WILLIAM LABONTÉ

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“Guitarist Wanted” a Craigslist story

I am releasing three studio produced and mastered songs very soon...Wait...this already happened (side note: I wrote this a while ago)

Anyway, this is the beginning of the story where I believe that journey started, 5 1/2 years ago. (Sometimes these things take a while ;)

On a day, in January 2012, I got a hair up my butt and decided I wanted to jam, play shows, and find a collaborator. So where do you look to find this….Craigslist of course. My girlfriend at the time was a bit concerned as she called my sister and told her I had gone crazy and was meeting some stranger in Festus Missouri off of craigslist. Whatever, it will be fine I said...worst case I will die in the pursuit of music! (Well, we could debate worst cases but that's not my goal here.)

“If u pass the church went too far, I am the house right before the church.”

I sent an email to a complete stranger on Monday the 23rd of January and went to his house and jammed the next day on Tuesday the 24th. I think his wife was equally worried about the scenario as we were setup out in the garage…and instructed to piss in the woods (True, maybe?). Eric was a real dude and we connected immediately by sharing songs we had written and their inspiration. We talked religion, Obama, and all the other “taboo” things right off the bat. I expressed my love for Glen Hansard, Josh Rouse, and Ryan Adams. The following day I sent an email to links of the three. Actually, I’ll paste the comments I shared:

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Josh Rouse - "Laughter" (one of my favorites)

Glen Hansard - "Lies", and the second one is "Say it to me now"

Ryan Adams - Wonderwall Cover (All his original stuff is really cool too, just mentioned this tune last night so here it is)

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We had written several songs together and helped each other with songs we had been working on solo.

Song List from January to July 2012:

-Dying Days

-Roses and Honey (Someone being super sweet but actually full of shit)

-Happiness Is (Right here, right now)

-Get Me Out of Here (I think I was referring to the job I had just left)

-Be So Cold

-Ain’t it Beautiful (Alt name: “Grandma”)

-Demons (We all have them)

-Best I Ever Had

-Cover/Alt version of Lucy in the sky with Diamonds

-Easy Way Out (They say we’re going to Fall)

I listened to some of the old rough demoes Eric and I did and it zoomed me back to 2012 like a brand new Tesla with DeLorean time machine parts...“They” say music has the strongest emotional memory. Totally believe that.

Anyway, we traded some songs at the end of July and connected a couple times again over the years but haven’t played together since back then.

Hope you’re doing well buddy!

-William LaBonte