18 on the 18th

Eighteen times around the Sun

This is a first for me. I can't stop thinking about that Neil Young song, where he sings,



"Why you growin' up so fast, my son?.. well, you'd better take your time."


Well he's gone and done it... my own son is all grown up now. It happened so fast. Soon he'll be graduating from high school and going on a semi-world tour with his band, The Vox Jaguars. Then, who knows where his incredible musical talent will take him?

A Born Button Pusher

It doesn't surprise me that he's succeeding so profoundly in music. We quite regularly sang to him while he was still in the womb. We called him Skinny back then, and I'd put my face near Mighty Mo's mighty tummy, and softly sing,

"Skinny was born in a bath tub And grew so incredibly thin, that even the end of an eye-dropper would suck him in..."

As an infant, he listened to Bach, Mozart, and other long-hairs while he napped. In our home, he got to hear lots of great music, and experienced an eclectic selection of sounds, which gave him an appreciation for music from the other side of the fence,* so to speak. When he started elementary school, he got into country and western music for a while. We decided not to say anything to him about it, and hoped that it was a phase he would out-grow. He did, and we breathed a sigh of relief.

As he grew and gained mobility, he gravitated toward button pushing. If he saw a button, he had to push it... and there was no stopping him. Today he continues to push lots of buttons on his sound equipment, keyboards, etc. and I suppose that, in a way, fretting his bass is an extension of button pushing as well.

He was already playing bass when he saw Tony Levin at the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz. I think that's when Mason got really serious about the bass. Soon he could play all the Primus songs, and pretty much anything else that got thrown his way. He even taught himself an all-bass version of Bach's Toccata und Fugue in D minor. One of my favorites.

Now he's involved in so many projects it's difficult to keep track. Next week the Vox Jaguars are trekking all the way to Los Angeles for another studio recording session, and a show at the Silverlake Lounge on Sunset Blvd.

Fortunately, I'm not hearing that Cats in the Cradle song in my head today. I'm happy to say that I have been here for my kids. It was wonderful to be a part of Mason's childhood, and to watch him grow up to be such a respectful, and respectable person.

Happy Birthday Mason
The world is in your hands,
And you'll continue to make the world a better place.


* Opaque melodies that would bug most people.