The Sidemen

The Parade was just the beginning…

Super heavy rains fell as the parade let out. Hail even.

Jen and Shep were having a party thrown in their honor and it had just started across town. Actually, out in the boonies a little bit.

I had no idea what to expect, other than I would see lots of folks from high school. A reunion of sorts. Something I tend to avoid.

I got there and Larry burst out with a grin, “Man, we’ve got a band coming over here tonight!” Whoa. I soaked that notion in, grabbed a beer and started mingling with a cast of characters that includes really close friends, and folks I relatively didn’t loathe from high school. And kids – a good handful of ’em of varying ages.

The open kitchen was filled with wonderful smells and continued to the wrap around deck where the grill was fired up.

This is an old renovated schoolhouse out in the area where i grew up. You’ll be hard pressed to see neighbors in either direction. It sits on a marsh like area around a creek that often floods. No one will be building there soon.

The band arrived in a big white panel van. Unloaded their stuff and grabbed whatever beverage suited their fancy. It had been a long day and the trip from Louisville out to the middle of nowhere was a bit jarring I’m sure.

We began making chatter and warming up to the notion that this band would be making music. It’s just not something that happens very often around here.

Dinner was served. Everyone grabbed plates of grilled chicken and delicious sides and the mood kept getting more jovial.

The band set up after brief after a brief digestive period. The Sidemen they are called. A bluesy band. A bar band.

Once they started, I stopped my conversation on the deck and said aloud to no one in particular, “There’s music in there.”

I wandered inside. Jen was there and whenever Jen is around, I want to dance. I actually get a bit buzzed just by watching her, but she’s a manipulative one and coaxes me to cut up the rug a little.

Then a lot.

The air was just electric; from the sounds… from the thunderstorms that just had passed through… from the location… the lingering taste of home-cooked food… the friends from across the globe… the smiles (plastered) on everyone’s faces.