Autumn Souvenir

Allendale, New Jersey. Not exactly a hotbed for social activism. Jammed in the upper right corner of New Jersey, this is where I was raised. Save a few years in Southern California that ended in my parents divorcing, I spent most of my first 18 years in this little suburban town. Almost entirely white, the politics were conservative and the worldview was limited. Reagan was championed and topics such as race relations and inequality in America were largely ignored. Most in the town had "made it." My household was a bit on the fringes. My stepfather, quite possibly the hardest working man I've ever known, was a town police officer (not great during those high school years) and put in as much overtime as the human body could take. Our home was quiet. I spent most of my pre-teen and teen years in local parks playing basketball. We lived right across the street from the town ballpark, where I'd shoot hundreds and hundreds of jumpers every night. Basketball pulled me in. A

8.8 When I attended my first SXSW, in 1999, there was no band I wanted to see more than Damnations, TX. Fronted by sisters Amy Boone and Deborah Kelly, their debut,   Half Mad Moon , had the unlucky timing of being released in 1998, a year in which I probably bought 100 CDs and alt.country, a genre that the Damnations sorta fell into, was on supercharge. But they crept through, and when I finally got a chance to see them, if memory serves, in that huge park in Austin, I was thunderstruck. Those harmonies. The guitars. The songs were just perfect. Mind you, 1999 was wayyyy pre-Interactive, and SXSW Music was still home to up-and-comers. Damnations, TX were one of about 50 bands I intended to see. Bottle Rockets, Joe Henry, Spoon, Meat Puppets, Josh Rouse, Slobberbone, Calexico, Lucinda Williams, Freakwater, Flaming Lips. And I'm just getting started. But there was something about the Damnations, TX. Half Mad Moon was just a blowout, jaw-dropping debut. And as I'm listenin