acknowledged to be the "seventh Pundit." Our band never
seemed to find the audience we, humbly, felt we deserved, but we spent
the decade creating some fine songs and playing all manner of shows.
We also recorded with the infamous NYC art-popster/producer Kramer; the
three songs we completed became a 7" vinyl EP on Calamari Sound, the label
imprint of the great California indie rocker John Talley-Jones. The
record came out just after everyone was saying how hip vinyl singles were
again, and it never got very wide distribution. A review of our "Swirl"
EP in Alternative Press, though, said that we were the "best thing
out of Pittsburgh since Andy Van Slyke." The Pirate fan in me blushed
at the comparison.
The Pundits faded as I attended
graduate school and started a career as a 7th grade literature teacher.
Steve Seel stayed in touch, however, and told me that he and Kip Ruefle
were buying some digital recording equipment. Would I be interested
in being a guinea pig for them as they learned their way around their new
gear? If anything interesting came of the collaboration I could pitch
in some cash toward the cost of establishing the studio; if not, oh well.
During a hectic year of teaching and preparing for the birth of my first
child I usually spent one night a week at Cave of Wonders indulging the
artist in me and growing through my work with Steve, Kip and a small group
of awesome players. You can read more about the birth of the album
in the Lonely With Me liner notes, but suffice it to say its creation
was incredibly energizing and healthy for me.
So now I have this great
collection of tunes to promote. I've never been good at the horn-blowing
part of things, but Ive vowed to get better. I want people to hear
what weve created in this album. I'd be thrilled to think one or
two of my songs could get to somebody and make them feel as melancholy
or inspired or alive as I feel listening to the artists who move me.
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