Last week I was cleaning out a file cabinet and found a package I had mailed to myself many years ago. Based on the addresses, it must have been ~1995. I remember living in that apartment my senior year of college and the following summer.

At that time I was in an alternative/rock band called Huckleberry. In my humble opinion, we had a great mix of influences that blended nicely. We were firmly in the alternative rock category, but everyone brought something different and it was a lot of fun. Our name came from a line in the now-classic 1993 western Tombstone, where Val Kilmer’s character Doc Holiday replies to Johnny Ringo “I’m your huckleberry” and answers his challenge.

We played around Chicagoland for a year or two, often in classy places like Carmie’s Lounge, which we decided “had a two tooth minimum.” It was my first “real” band, outside of just jamming at parties with friends, and we had a blast. I sure learned a lot as well. Nothing but good memories.

Apparently I mailed a tape to my parents’ address to try to copyright the songs. Somehow I ended up with it and kept it with my files for all these years.

I completely forgot we ever did a cover of Concrete Blonde’s “Still in Hollywood” and Hendrix’s “Machine Gun” and his version of “Killing Floor.” My next band (with Huckleberry drummer) did an instrumental version of Machine Gun, but I didn’t recall doing it this far back. I’m a little nervous to hear myself back then… especially doing bluesy stuff, since I didn’t really get into blues for a few more years. I’m sure it’s terrible, but that’s half the fun of going back in time…

The First Play

And while I haven’t imported the whole thing yet (I do have other Huckleberry recordings), I took a video of the first playing of the tape in almost 25 years. The song is “Latty Dadi” – enjoy!

More Huckleberry Pics