“Guitarist Wanted” a Craigslist story

I am releasing three studio produced and mastered songs very soon...Wait...this already happened (side note: I wrote this a while ago)

Anyway, this is the beginning of the story where I believe that journey started, 5 1/2 years ago. (Sometimes these things take a while ;)

On a day, in January 2012, I got a hair up my butt and decided I wanted to jam, play shows, and find a collaborator. So where do you look to find this….Craigslist of course. My girlfriend at the time was a bit concerned as she called my sister and told her I had gone crazy and was meeting some stranger in Festus Missouri off of craigslist. Whatever, it will be fine I said...worst case I will die in the pursuit of music! (Well, we could debate worst cases but that's not my goal here.)

“If u pass the church went too far, I am the house right before the church.”

I sent an email to a complete stranger on Monday the 23rd of January and went to his house and jammed the next day on Tuesday the 24th. I think his wife was equally worried about the scenario as we were setup out in the garage…and instructed to piss in the woods (True, maybe?). Eric was a real dude and we connected immediately by sharing songs we had written and their inspiration. We talked religion, Obama, and all the other “taboo” things right off the bat. I expressed my love for Glen Hansard, Josh Rouse, and Ryan Adams. The following day I sent an email to links of the three. Actually, I’ll paste the comments I shared:

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Start Quote

Josh Rouse - "Laughter" (one of my favorites)

Glen Hansard - "Lies", and the second one is "Say it to me now"

Ryan Adams - Wonderwall Cover (All his original stuff is really cool too, just mentioned this tune last night so here it is)

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We had written several songs together and helped each other with songs we had been working on solo.

Song List from January to July 2012:

-Dying Days

-Roses and Honey (Someone being super sweet but actually full of shit)

-Happiness Is (Right here, right now)

-Get Me Out of Here (I think I was referring to the job I had just left)

-Be So Cold

-Ain’t it Beautiful (Alt name: “Grandma”)

-Demons (We all have them)

-Best I Ever Had

-Cover/Alt version of Lucy in the sky with Diamonds

-Easy Way Out (They say we’re going to Fall)

I listened to some of the old rough demoes Eric and I did and it zoomed me back to 2012 like a brand new Tesla with DeLorean time machine parts...“They” say music has the strongest emotional memory. Totally believe that.

Anyway, we traded some songs at the end of July and connected a couple times again over the years but haven’t played together since back then.

Hope you’re doing well buddy!

-William LaBonte

 

3, 2, 1 Liftoff!

I will start this song blog off with info that will live on my about page....

I started playing guitar because of Led Zeppelin. Sitting in the living room on the couch listening to none other than IV, and just being like "I'm going play that shit!". There was a crappy guitar hanging on the wall in our house and I had to prove myself to the old man that I wouldn't quit this time around...some years prior I had said "screw this, bar chords suck" and lit my guitar on fire (True? Who's to say?).

Anyway, fast forward through the years and I started half ass writing songs and struggling to sing some lines. It always sounded so bad to me. So I started helping other friends record their stuff...it was pretty crude. At the time, it was way cool to us.

Fast forward a bit more and I decided to try to write more and was actually liking the song ideas that were coming out. But the singing still sucked. It was time, I had to figure this singing thing out. After taking voice lessons for the past three years, I've actually reached a point where I can say I'm a guitar player and a singer / songwriter.

Listen and I think you will enjoy. And if you don't, that's cool. I'm really doing this for me. Ultimately, that's any artist's goal isn't it?...self fulfillment and stuff.

Take care peeps!

-William