Way back in 1986 – 1987, I was a student at SUNY New Paltz, where I met guitarist Peter Forsythe, artist Christopher Walker, and bassist Warren ___? (I can’t remember his last name). We jammed a bit, goofing around and never getting too serious, but it was fun. I nicknamed the pseudo-band “The Sizzling Mice Quartet” (or ‘Kwartet’ when we felt like it), as a fun twist on one of my favorite home town local bands, Rat Race Choir. Chris made an album-sized drawing to go along with imagined band. I wish I still had the original artwork, but I don’t know what happened to it. What I do have is a black and white reduced photocopy. Here’s a scan of it. Click on it to see it larger – it’s a pretty cool detailed drawing!
Pass It On
Years later, in the mid 90’s, I started using one of the first hard disk recording systems – SAW (Software Audio Workshop) and recorded more original music. This was also when burnable CD drives first came out. I had access to one of these at The Mearl Corporation where I worked, but I had found a new gig and was leaving and decided to rush and burn a bunch of copies of a collection of music. And so “Pass It On” by K. Walsh & the Sizzling Mice Kwartet was born! I used Christopher’s artwork as a cover for my totally self-produced recording (the CDs were even burned and labelled by me). Of course, I was the Kwartet in this purely solo effort.
Pass It On as an overall recording effort left plenty to be desired (I still had a lot to learn!), but there are some good songs on it. The cut “Forest Rain” was a solid composition and I still get compliments on it to this day. I recall sticking the mic out the window to capture the sound of the thunderstorm that starts that song. My son Dylan and I jam on that one pretty often and I look forward to re-recording it song for my first full length record.
Another song that generated a fair amount of interest is the title song Pass It On. The blues-jazz instrumental was based on an idea I derived from the work of famous jazz guitarist Joe Pass. I made this video to accompany it years later and people seem to have enjoyed it as it is just shy of 10,000 views as I write this:
Next … And Then There Were Three (Kids, That is!)