(On April 6, a group of San Diego music veterans backed local hero Gary Heffern when he returned from Finland to play the Casbah. Joe Piper recounts the 34 years leading up to his own part in the gig.)
Life’s funny…
When Gary Heffern’s Blood On Fire took to the Casbah stage earlier this month it was, for me, more than just an opportunity to play with some truly outstanding musicians who just also happen to be a group of the greatest guys you could ever hope to meet. It was more than a chance to take part in what is possibly the most enjoyable project I’ve ever worked on. It was all that and more — it was a chance to take care of unfinished business.
Thirty-four years ago this month, I attended what is still one of the most memorable concerts of my life. With the assistance of David Bowie, Iggy Pop was in the process of resuscitating his comatose career and was touring to promote “The Idiot.” It was a comeback performance so incredible and so stunning that I did not even notice Bowie on stage until well into it. It’s safe to say that all eyes were glued on Iggy from the second he took the stage until he finally left it, trailing glory. So it’s no real wonder that I remember very well when, at the close, Pop handed the mic off to a guy in the audience.
It’s here that the arc of my life intersects Gary Heffern’s. It would be many years before I knew that. Years, in fact, after we’d actually met and become friends; years, even, after that Decagents performance at The Spirit Club when we stood talking in parking lot, and agreed that we had to do something together someday — “country… like The Burritos or Gram’s solo stuff.”
Well, a whole other lifetime has passed, and we finally made good on that promise. Was it worth the wait? Oh, you bet!
And the fact that it happened at all is due in no small part, dear reader, to this very blog. For it’s here that my story’s resolution has its genesis.
Post-“Che Games For May,” Ray Brandes and Mark Zadarnowski were still basking in the afterglow of Gay Denny’s love.
What to do? What to do … ? Why, keep on playing together! Something familiar, but different … Let’s call Joe!
And we’ve been plugging away at it, on and off, ever since. (There was a pretty long stretch of “off” for the Town Criers reunion and all the other vicissitudes of life that come when you’ve reached a “certain age.”)
We’d started things up again, more or less in earnest, when, a few months ago, Eric (Bacher) called up and asked: “Can I play?” and we thought about it for maybe half a second and said: “Of course! That would be great!”
And then, sensing the vibrations of an electric 12-string rippling thru the Serra Mesa eddy of the cosmic plane, Victor (Penalosa) called and asked: “Can I play, too?” and we thought: “Seriously? That would be so great!”
So … When Gary then called Ray and asked if he could help him put together the band for a solo show in conjunction with the upcoming Pens performance, Ray said: “Yeah … I think I know just the guys. … ”
Check out Blood on Fire and the Cardiac Kidz on Sceneroller.com!
And it was too much fun. A wonderful experience. An absolute pleasure. Thanks so much for asking, Gary.
Let’s not wait so long the next time.
— Joe Piper
Hi Joe…I really appreciate that you shared this personal story, and all the intricate relationships that made the project come to fruition. The musical line-up of “Blood on Fire” represents a super-group of the San Diego “scene rollers” that have I have admired and looked up to since I can remember; so I can see why you were so proud to be a part of it.
It isn’t everyday that people see their best laid plans come to fruition-especially for us creative types. How many times, when we were all young and bright eyed, did we all sit around tables in smoke-filled rooms carrying on about how “one day” we were going to play “this song” or “jam” with “this band or that”? Too many late night and early morning were filled with empty promises to count. So, it is all the more meaningful that you/we have reached a time in our lives where people keep their word, and where creative endeavors like “Blood on Fire” come to fruition. I think it is exciting! Like, tickle you “down under” exciting! Exhilarating!
One of the many things I am very grateful about “The Che Underground” community for is-is the many significant bonds we have made with one another; either in friendships, within the culture, and/or thru making our music. These bonds were forged so powerfully, at such an impressionable age that even decades later we are all coming around the mountain again and raising barns together; having hootenannies full of new music! What a beautiful sight to see and hear! Lucky were those people present to bear witness to “Blood on Fire”; because that was a collaboration between musical mavericks that was decades in the making!! Alleluia brother; that you all made it so! It sounds as if DESTINY had its HAND in bringing these musicians together at just the right time and place. I am so happy for all of you who had a part in making the music, and those who were a witness to it. It seems to have been a magical portal in place and time; when everything was as it should have been.
And, it was almost so for me. Gary had graciously invited me to appear in the show and help him sing songs from his new CD “Gary Heffern & Beautiful People”; including the spiritual anthem “Hand of The Devil” (on which I sing the backing vocal on the CD). To have shared the stage with my very first local rock hero, Gary Heffern, and all of you other standouts: Ray, Eric, Victor, Mark, and Joe (who all have influenced and inspired me over the years)…it would have been mindboggling. It is mind-blowing for me just to think that I was invited to sing among you! And, I’m not blowing hot air up your asses either. I honestly feel this way.
But, my choice not to participate in the show was driven by a health concern & I had a very short clock on my decision making process. Knee surgery called. Had I known then what I now, I definitely would have chosen to postpone the procedure & come down to be part of “Blood on Fire”. Boy, did I miss a barn-raising event with heavy-hitting, superbly cool musicians whom I admire immensely. That includes Cardiac Kidz, too. Darn it! In the words of Cher (in the midst of her 1980’s comeback);”If I could turn back time, If I could find a way…”!! I wish I had done things differently. I wish i had been on stage singing with you all. It would have been EPIC, and I would have learned a lot about music.
Therefore…(drum rolls please)…Singing with “Blood on Fire” has just been placed in the top third of my BUCKET LIST! WAHOOOOOO!!!!Next time boys, please hold a space on the stagecoach for me! I want to come round that mountain with y’all, and be a part of that next barn-raising, hootenanny event for the ages! 😉
Wonderful sentiments, Kristi. I wish you and so many others could’ve been there. I once had to beg off from a call to go play a Gram Fest because I needed to prep for a colonoscopy that day. The guy said, “Uh, that’s not very rock ‘n roll.” LOL!!
You know, I don’t know as I’d say the promises are empty. People mean them, it’s just that life goes on and the next thing you know… It’s so easy when you’re young to say “Don’t look back”, the horizon seems infinate and is always receding in front of you. But then one day you realise that it’s stopped receding and now it’s actually advancing!
I’m just so glad to still have been around for when the fates finally chose to align.