The one, the only Garth Hudson.

When Music From Big Pink came out, I bought it unheard due to their association with Dylan. At first, I was taken aback by how different it was from what I was used to listening to. Before long, it had grown on me and I absolutely loved it

When their second album came out, I was floored by how good it was. The Band carved out their own category of music that no one has come close to since.

In the last band I was in before hanging it up, we played a knock-off of their The Shape I'm In.

Garth is truly a musical treasure.

@bdp24: "Bewildered" is a good way to put it.

A buddy and I got together in '67 (our sophomore year) and started practicing together, working out Byrds and Stones tunes. When Cream hit, my buddy, Bob, was knocked out by Clapton and started learning tunes from Fresh Cream and Disraeli Gears. Unlike me, Bob took to the guitar like falling off a log and, by the time we had graduated, he was playing Crossroads almost verbatim. I became the lead singer, harp player and occasional rhythm guitar.

We were so poor, I made a makeshift microphone by cutting off one end of a coiled guitar cable and wired it to the speaker in a little transistor radio! It actually (kinda) worked! So, with our limited funds, every album purchase was made with the intention of gleaning a few tunes for the band. When I bought Big Pink, we considered it a mistake and moved on.

At the time, I had one of those GE suitcase stereos with the fold-down table and the swing-out speakers; not horrible but adequate. Then I heard Big Pink on a buddy's system, which featured a McIntosh tube amp and (I think) AR 3A's. He cranked it up and, when Chest Fever hit me in the chest, I knew it was something special.

I had somewhat the same reaction to Hendrix that you did. I had a habit of buying records if I liked the cover, which led to some REAL disappointments (Blue Cheer, etc.) so, when I similarly bought Are You Experienced? due to the cover graphics, I was initially knocked out by it. As time went on, I lost interest in Hendrix.

My buddies thought I was crazy, especially when I bought Charles Lloyd's Journey Within (again, because of the cover), and that sparked my interest in more substantial music. Big Pink then made itself into regular rotation and, at one point, I had six LP copies of it. I sold all but two of them, including a disappointing MoFi copy and my best copy is on EMI (UK).

Due to laziness, I never got very good on guitar, but listening to such talented musicians as The Band taught me that the spaces between notes were just as important as the notes themselves..

@bdp24: At the risk of being nailed for "off-topic" posting or somebody telling us to 'get a room', I gotta say that I listened to some of Gary's stuff and I wish I could get that tone. Reading his biography on last.fm, I can relate to his experience on the advantages of "tongue-blocking" as opposed to the "whistler" style of playing, like mine, although it doesn't hold back guys like Paul Butterfield or Lee Oskar.

Growing up in a small-town in northeast Ohio, we were uniquely blessed with a local promoter's 'Inferno Teen Dance' where we got to hear acts like The Rationals, Terry Knight & The Pack, The Left Banke, and Ohio bands like The Music Explosion and The Dantes, featuring Dave Workman, who now plays in the San Francisco area. I used to run into Joe Walsh there, pre-James Gang.

To elaborate a little on just how bad our equipment was, our PA was an old Bell tube amp that we ran through a couple EV compound diffraction horns, but we did have good guitar amps. One time, we opened for The Ohio Express and weren't told that they were just bringing their guitars and would use our equipment. By that time, we had real microphones, but only had two and I think every guy in the group sang. They were mad about having to use our crappy equipment and we were mad that they were using it while we were working for next to nothing. As I recall, we said something to the effect that our equipment was being defiled with "Yummy Yummy Yummy"!