Stragglin’ with the Stragglers

So I’m in this new band, The Stragglers.  For She’s Not There and I’m Looking Through You readers, this is not the band I called “Blue Stranger” in those books; that band entered voluntary retirement in 2006.  I’ve been in about half a dozen bands since then, and been thrown out of every one.  I am always told “it’s not me,” but I don’t know. How could it not be?

I finally have fallen in with a group of musicians so marginal that there is literally nowhere further to fall.  We have a ball together, the five of us. We’ve played out a handful of times, and will probably continue to do so in the years to come.  It’s a jam band, which means that, on the one hand, we only have like five songs, but on the other, since each one is an hour and a half long, we don’t really need more than five songs.  Plus, we never remember how they go, so each time is different.

The instrumentation is pretty wild too– it’s a classic rock and roll rhythm section of drums, bass, and guitar, with two wild cards– me on keyboards, and Luke on the electric fiddle.  Dave LaGrange– who was part of the “Blue Stranger” circle– plays rhythm and sings and when he feels like it, which is a lot of the time, he whips out a lead as well.

In truth, the band is pretty freakin’ great–a few originals, but mostly things like Neil Young, Grateful Dead, the Band,  a few bar classics.  Lots of improvisation.  A good time.  I love playing with these guys– a nice slot for a keyboard player to fill.  I get to fill in the holes as I feel them, and then step up and do big piano or organ solos now and again too.

Anyway, I asked my friends on Facebook if anybody wanted to make a logo for the band, and just like that, four or more logos were drawn up by people I hardly even know, for free.  Amazing thing, the internet.  I said I thought the band emblem should be, “a three toed sloth hanging from a tree,” epitomizing our driving sense of ambition.  So here, for your consideration, are some of those logos. What do you think?

“On stage the band has got problems; they’re a bag of nerves on first nights.” –Rolling Stones, “Torn and Frayed.”

P.S.  and if YOU are a design nerd, or are just the kind of person who wants to hang around the house messing with images of three-toed sloths, draw up one of these your own self and send it to me.  Thanks. And STRAGGLE ON!