Michael…and that song I put out today.

Today is Michael’s birthday! Michael DeBacker was one of the first people I ever met in college. Mainly because my girlfriend at the time had friended him on The Facebook, a new exciting way to connect with other college students. He had a Mohawk in his profile picture, playing the bass, and his bio claimed he loved Five Iron Frenzy which, at the time, was mine and my girlfriend’s favorite band.

It was a deep resounding connection when we jammed on the Ped Mall playing our lame songs from high school. Actually, Michael had a really hilarious song about being Emo where the tag line was “and I cry a lot, and I cry a lot” which I adored since my other favorite band was Dashboard Confessional.

We played music together a lot over the years, even playing in a duo together called Ghost Dance. Michael was the third member of Dream Jurnal for awhile, was a founding member of ShaSha, and was the MC for Open Mike Night which ran for two years at Gabriel’s on Tuesdays before I got sucked into the finance/insurance world of hell in my 20s.

Here is an example of his incredible songwriting skills.

We sat on porches singing songs, smoking pipes, and imagining we’d be the next group of artists like the Beats or the Lost Generation because we were all talented and full of ideas. More than anything, we exchanged our ideas, our questions, and our structurally unsound answers. I can without a doubt say, that I would not have formed the world view I have today without Michael on the other side of the Spades table babbling about freewill, God, and what it means to be human.

He was the best man when Rachelle and I eloped. If you know him, you know that he IS the best man.

Now we are older, climbing the last bit of rocks before we get the view from 40 and head down the other side. He has been my friend a long time and I am thankful that those early years of playing music together pushed us farther into our own personal artistry, a McCartney Lennon experience I am lucky to have had.

I didn’t write Noccalula Falls for Michael, but when I was deciding on a day to release it, it just made sense that it would be on a day for someone I can blame partly for why I am the way I am today.

Happy Birthday Michael! Please don’t die!

Oh also, here’s that song I wrote!