Like We’re Twenty-One

You remember my pal Casey Shea, right?

Casey and his lovely wife Langhorne are on the road with Casey’s new band, Sundown: think Crosby, Still & Nash, but cuter, and way hipper (and none of that weirdness with Melissa Etheridge).

Well, they’re blogging about their adventures for MTV News. You can check it out at Sundown Blog Dot Com.

Of all the words Casey and the gang have written (and they’ve been massively prolific in their three week cross-country trek), these moved me the most:

I had been in New York for about a month and a half when I found myself at a small club in the Lower East Side for a going away party for one of Langhorne’s coworkers.

I had met Ben Wagner a few weeks before outside of the MTV building. I knew his name well because I came across a few of his albums when I was cleaning Langhorne’s apartment (my new home in NYC).

Ben treated me like a son. He had been in New York for years playing music, working a dream job, running marathons, running a successful website and blog… honestly, I think this guy has more hours in a day than the rest of us. We ended up getting into a long conversation about music, and I was all ears.

“If you’re gonna do it, do it,’ he said. ‘Don’t get the 9-5 day job, don’t be safe.”

That was all I needed to hear. For the next 3 years, I refused every promotion I was offered.

More like a brother, but either way, it’s always nice to be remembered. And I was right. I know this because I was giving him the very advice that I didn’t follow.

So anyway, the band’s made it to L.A., and has begun recording and hobknobbing and such. But what I wanted you to know is that they’re performing at The Troubadour Wednesday night at 8pm.

The Troubadour, people. The Troubadour.

James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Kris Kristoferson, Guns N’ Roses, and Pearl Jam all debuted there. Neil Young, Tim Buckley, and even Phantom Planet recorded live albums there. Janis Joplin partied there the night she died. It’s just down the hill from Laurel Canyon. It is the epitome of the L.A. folk rock scene.

So if you’re in the area, don’t be foolish. Go see the band. Buy ’em a beer. I’ll pay you back.

If you’re not in the area, read the blog. You’ll be glad you did.