Dave Barry on Guitar

(illustration: "Big Ol' Thing"


Today I received an e-mail from Broadjam, a website where independent musicians are given a place to promote themselves. It linked me to the founder’s blog "Session Players" (click on "Founder's Blog") which had to do with a recording session using top-drawer players, including a guitarist named Dave Barry. Broadjam had held a contest, with the winner’s entry getting the musical equivalent of “extreme make-over.” The before-and-after was impressive, especially since the original version of the song sounded so good it was hard to tell where it could be improved. The “after” version, though, sounded more “radio-ready,” which I suppose was precisely the point…to take a good song and make it go “cha-ching.” It would be interesting to see what they could do with my somewhat left-of-center offerings

My next thought was of Dave Barry, the esteemed humor columnist, who also plays guitar in the a Rock Bottom Remainders, a band comprised of best-selling authors. (“We play as well as Metallica writes novels,” boasts their home page.) I seem to recall something about the humor column winding down as Dave pursued other interests, and wondered to myself if he had just decided to practice a lot and get really really good.

Once at the Dave Barry blog, it was apparent that he was up to his usual mischief, and did not appear to have written anything about his experiences as a top-drawer session player. So I have to assume that they are two different Dave Barrys, although I have heard the author/columnist Dave Barry do a pretty good job on “Louie Louie.”

I wonder if the other Dave Barry is funny.