Early Tucson Years, Part 2

Continuous Connections

When I moved to Tucson in November of 1989, I wasn’t thinking about jumping into the music scene. I was more focused on stretching out my visual art ideas which had been somewhat shaken up due to the strange new terrain I found myself in. But around 1991 I started meeting up with some local musicians and banging around the bar scene.

One such musician was Mike Hebert, also recently relocated to Tucson. Mike was part of the Forbidden Pigs out of San Diego and here’s a pic with the me on drums, Mike on guitar, and the Pig’s bassist Billy Bacon. Yes, Bacon.

But playing with Mike one night in some long-gone bar on Grant Road, he told me there was this young guitarist who was going to sit in. In walked this androgynous person who quietly set up her amp…and then let it rip! It was Mitzi Cowell, then in her mid-20s. Long story short, Mitzi and I have maintained a life-long friendship, sista-from-anudder-mudder style relationship since then. She formed a short-lived band shortly thereafter, me on drums, called the Visionary Blues Band with J.D. Sipe on bass (who moved to Albuquerque in 1993) and Cantrell Maryott on vocals, who is still active in Tucson as a singer and visual artist.

Pic taken in my Barrio Viejo courtyard: J.D. Sipe, Cantrell Maryott, Mitzi Cowell, and me

Lordy, we were young. Well, as fate would have it in ’94 or so I joined up with The Mollys, which kept me busy and committed to one band until I left in 2000. That story is one for several chapters of the book I probably won’t write. Then again…

Fast forward to 2000 when, off the road, Mitzi and I hooked up again for a bit in a band called the Valiants, named after her beloved car. There was a new guy in town who played bass and the three of us started gigging. This was my introduction to Larry Lee Lerma, a magician on the four string stick of wood.

The Valiants with special guest Sid George on sax

Turns out Larry was the house bassist for LA’s House of Blues and played bass for Jim Belushi’s Sacred Hearts band, and was working at that time with Dan Ackroyd as well. It’s a short flight to LA so he was commuting when needed. After the Valiants wound down (although Mitzi showcases the Valiants once in a while to this day) and people moved on to different projects, Lerma landed the gig with Kevin Pakulis, which lasted for at least a decade.

Around 2014 or so, after Larry had departed from Kevin’s band, I started gigging off and on with Kevin as a keyboardist.

Then I moved into the drum slot and my buddy Karl, who moved to Tucson in 2014, landed the bass slot. We’ve been the rhythm section since then. But to wrap up this story, Karl and Judy took off for a month in Spain and England last week so who did Kevin call to sub? Lerma, who I had not seen for perhaps a decade. Of any bassists in town who could fill Karl’s big shoes, he’s it. And since he was the bassist on at least two of Kevin’s early CDs he was right at home. And, come to find out, he’s still part of the Sacred Hearts Band when called upon.

Selfie with Larry at last Sunday’s ‘Church’

And now…