limited rewards

In the spring of '17 former bandmate Mike (Green Things, Small Time Napoleons) pitched the idea of starting a band with the name Rollin Hand. He had written and recorded a dozen or so tunes and they needed an outlet.

​

Mike tapped his longtime collaborator Randy Burke as drummer and off we went.

​

In short order, we added Scott Shell on keys and background vocals and began prepping for an inaugural show at The Uptown in August 2017.

​

After a good audience response and favorable gig review we decided to keep the band rollin'.

​

UPDATE: I’m not going to go on at length about the denouement of the Hand - the story of the way down is less fun to tell.

​

Yeah, we made plans to put out vinyl -- even having artist David Cooper create the artwork -- but in the end we didn't release the album of songs we had recorded.

We played 5 shows but didn’t generate much -- or any -- excitement. During that time we put together a second set of material from Mike’s back catalog.

However after a year and a half, drummer Randy decided he could no longer commit to once-a-week rehearsals and left.

Trying to replace Randy wore down our spirits a bit, but Mike and I kept up our weekly rehearsal schedule — even considering playing as a duo, and/or playing with a revolving group of guests.

Then, rather suddenly, I decided to move on. 

Rollin Hand turned out to be a real blessing as it got me excited about playing again, and led me — albeit through frustration — to start playing jazz again.

The best part of the Rollin Hand extravaganza was getting to rekindle my friendship with Mike. Fellow dreamer, fellow warrior.