As my co-blogger and friend Jordan noted:
SMM returns at least briefly for remembrances of music people who passed on in 2023. Sadly, there are many that meant much to me - considering that my age is such that the time is nigh. Musical heroes of the late 60s and 70s are a disappearing breed.
SMM had an amazing run for almost 20 years, amassing close to 3.5 millions visits as of this writing. Amazingly, the blog still draws regular hits (22K this month) despite its being more or less off-air for the past year. Kudos to Jordan for suggesting that we come back for an In Memoriam round to end 2023. The thought was on my mind as well: It's hard to put such an important part of your life to sleep forever, but the number of willing bloggers and the output had dwindled too far to keep going on the blog's original premise: winding down from weekly to bi-weekly themes.
Among the choices of music people who passed in 2023, and the first I am going to go with is someone not many of you have likely heard of, but who, by association, is dear to my heart. For many years (including in my other [inactive] blog) I have written about Bill Janovitz (of Buffalo Tom fame). It is with saddened heart that I learned as I looked at a list of musicians that passed in 2023 that Bill's younger brother Paul was among those who passed away this year at the young age of 54. I have listened to music that Bill Janovitz and Buffalo Billand Crown Victoria put out for at least the past 10 years, but I wasn't aware of Paul's group Cold Water Flat until now. That said, his life story resonates close to home. My combined interest in music and photography (Paul's other art interest) makes me feel closer to the family in a parallel manner.
An obit of sorts for Paul mentions that he was a multi-instrumentalist: primarily guitar and vocals, and that - after the Cold Water Flat band he formed disbanded, he went on in a more acoustic style, playing clubs in the Boston area. It was at about this time that he started putting more effort and energy into photography, some of it of notable. What that obit doesn't mention is that Paul's brother Bill isn't the only other musician in the family: brother Scott plays with The Russians and Tom plays with Sodafrog.
