Jodi

Somewhere in the late eighties or early nineties, I was part of a band called Mirage. I've often joked about it as the Fleetwood Mac tribute band I was in because we not only did a lot of Fleetwood Mac material (which suited us especially well), we also covered a lot of other groups (Tom Petty, Eagles, CSNY, etc.) with that similar west coast sound from the same time period. It was one of the better bands I've been in, largely on the strength of the group vocals. As happens with most musical groups eventually, issues emerged between us and the band broke up. I remained friendly with Tom and Jodi (the Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of the group), and played with Tom again in other projects afterward, but hadn't stayed in touch with Jodi, in spite of the fact that we always got along well and she had (and has) a fine voice. I suppose the main reason was that I strongly associated her with that particular kind of music, and when Mirage broke up, I was more than ready to do something different.

Now that I'm playing music again, through the wonders of the internet I searched for some old bandmates, and lo and behold, there was Jodi. Better yet, she was still performing, and scheduled to play with her current band at a place I'd planned to check out anyway. And so tonight I went to see her.

I wasn't sure what sort of reception I'd get. We'd been friends, but it had been fifteen years or so since we'd seen each other. I'm pleased to be able to say I couldn't have asked for a warmer reception. I approached her just as she was turning around from the bar and asked her if her band knew any Britney Spears songs, since that was about as far away from what her band plays as I could think of at that moment. She said no very quickly, but managed to maintain that professional veneer you have to have to deal with some of the lunatics that make ridiculous requests of band members. Then I just smiled and said "Hi, Jodi", and gave her a moment to look at me, since of course my appearance has changed since she'd last seen me. She laughed as she registered who I was and hugged me, saying she'd just been thinking of me, as she'd come across Mirage's drummer on Facebook recently. She was still up on what our other former bandmates had been doing and filled me in.

We didn't have long to talk before she had to go to perform. When you sing in a band with someone, you become extremely familiar with that person's voice, but it had been so long that I'd at least partially forgotten just how good she could be, or maybe she's gotten better over the years. She really stunned me with the quality of her performance on a couple of songs, and even brought out an old personal favorite that their band doesn't usually play.

We were able to talk a little more between sets, but she had other people to talk to and limited time to do it. She said she was really happy to see me. She'd been thinking about how good the old band had been and missing the harmonies we used to do. A reunion isn't viable, since Tom is largely busy with other musical projects, and it wouldn't really be Mirage without him. I definitely wouldn't mind singing with Jodi again sometime, though. She promised to get in touch, and I'm hoping we can make something happen in some form. At the very least, I'll get out to see her band again sometime soon.