Rambling words about Davey G and the Keyboard a fortnight before the Davey G and the Keyboard 10 Year Anniversary Show (a short series) Part 1

10 Years…a career that started on the couch of a house on Maryland Avenue…yes, the Davey G and the Keyboard trajectory has taken many turns. From the time that my old band, Lampstand, (for which I was not a keyboardist but a drummer) had it’s final meeting (a reunion eight years after our breakup) on July 2, 2000 until now, it has been quite a trip. Little did I know that the reunion of my high school band would ignite a desire within me that would last for so long. I’ve written about a lot of this before, so I’ll try to be brief in recapping it all…

Read about Lampstand here then come back and read the rest…

After that last show, I became inspired to return to the stage. After a summer of writing songs and goofing around on an old Kawai X20 keyboard, I had a set, and then a show, my first. September 2, 2000. 23 people showed up, and an act was born.
http://davecookson.tripod.com/daveyghistory.html

A few months later, I had a “tour” with my old band mate, Kneil, who was at the time in a band called Bromp Treb. I played in front of a green screen at Schenectady Cable Access, then a house party in Pittsfield, and then a show at Hampshire College. It was then January of 2001, and in those 3 shows, I really felt like I was on to something, setting a course that neither of us could have been aware of at the time…
2001-2002 was a heavy period of performances. Davey G and the Keyboard, as I was now calling myself, was getting off the ground. I had a fairly important show at the old Ottobar, then got a series of shows at the now defunct Winchester’s Comedy Club. I played and I played, and then I stopped, in 2002, and did not return until 2005...

When I came back to the stage in 2005, it was to much fanfare, more shows, more focus. I put together Prepare to be Keyboarded, then two years later I worked on what I had hoped would be my masterwork, Chairman of the Keyboard. This album was an attempt at more “professionalism,” an attempt to compensate for some of the rush jobs of the past. It was nothing if not an exercise in anal-retentiveness, at least as much of that as I am capable…

2008/2009 were also busy years, playing at the Sidebar, my home away from home.
Which brings me up to now, 10 years after the release of “Generica,” and the Davey G and the Keyboard 10th Anniversary Show (s)...

Next: The DGK 10 lineup and comments….