13 years ago, I played in a band that opened for the legendary Ska band The English Beat. The band is called Natalie Wouldn’t and they have been skanking out the Ska beats since 2000. This original track is one of my favorites. Super fun spy guy vibe.
The tenor sax player was a parent of one of my students at the time. He would volunteer his time to help out my beginning sax players. He knew that trombone was my main instrument and asked me if I wanted to join his band. “We could use a trombone player!” I declined. But then one day he asked me again, and as I was about to say no, he said: “Oh, did I mention, we are opening for the English Beat?” Hell yes! Mirror in the Bathroom was one of my favorite tunes- almost everything on that pink, black and white album was my favorite. I started going to rehearsals as we prepared for the big show. NW had a great set and several original tunes in their line-up and I played harmony to the tenor sax part. After that show though, I quit playing with the band. They were (and still are!) a great group of guys, but my school age kids were the priority. I really had a great time playing this show and thank Natalie Wouldn’t for allowing me to sit in on the dream gig of my life.
One weird memory of this show was watching The English Beat backstage during the show and lead singer Dave Wakeling with his left handed guitar, 51 years old at the time, reaching for a big cup of water after a song and yelling in his English accent, “The specter of dehydration looms large. Stay hydrated!”
Song a Day 2020 
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