Tara Key

eleventh dream day isn't the only band that has been around for 30 years--our pals Antietam also played their first show in 1984.
I had seen Tara Key and Tim Harris first in Lexington, Kentucky when the Babylon Dance Band opened for D.O.A. I was amazed by Tara and the way she could weave from power chord riffs to melodic lead lines without blinking an eye. Tim's bass lines had that same anchored, yet snaky feel that I loved in Joy Division and Pylon--the perfect canvas for Tara's Pollock spattering of sound.
A few years later when I was visiting a friend in Louisville I met Tara, Tim, and their drummer Janet as they emerged from the practice room at 1069--the friendly neighborhood punk rock house where my friend Kate lived. Turns out that was the day that eleventh dream day was born with a gleam in the eye.
Tim and Tara departed for New York then Hoboken then New York and started up Antietam--we were lucky enough to catch one of those early Hoboken gigs. We played many times together in the eighties, in New York, in Chicago, and Derby Eve shows in Louisville.
When we recorded El Moodio at Sorcerer in NYC, we got Tara to lay down some guitar on The Raft. She later joined us for the Stalled Parade tour in Europe and we got to experience the idea that two Les Paul guitars turned up really loud can be a sonic joy. We decided to make a record together by trading adat tapes and building songs a track at a time. That became the instrumental record Dark Edson Tiger. We recorded a second one in much the same manner (although the adat machines were retired) ten years later.
Tara and Tim have been two of my best friends moving into a fourth decade, and Tara is my musical kindred spirit. She is my favorite guitar player bar none. When Tara is in a "zone" she is the most inventive and sonically exciting guitarist period. Period.
We play together again at the Mercury Lounge in NYC on August 21st.