Wednesday by Sky Cooper

At college I gigged with various groups and solo artists throughout the Pioneer Valley: different jazz combos, a Funkadelic cover band, the Cas Lucas Blues Band, Toby Driver's progressive metal outfit Kayo Dot, (now on John Zorn's label Tzadik), The Blend, and a fusion group: Ghosthouse, which drew inspiration from my classes with music legend Yusef Lateef.

After leaving Western Massachusetts I gigged around Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area, holed up in a crumbling haight street hostel. Serving food as a "safari guide" on the docks I caved in, scrambling home to Australia after a cloudy eviction. With a couple bucks in my pocket I got to Sydney airport without a passport, but ran into a mate from the pub at customs; "Welcome home". First round's on me.

By mid 2000 I was doing some street busking in Sydney and ended up giving several live solo performances on Sydney radio (2SER) before heading north to the Laura festival (QLD). Tracking dust back from the bush to a house in Townsville, I played some pubs with an old bluegrass group (bass player was 86) in late 2001. We had some fun entertaining the buffet crowd, but I was generally known as a ‘seppo’. Moved into a Sat night solo slot downtown for 3 months.

After 911 I shuttled back to the Bay Area and teamed up with some local friends to record something on my mind-the Coffee House EP - January 2002. But by now life from my back pack was getting old, shoulders rusted, and all my socks sported heel holes. When I spent Australia Day (Jan 26th) digging my clothes out of the rubble of an exploded laundromat, I settled on a future of job security, and a washing machine of my own.

Later that week with a fever I sat in on a blues jam in the tenderloin which led to $100 for a jazz trio gig. Cash in hand, and cold from GreenPeace canvasing I caught a greyhound to Portland Oregon overnight chasing a job lead on Valentines day.

Following a rainy arrival I sanded table tops for six months and booked a summer solo tour around the country. Three days before I set out in my rusty jetta. I lost my wallet and address book. Dismayed, I drove to eat lunch at the park and I crashed into a passing car driven by a woman from human resources.

Tour busted.

Flew to boston to resume floor warming and vendored summer folk festivals with weavings from guatamala. Saw summer 2002 set. Keen for Portland, I returned to start again.

I finally found the musicians I’d been looking for to make an album, and I formed the band Dorado in 2003. I mopped floors in a hospital cafeteria for four years to pay for it’s debut recording("Dorado Sound", 2007), and in the meantime I founded the independent label Kemai Records to release my first full length album "Wednesday"(2002) which had a song (better days) placed on a national reality TV show. Although I haven't learned to write bio's successfully in the third person, if you rolled with the ramble this far; thanks.

i hope you dig the tunes --sky

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