I’ve written about being in a band a couple of times: first when describing how I felt about a wonderful group of folks who supported my writing, and the second when describing my actual, music-based band, Late Night Revelations. LNR started playing together just before COVID lockdown, then practiced on Tuesday evenings for the next six years, providing a consistent space in our lives for creativity, catharsis, companionship, and lots of laughter. We performed for groups of friends on four occasions (we weren’t big on playing out) and recorded two albums.

JR (my husband/bassist) and Brevis (guitar/vocals) wrote our second album’s title track while hanging out on Brevis’ land in Marshall, North Carolina.

When they returned from their jam session and played the riffs for me, they let me know the track was called Mountain Alibi. I think they’d hoped I would write a crime-based song to match the title, like an old timey country murder tune. Instead, I wrote an anthem for introverts, describing excursions into nature as a go-to excuse for avoiding social situations. It might not have been what they’d expected, but the subject matter made for a really pretty music video.

The month before JR and I moved to California, LNR played our final show to about thirty people at our friends’ farm. Despite my aversion to playing anywhere outside my own house, it was really fun. And how often do you get to dress like this?

Boxes of Sofia water were on prominent display at the show, both to offer refreshment and as a nod to our song Sofia, written about the effects of Tropical Storm Helene on Western North Carolina. After the storm, much of our region didn’t have running water for weeks, and potable water didn’t come out of our taps for months. Sofia’s cardboard boxes of water were a welcome alternative to the hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles that were distributed during that time.

A Sofia box also came in handy when one of our speakers went out during the show, and Brevis and I had to share a mic to harmonize on her song Virginia Blues.

It hurt my heart to leave LNR when we moved to California. After six years of Tuesdays, I’d come to rely on my band and bandmates as a regular source of support, encouragement, and inspiration. Through extreme joys, extreme hardships, successes, and failures, we grew as people and as a group. I’m so grateful for that time. In my adolescence and early adulthood, as I moshed my way through life, I always figured there’d be no experience quite like being in a band. And I was right.

[If you’d like to hear Mountain Alibi, you can download it off Bandcamp or stream it on YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, Tidal, or probably wherever else you look (except for that one place that rhymes with modify). Again, here’s the lovely Mountain Alibi music video that JR made. And huge thanks to Matt Williams at The Eagle Room for being our producer on both albums – it was truly awesome to work with him. 🕺🏽]