The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

In the aftermath of 9-11 when the Trade Towers were destroyed, I noticed a lot of friends, couples mostly, broke up.  Maybe just a coincidence, but it sure seemed like that event led to questioning everything from politics to marital compatibility.  After a couple of years of Covid isolation, I bet something similar is going on, folks trapped in their homes and apartments, slowly reassessing jobs and marriages and lifestyles, taking a hard look at new realities.

The South End String Band started up right after 9-11.  You need help with the math, that was 21 years ago.  We started out as a back porch ensemble, mostly beers and potlucks, pickin and grinning, no big expectations, just play some music, bbq, socialize, anything goes.  We ended up with two dozen folks but eventually whittled that down to 11, then started playing benefits, small gigs, eventually larger concerts, made 4 CD’s, ended up with 5 of us going into 2022.  Last two years we didn’t play very often, didn’t do concerts, didn’t even practice much, just waited for the Plague to run its course, no need for the band to be Super Spreaders.

So when the first member quit — by email —maybe we shouldn’t have been too surprised.  Next day, the second one quit … and shortly after that the third, all by email, nicely impersonal, definitely socially distanced.  21 years … and we get a digital WE QUIT.

Bands don’t generally have a long expiration date.  Tough life, a musician’s.  Road trips, groupies, drugs, crooked promoters, disruptive spouses, the inevitable corrosion of fame.  21 years is longer than the Beatles, longer than the Who, okay, maybe never catch the Rolling Stones unless we get blood transfusions like Keith Richards, and even then, probably not.

But here’s the deal: don’t write us off.  We got a banjo, we got a fiddler, we got a bass from one of the original band, we’re the South End String Band, dammit, and we’re not going anywhere … fast!  Stay tuned.

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