Rock & Roll Girlfriend

With a few exceptions, most females I've been involved with do not like to frequent rock shows as often as I do. All have been good sports about it and have gone with me if the show attendance is a must. Karen's only been to two shows with me. Both were big deals that she enjoyed including Aimee Mann about a year and a half ago and an incredible show two years ago by the underrated and forgotten-by-all-except-music-geeks David Baerwald.

But for years, even if I went to a show by myself, I could always count on Cheryl being there. Cheryl is a friend of a friend who I've known since college. The woman lives for rock & roll --- especially that made by the local hero types. If they're from Texas and have even a modicum of talent, Cheryl's heard of them and supports them. It doesn't matter if it was a Wednesday night and the band was playing in Denton, Cheryl would be there. So it was sort of comforting when I went out to see some new local band in an unfamiliar club in Dallas. Cheryl served as the ambassador of rock, introducing me to her friends, having a drink with me and discussing what she was listening to at the moment. Cheryl turned me on to a slate of bands that I never would have known about if not for her. And sometimes I'd convince her to come see shows by people I liked. She was always up for it if I advocated the performance strongly enough. We once saw an incredible and unusually powerful set by Radney Foster when he was doing more pop music than roots country. And we also saw the last and maybe best show ever by Nashville's Jason & The Scorchers.

It got to the point that when girlfriends would pass on going out to see bands with me, they'd always ask: "So. Was your Rock & Roll Girlfriend there?" after I got home. There was no hint of jealousy in that question because anybody knew me also knew my relationship with the lovely Cheryl was purely musical.

Cheryl moved to Austin well over a year ago and I haven't seen her since. And Cheryl always took along a digital camera to shows and took extrodinarily good shots of the talent --- so good that lots of bands used the photos on their professional websites. She posted those photos on her website called yellowchevyluv.net. That site allowed me to follow Cheryl's musical adventures from afar. But it's since been taken down. Tara, her high school friend, says Cheryl ran into a series of unfortunate events recently, including her camera breaking. And her website was down the last time I checked. I hope Cheryl's got a new camera and gets that site up and running again. It's the next best thing to having her in Dallas.