Well, I suppose it's time to make this announcement….and here goes…
For more than a decade now(give or take a few brief hiatuses) I've had Mr. Henry Go by my side on stage. He's been there for me from the infancy of fORMER…hell, even before that, taking over bass duties in Bombshell Crush at the tale end of our run, and putting himself through the unenviable paces of learning Tony Higbee's bass parts just to play a couple of shows before the whole thing finally imploded.
When we couldn't find a singer(or a proper moniker) for the the band that crawled out of that wreckage, he trusted me to take over the mic, and stuck by me while I navigated the learning curve(a long one I'm still on) of going from being a lead guitarist to a lead vocalist. His giant voice propped me up and gave me something I could rely on to counter my significantly flimsier attempts at crooning.
More importantly, he let me steer the ship, and gave me a wide berth to make rookie bandleader mistakes(such as taking on the handle fORMER), while I figured a few things out….like how to actually get us paid on occasion. He has always trusted my vision, and delivered the goods needed to make a composition "pop", tolerating my OCD and the inherent difficulty in articulating musical ideas that comes with having absolutely zero actual training…something I'm guessing is not easy for a guy who's legitimately schooled.
In short, this guy has been my brother, and someone I could always count on to have my back. That's why this move has been so tough.
For anyone keeping up with recent developments in The Great Affairs' world, we recently signed on with NAHPRO Entertainment, and they'll be taking over the bulk of our booking duties. In order for this arrangement to benefit either party, we need the flexibility to travel a lot more extensively than Henry's work schedule will allow. We've struggled with this for quite some time, and done our level best to work around the occasional limitations of his availability, but with an outside party assuming the responsibility of getting us shows and keeping us working, the restrictions have simply become unmanageable. So, rather than leave money on the table; something that will surely start to cause some resentments for those us fond of the dirty lucre, and run the risk of losing the support of our new agency, we have collectively decided to part ways on good terms…..no hard feelings, bad blood, or bridges burned. We all straight-up love the guy, and sincerely wish we could've found another solution, but the fact is we could either relegate ourselves to some sort of sporadic "weekend warrior" status indefinitely(i.e. until we hang it up), or we can take all of the hard work we've put into the last several years and see if we can't eek a little profit from it, and get out to so many places that have been deemed out of reach all this time.
I hope this doesn't sound selfish, but I think we've earned the right to move forward, and see what else we can do with that yoke lifted. Henry knows we've tried our best to accommodate his 9-to-5, and he's certainly bent over backwards for us to get out of work as often as possible to make gigs, but we've finally taken that road as far as it'll go, and hit the proverbial wall.
So, Henry is finishing out this month's dates with us, before passing the baton to O.G. TGA bassist Matt Andersen. We've already been rehearsing with Matt in order to make this transition as seamless as possible, and his (re)debut with us will be in September at the Clarksville RiverFest.
This change has also provided us with the opportunity to revamp a few other things, like our set list, so expect to see/hear a few additional tweaks along the way as this lineup starts to get busier. We're going to do our damndest to make sure this overhaul is about more than just shuffling members and accessibility. It's time to get down to business.
OK then, there it is…and here are the remaining August dates with the esteemed Mr. Go on my right:
Friday, August 14th 6-7PM @ TN Brew Works Nashville, TN(full band acoustic set)
Friday, August 21st 9PM Third St. Dive Louisville, KY w/ American Arson
Saturday, August 22nd 9:30PM MVP Sports Bar & Grille Cincinnati, OH
Peace,
D.