Introducing ALTERNATE TRAGEDY

Well...this is the band BEHIND the inspiration of Alternate Tragedy! 

As you all know, I am a sucker for live music and lead singers! Just a couple years ago (it's been way more than a couple but I have a hard time coming to terms w my age) when I was a student at Penn State there was this band...

...in my mind, that band who has now changed names but still plays bars in State College, is who I picture when I'm writing about Calon and Alternate Tragedy.

They didn't come into Gracie's story until almost the end of IN TOO DEEP but you just wait...Calon and his bandmates take on a much bigger role in Gracie's life in ON SOLID GROUND and it's a beautiful relationship. 

Well, last night my husband and two of our three kids - the teens who get their love of live music from their parents - came back to State College to see Calon and the guys, who are actually the members of a band called Spider Kelly.

I got to meet up with them after their awesome show and hang out for awhile off the wings of the stage. It was a blast, like meeting up with old friends! And of course, I gave them a signed copy of IN TOO DEEP which their wives were excited about! 

So, without further ado...

This is Eric (Calon) and James (Manny), we lost the other guys so we're two guys short for the pic. Thanks for the memories, guys! Can't wait for you (and your wives) to see how Alternate Tragedy touches Gracie's life in ON SOLID GROUND!

And yes, we will be headed out to see them again tonight...yep, they're just THAT good! 

Gracie Jordan's State of Love and Trust...and Pearl Jam

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It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I love PEARL JAM ...but not in a screaming, never wash my hand again if it shook Eddie's, creepy stalker kind of way. NOT AT ALL. Don't get me wrong, the announcement of US dates for their 2013 tour sent a wave of goose bumps through me that didn't stop for an hour. And if I had the chance to meet Eddie Vedder I would have butterflies the size of elephants but not for the reasons you think.

Yes, he's famous, but I could care less about that. Yes, he's always been beautiful to look at but that's just a bonus as far as I am concerned. I am in awe of the beauty of his passion for the lyrics he writes, the raw nature of how he bears his soul for every performace, the heart he puts into everything he touches from the research he does on the towns they play to his environmental activism to the benefit concerts at The Bridge School, a school for children with severe speech and physical impairments.

Sure, Gracie would love to meet Eddie Vedder, too, but for EXACTLY the same reasons I do...
I would like to personally thank him for how much his music has touched my soul and healed scars from my past. I would like to tell him that the passion he exudes when he writes and performs is beyond gorgeous. And you better believe this man will have a spot in the "Acknowledgements" in my book, IN TOO DEEP... which was born on a very rough day for me as I lay in my bed and cried listening to Pearl Jam's DEEP, realizing I was "in too deep."

I saw Pearl Jam for the first time in November of 1991 when they came with The Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chili Peppers to Rec Hall at Penn State. This was less than a year after the band that was Mother Love Bone added Eddie as their singer and became Pearl Jam. So, I have been listening to their lyrics and collecting their albums (I have 109 of their songs on my iPod right now) pretty much since the beginning.

And, that concert at Penn State was just months before I sat in Park Place apartment #305 just off campus and watched them perform on MTV Unplugged - back when MTV really was all about MUSIC and music was about so much more than suggestive words and crazy wardrobes.

This song, STATE OF LOVE AND TRUST, is currently on repeat as I write Gracie's emotions while she tries to convince herself that her state of love an trust has been broken down to pretext.

Enter MTV unplugged from March 1992:

Just watch him...he FEELS every word he sings. THIS is AUTHENTIC art!
Completely AUTHENTIC!

Now, try to call me a "crazy Pearl Jam fan!"
It goes much deeper than that.

Thank you, Eddie.