Sometimes I can’t really believe that The Lavone is history. Right now is one of those times. Yeah, The Lavone was a band, but it was a band in the way that your mother is a female. Which is to say, it’s technically accurate but fails to convey the whole story.
It was 1978 or 1979 and I was 5 years old. My family lived in a little yellow house in Exodus Court in Farmington, MN. My mother had been working at Poppin’ Fresh (now known as Baker’s Square) on the night shift, making pies. To bring in a little extra dough she started doing daycare in the home. There was a garage sale of some sort in which my aunt Mary attempted to sell some of her old records and the ones she couldn’t sell she gave to Rhett and I. In this stack of vinyl were records by the Starland Vocal Band, Seals & Croft, Barry Manilow, and (more importantly) The Beatles, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Bee Gees, and a few others that didn’t totally suck (Grand Funk Railroad?). Rhett and I played those records over, and over, and over. We also sang along and thought to ourselves, “Hey, we should do this.” I beat on the couch as a drum-set, Rhett worked the invisible crowd in the living room, we were on our way to something.
It was a short time later, still 1979, and my family had moved into an apartment in Burnsville. Rhett and I decided to attempt to learn some actual songs to play a “gig” in our bedroom. I took the guitar, a plastic acoustic I got at a Ben Franklin store, and Rhett took the drums, a conglomeration of flower pots and various other bits and pieces. We called it our “Disco Party” and we played for our next door neighbor Joann and her sister. I don’t remember what we played, but I do remember that we made a sign to advertise it.
It was 1980, I had turned 6, and our family moved yet again into a new house in Apple Valley. Rhett and I again started on the music thing. A neighbor kid across the street named John joined us and we wrote our first original song, “I Was Born In the City of Texas”. We called ourselves The Rockboys.
It was 1983, The Rockboys were a memory, but Rhett and I had enlisted our little brother Reed and started recording our music under the name Row. We were working on our first “album”, entitled “Electronic Reflex”. Writing and recording music was now just something we did, the way other kids played with action figures or watched TV.
It was 1986 and a few years of Row had worn us out. We had recorded “Electronic Reflex”, “Terror Again”, “Brains in Blenders” and “Used Food”. Reed and I had begun to resent how far ahead of us Rhett was in musicianship and songwriting and had begun to discuss it. Rhett, however, convinced me to buy an electric guitar, take some lessons, and form a duo with him. We called ourselves The Lavone and we recorded our first album, “Psychotrauma”.
It was 1987 and we recorded “One”.
It was 1988, and we recorded “We Don’t Exist” and gained Mike Thomas as our third member. We recorded “l a v o n e”, we recorded “Nukenlodgetisenberry”, writing and recording music was now a central component of our lives.
It was 1989, we recorded “Earth Mother”, we recorded “Angel of Purpose”, we bought a 4-track, we named our studio “The Nuclear Gopher Original Electronic Stereophonic Recording Studio”. We recorded “Psychotic Requiem”.
It was 1990 and we finished our epic “A Spectacle for Compassionate Minds”. We recorded “Escapyst Flowers”. Mike left the band. We kept going. I was 16, going on 17.
It was 1991, we recorded “A Concert for No-one” and started work on two albums “Eat a Speech 1″ and “Eat a Speech 2″.
It was 1992 and we took the “Eat a Speech” songs and put them towards a new band Purple Triangles and recorded “Visor Minds”, the first and only album by that band.
It was 1993 and we recorded “Some Enchanted Evening” and we began an album to be entitled “Gorgeous”…. and then things changed. Real life, my young marriage, work, responsibilities set in, robbing us of time. We put more songs towards another band, The Frog, and recorded “Son of Electric Cheeseburger Poodleskirt: A Concept Album”, but “Gorgeous” lagged.
It was 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and “Gorgeous” made slow and erratic progress. Recording sessions were carved out of limited time, Rhett and I saw each other less and less. I became a father and a professional software developer.
It was 1999 and “Gorgeous” finally appeared under the title “The Hiatus”. Rhett and I finished the album at my apartment as I went through my first divorce. We took pictures of each other for the cover art, making silly faces and wearing silly hats. It was a long hiatus and painful, but we were ready to roll again and did. We immediately began work on a live lineup and another album.
It was the year 2000 and we finished “Isotope”, the last and most mature of our albums. We played gigs as The Lavone for the first time since 1989, it was glorious.
But then, it was 2001, and we hadn’t recorded much more.
It was 2002 and still the recording was slow.
It was 2003 and I suggested The Lavone take a permanent hiatus. It seemed the magic had gone. The thrill, the momentum, had ground to a halt. 17 years had gone by, and it seemed time for a break. We decided to play a final farewell show, a blowout, a musical festival called “My Adventure Flowerland”, to put a nice bow on it. It never happened.
Then, it was 2004 and I left the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Lavone went into a coma. Personal events overtook music completely. There was nothing.
Finally, it was 2005, and on the 4th of July, Rhett died and The Lavone, my relationship with my brother, and the greatest friendship and partnership I had ever had was over, permanently, finally, completely.
The idea that I will never again record with Rhett, never again share my ideas with him, never again hear his ideas, is something that I cannot fathom. It was been nearly two years and I still have moments, hours, days, when I do not believe it. Rhett visits my dreams, he haunts my waking thoughts, he is an ever present voice in my mind, and yet he is gone.
Other members of The Lavone are still here, Eric, Brian A., Brian B., probably even Mike (if only I could find him), but Rhett is gone. My dear beloved Rhett is gone. The Lavone will never be again.
I collaborated with Rhett on my first post-Rhett solo album, “Songs of Bo Redoubt” by playing along with a track of his drums. I recorded a cover of The Lavone’s “My Adventure Flowerland”, but it’s not The Lavone. Now I have my first post-Lavone band, Trumpet Marine, and we have our first gig on June 4th, but it’s not The Lavone. I cannot, and probably never will, come to grips with the fact that Rhett is gone and that The Lavone is nothing more than a memory.
I’m not sure I ever want to. As good as I hope Trumpet Marine will be and as good as my life is today, The Lavone is where I learned everything about music, it’s where I bonded with my brother, it’s where I poured my hopes and dreams. Some days, like today, I just can’t accept that it’s over.
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