Feedback, New Music Webzine and Netcast -- DBR Auto Accident/Break Up

time," Walt Austin wrote back regarding his interview. He went on to say, "Let's keep in touch. There are going to be some new projects springing from DBR members at some point. I'll let you know as they happen."

After reading the e-mail that brought the initial news I sat silent for several minutes, stunned beyond words by what I had just read. It made me shudder to think that these guys, who I considered to be so talented, were involved in an accident so severe that it actually resulted in the loss of a life. The shock was made even greater by the fact that two of the band members, Pat and Walt, were my age, 28, and Lee Laurence was 29. Here were my peers, out there living the rock n' roll dream, and it could so easily be brought to a halt by something like this.

According to an article in the Augusta Chronicle, Laurence's hometown newspaper, the band's 1996 Dodge Ram van jack-knifed on a wet road and wrapped around a utility pole in the town of Blanford, Massachusetts as they traveled to Worcester, Massachusetts for a show at Tammany Hall. Lee Laurence was dead by the time police and emergency crews arrived. The band had just played the Berkshire Mountain Festival in Barmington, Massachusetts the day before. The other members of the band were treated and released from a local hospital.

Friends and fans were invited to stay at the Atlanta home of Laurence's girlfriend, Tracie Smith. After the funeral everyone returned to the home of Laurence's mother, Gail Patty, where keyboardist Austin, guitarist Jason Rabineau, and vocalist Ted Lahey performed some unique versions of their songs.

Showing amazing grace under pressure, Laurence's mother offered these words of support to the band on the message board at a DBR fan site, www.thebusstop.com:

Boys, please don't let your sadness over Lee's death slow your rise to success. Instead, let it be an impetus for you -- he is watching you and will now be your personal guardian angel on your path to great things. Trust me, I know it's so. I love you all and hope you will remember that life is indeed short. Tell those you love -- every day -- how much they mean to you.

Wise advice. Count on FEEDBACK to keep you informed of anything musical that happens with the members of this great band in the future. In the meantime you can still get their first two CDs, Shimmy and Fly, at www.daybytheriver.com, and their third, live MP3 CD, Watermarks, at www.lauan.com.

To read an article Day by the River on this site, click here.

Most everyone interested in the Atlanta music scene knows by now that Athens jam band Day by the River were involved in a horrible wreck on August 15th when their tour van crashed into a utility pole in Blanford, Massachusetts. They had just finished playing the Berkshire Mountain Festival the day before. Killed in the crash was their sound man, 29 year old Lee Laurence.

The band's Webmaster, Craig Eubanks, sent out a mass e-mail the same evening informing fans of the crash. I had only interviewed the band's keyboardist, Walt Austin, about three weeks earlier for a feature in this zine. Since I wanted FEEDBACK to live up to the title of newsletter I felt that I had to ask for details of the accident. However, at the same time, I was reluctant to pester the band and their team so soon after such a traumatic event. The very next day I felt a tad foolish for my timidity because everyone was telling me, "Hey, that band you like, Day by the River, was in a wreck this weekend! I just (saw/heard) it on (insert name of popular Atlanta TV/radio station here)." In other words, the news was everywhere.

I got what details I could from the band's Web site and the couple of e-mails that were sent to their fan mailing list. I delivered the next issue of FEEDBACK to the printer, only to return home and receive another e-mail stating that the band had decided to break up. According to the e-mail the decision was made the week before the accident. I wrote to each member to inform them they had to stay together through at least September because they were on the front of the zine I had just taken to the printer! Guitarist Jason Rabineau wrote back and said, "Looks like you got the tail end of the shit sandwich we've all been eating." He said he would do an interview with me about the events of the past couple of weeks, however an e-mail and a couple of phone calls to him went unreturned. Later I sent the band an e-mail with the feature article that was written about them but never ran (it will be on the FEEDBACK Web site if there's a demand), and Rabineau wrote back saying he was sorry he never got back to me, but he had begun to feel he "just didn't have it" in him to do the interview. Anyone with any sense of empathy could certainly understand his viewpoint. Aside from that, he said my article was one of the few on the band he had ever liked.

Bassist Pat McDonnell said the article was his favorite one ever written about the band. "It's funny to me that it came after all this craziness. But that's rock and roll for ya, not to mention life. The one thing that you know is that you never know," he wrote.

"It is ironic kind of ironic reading it now...it's interesting what can change over a short span of