Strong Medicine - Dr. Dan Makes a House Call

report filed 9/9/00 1:04 pm EDT - It's been a crazy week! Talk about unexpected twists and turns... I've seen more than my share over the past eight or nine days.

The weirdness started simply enough. Rather than go to the Carolina coast as originally planned, we skipped the fun in the sun and rolled north to New York. There were a variety of reasons. Avoiding the Labor Day crowds and traffic was a big part of it. Same with driving south prior to the long road north. Just didn't make a whole lotta logistical sense.

Before leaving Greenville I had the pleasure of catching Dr. Dan at Peasants. What a cool show! Dr. Dan is a keyboard wiz with some serious mad scientist overtones. And one of the most expressive faces you'll ever see. The guy really gets into his music.

As a founding member of Colonal Bruce Hampton's Fiji Mariners, Dr. Dan earned the respect of his fellow players as a 'musician's musician' for his uncanny ability to articulate melody through unique and captivating phrases. And fans love him 'cause he rocks. Mixing up funky blues and post fusion cool with an array of tasty R&B grooves and the occasional 'free space' sonic adventure, the good doctor and his band gave the small, but appreciative crowd, a potent dose of their thoroughly enjoyable musical medicine.



Left Greenville a couple of days after the Dr. Dan show. Hung out with an old college buddy up in New City in Rockland county, a little north of Manhattan, and then settled into the new Anytime/Anywhere Studio here in Brooklyn. Things were going well until I found out that my computer had a virus a couple of days ago.

It's gone now, but it cost me a few days of productivity. I've posted information on the virus, as well as how to check for it, and also get rid of it, if necessary...

OK, maybe that doesn't sound too weird to you, but lemme tellya bucko - it was a pain in the zorch...

Meanwhile, back at the word factory... as many of you know, we've been working very closely with the HGMN on a variety of very exciting projects. And even though we're on the road again, that's going to continue...

Thanks a bunch to the HGMN staff and krewe for a wonderful summer in Greenville! It was a blast...


Bryan 'Plan B' Rodgers


Edwin 'Space Wrangler' Vaughn and Joules Graves


Marcie 'Kind Mama' Vogel


Jay 'the Colorado Kid' Powell


Lee 'Daddy-O' Crumpton

Although we don't have their pictures to post, many thanks to Hill, Shannon, Blair, Rain, Brad, Ronni, Dail, Jojo and Gray, Paul and Tamara at Peasants, for all the good vibes and irie times!! Ya'll are the best.

So that's it for this week's adventure. Gonna try to motivate and bang out a couple of articles. Who knows? With any luck, I'll be able to post them next week, when our adventure in music journalism continues...