An Appreciation

I wanted to write a few words, things I've said before and still believe, about some of the people that I've played music with over the years who appear on this site.

The Sonnets was created by Dave Curtis (now Hillman Curtis), one of the best songwriters I've ever known. An artist can create in any medium and Dave is one of those people. He could make a song tweaking the spokes and blowing through the handlebars of his bike, (done by Frank Zappa) but if Dave did it, he'd own it, and it would be great. He is an excellent writer and musician and I always admired his talent and was a true fan of every one of his songs.

Mike Fragameni is the best all around musician that I've ever played with. He is fluent on at least five instruments and if that as not enough he is a great engineer and producer. We worked together on some of the first NumberNine material and he took my songs to another level, writing guitar, bass and drum parts and engineering and producing an effortlessly lush recording that sounded absolutely huge.

Anthony Chunn, who also did some tracks for me on the original #9, is a gifted singer songwriter. I heard him bring a room full of people to dead silence. Others have done that, but this was drop-dead 'whatshappeninghere?'... his own songs, just him and his guitar, truly great. He's done bigger things on bigger stages but the acoustic stuff floored me.

James Payne is another talented multi-instrumentalist who added great tracks to some of my early recordings.

Steve Jenkins played drums on a couple of tunes for me before he created Third Eye Blind. He is every bit as great a drummer as he is a rapper and writer.

I played in Blue Goatee with Pete Krawiec, Steve Smith and Danny Kassoff for more than 10 years. They are genuine guys and naturally great players. We had countless good times together playing all the small clubs in San Francisco all through the 90s. I never heard any one of them speak poorly of any other musicians and I think they can say the same for me. Since 2005 I've done some recording, construction and a little partying with each of these guys and they are all as much fun to hang with as ever.

Steve Smith and Ron Austin are the other two parts of Black Chewy, a totally improvisational jazz/hiphop project. Both are wonderfully creative souls.

Robert Elliott and the guys in his band The Incurables have been good pals over the past couple years. Many a good time has been had singing Elliott's songs, toasting with shots of skone' and making recordings. His health is not so good now but we wish him well by continuing work on his large catalogue of original songs.

Miranda is the most exceptional singer/songwriter I've ever played with. I don't know what else to say. Together we put together more than 50 songs over 5 years, and I never stopped being astounded. An absolutely beautiful expression and a great friend and partner.

Phillip Machingura is a singer/ songwriter and mbira player from Zimbabwe. I played a beautiful benefit with him at the Brava Theatre to 250+ people. He's an amazing talent and a brilliant ambassador to his country.

A few sidelines, during the Sonnets years we made a recording with Dave Bryson. Bryson is a great guy and an excellent musician/engineer. I learned a lot recording with him at Dancing Dog Studios. He engineered the recording and added some great tracks to the project. He went on to play with Adam Duritz and Counting Crows. I never played with Adam but he was a great influence. Before most of the above projects existed, I took my girlfriend and a couple of others to see him play with a band called the Himalayans at the Blue Lamp. I could see he was an extraordinary talent then and took friends in support of his bands to places like the Bears Lair, Berkeley Square, the Fire House and many others. He was a positive influence on me and many others.

There have been others that I have played music with over the years. They may not be mentioned here but I hold fond recollections of them all.

Peace and prosperity to you,
Rob Lederer, aka Rob Craig
Oakland, CA
August 2006