I've been playing guitar for 32 years now and became a Rush fan back in 1974 when a friend of mine got a copy of the first Rush album. As soon as I heard the intro riff from "Finding My Way" I knew that the album was something special.

I started playing in various local bands around 1979 and by 1983 I decided to quit my job and play full time. I got to play all over the country doing heavy Top 40 music five and six nights a week up until 1988. It was a very hard life but I learned so much about the music business and life in general. It was an experience that I'll always treasure.

After that, I had to get a real job and I didn't have much free time to play guitar. I got married and divorced (twice) and had a couple great kids. After my last divorce in 2003, I got the itch to play again. I found that I could barely do it. My fingers didn't want to go where my brain told them and the lack of calluses made it fairly painful to play for more than a few hours. I figured that if I was going to start over I may as well go back to where I started and that was with Rush.

As time went by it started to come back to me. I also decided that I would learn every part correctly since I was starting over. That made it easy to avoid old bad habits. Then something happened while I was retraining myself. I found that I couldn't get enough of Rush's music. It was touching something inside and I got the insane idea to become good enough to form a tribute band that could do justice to this complex and thought provoking music. I spent the next year in my small music room learning and practicing as much as I could. I studied Lifeson's ever-changing guitar sounds and started buying the guitars and amps that would most closely replicate his sound.

I found websites of other Rush tribute bands and, frankly, very few of them impressed me. Either the parts were played incorrectly, the guitar sounds were not right, or the vocals were poor. I knew I could do a better job but I also knew that finding like-minded players to join me would be a difficult, if not impossible, task.

It was then that I stumbled on the Counterparts forum and found two people that would help me reach the goal I had set for myself.

Kirk (the drummer on this amazing project) had recently gone through a similar situation as myself and posted some rough recordings of Limelight and Tom Sawyer. The recording quality wasn't the best but the playing was impressive. I had never done any home recording but I knew I'd better figure it out quickly. I wanted to add my parts to his and see if I really could pull off a good Lifeson impression.

My first few attempts were mediocre at best and that made me buckle down and work harder. Another forum member, Dr. Raven, was involved and made some good sounding final mixes of Limelight and Tom Sawyer. There were some other guitarists involved at that point and while the performances were good, the surface had barely been scratched on the projects potential. "Vital Signs" was the next song and it happened to be one of the few songs I had never learned. With the help of Andy (Dr. Raven) I was able to get a decent recorded track and the song came together nicely. For me it was a great accomplishment. I had done it but I knew I could do much better.

With some major refining of my recording techniques the next few tracks really began to sound great. I was learning on the fly and the talents of the other guys in this project have made this really become something amazing. The recording of Xanadu was a milestone that proved that we could make the impossible possible. It was a very difficult project that required nine or ten separate guitar tracks and some tricky timing. The final mix is very close to the original recording and I'm very proud to be a part of it.

The other Counterparts forum member that I found was "Dirk". He is the 'Geddy' of a Nashville, Tennessee Rush tribute band ironically named "Counterparts".

I had posted in a thread about tribute bands and took a little flack when I said that the majority of them were not that good. Dirk mentioned in that thread that they had just split with their guitar player and if I wanted to move to Nashville I could try out for the job. I checked his band website and I liked what I saw. They had the equipment and the talent. All the pieces were in place. My wheels started turning. Nashville is "only" a five-hour drive from me. I know the songs. I have the gear. I can do this.

I emailed Dirk (his real name is Craig) and we set up an audition in December 2005. I learned their entire set list, rented a van, and headed down to Tennessee wondering if I had completely lost my mind. I hadn't played with a real band for over 16 years. Maybe I should start small and ease back into playing. Oh well, too late now. I knew I'd regret it if I didn't try.

The audition went great. I got the job and it felt so good to play in a band again. It's an amazing feeling when it all comes together.

I played my first gig with the "Counterparts" band on April 15th, 2006. It was the fulfillment of a dream and a reward for a lot of hard work the past couple years. I feel like I'm 18 years old again.

These two projects have given me something to be proud of and taught me that you really can do anything if you put your mind to it.

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