Monday music: “Don’t Quit Your Day Job”

Here’s a blast from the past, specifically 2003. From 1994 to 2000, I was part of a group called the Don’t Quit Your Day Job Players. We started out jamming at conventions, but it soon grew into a viable band that played actual gigs, not only at cons, but also at clubs and colleges and state and county fairs. We also released two CDs, TKB in 1996 and Blues Spoken Here in 1999.

The original lineup was me, David Honigsberg, and Pete Heck. Pete left in 1997 and we were then joined by Steve Rosenhaus. Like Pete before him, Steve split the lead-singer duties with David, and Steve also wrote lots of songs. One he decided to do was our “theme song,” since we had the name anyhow — so he wrote “Don’t Quit Your Day Job.”

The band kind of fell apart in 2000, as bands are wont to do, and David and Steve each put out solo CDs in the early 2000s. Steve invited me to participate on three of the songs, one of which was his own take on “Don’t Quit Your Day Job.” That’s me on percussion.

Monday music: “Then the Music Begins”

Back in the 1990s, I was part of a band called the Don’t Quit Your Day Job Players, which started out as a trio: Peter J. Heck on lead guitar and vocals, David M. Honigsberg on rhythm guitar and vocals, and me on percussion and backup vocals. We were later joined by Alexandra Elizabeth Honigsberg on violin, viola, and backup vocals and Rik Cleary on bass. We recorded our first CD in 1996, called TKB with that lineup, along with Nat Andreassi on drums.

In 1998, Pete quit the band and Steven L. Rosenhaus joined up. Steve not only sang lead and backup both, but also plays guitar and mandolin. We also used a series of guest drummers, mostly Nat, Tom Laubenthal, and Don Daley. Rik quit after we recorded our second CD, Blues Spoken Here, in 1999, and we went through a few bassists after that — Fred Andreassi, Pat O’Brien, and Bonnie Bowers. The band finally split up in 2000.

Sadly, that was before YouTube, so none of our music is saved there, though I may someday work to get at least the tracks from the two CDs on there. In the meantime, both David (before his tragic death in 2007) and Steve made solo CDs after the band split, and I was fortunate enough to provide percussional accompiment on three of the cuts on Steve’s 2003 release, A Man Like Me.

One of the three is a song we did with the DQYDJPs: “Then the Music Begins,” which Steve often describes as “The Gipsy Kings meets Stephen King.” Here it is, with Steve playing some beautiful Spanish guitar, James T. Oakar (who also produced the CD) doing the classical guitar solo, and me on the bongos.