You will be missed, but never forgotten.
There is no way to describe our debt and gratitude to Vassar for sharing his generous and warm spirit with us. We will always value the time we spent together and the music we made.
This tribute is a way for us to remember the great times we had with an extraordinary human being. (The sound files are no longer up, unfortunately, as disc space is an issue.)
If you have anything you would like to add to this tribute, by all means, contact us.
PICTURES
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WEBNOTE: The pictures will not display in Opera. If you are using Opera, I apologize. I'll try and fix this.
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RECORDING WITH VASSAR
After the April WOW Hall show in '99, Vassar pulled Kevin aside and said "now Kevin, why didn't you get some recording time while I was here? Tell ya what, why don't you guys come out to Nashville, and we'll do some recording." It took a millisecond to say "uhh, sure". So we coordinated schedules, and went out there that November to record at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.
We weren't necesarilly trying to make a CD, we just wanted to write some songs, go out there, document what happens, and see what we got.
The Nashville sessions were engineered by Chris Munson. These were not easy, by-the-numbers sessions, we sprung a few surprises at him, took a few left turns, and he never batted an eye. Chris was playing drums with Vassar at this time, played drums on a couple of these tracks, and later came out and joined Honey Buckit.
His reputation has never recovered.
Bluegrass Jam - 11.18.99
With Doug Dillard (banjo) and Lee Owen (guitar).
You all probably know who Doug is, and there's a great story as to how he got here - but we'll save it for another day. Lee was Vassar's guitarist, and our bud.
This jam was unplanned and uncharted. Doug showed up, so we stopped our regular recording, all sat in a circle, Chris set up the mics and and hit record. The pictures up top are from this jam session.
Being in Nashville was some of the most fun we've ever had, and we will be eternally grateful for Vassar's talent and generosity throughout the entire experience.
Notes/commentary by Sean Shanahan.