Endorsement: The Five Dollar Day

I have a friend named Luke. Luke Something-or-other - I can't really remember. Actually, he asked me to remove his name to protect his secret identity. In addition to being a crimefighting caped crusader, he's a talented fella when it comes to music.

A few years back - actually, more like almost ten years back - Luke was really keen to start a band. He and I were just getting into "teaching ourselves" to play guitar around that time. I was way too self-concious about my playing, but Luke picked it up in no time - he's a real natural. Conversely, he wasn't too assured of his lyrical prowess back then, but I (perhaps naively) felt much better equipped for that end of the bargain.

He was looking for band names for a long time and petitioned lots of friends to give him ideas. Eventually I came up with one that tickled his history buff fancy, I guess: The Five Dollar Day. Here's a little history lesson on what that is, if you've never heard of it. Well, the name stuck. Ten years later and he still goes by that handle. And it's an entirely solo endeavor at this point - Luke not only took to the guitar, but he now plays all the drums, keyboards, spoons, tape recorders, woodwinds, and whatever else goes into his songs. He's John Brion meets Eric Bachmann. Recorded in an attic. In my book, that's a good way to be.

Back to the music for a second. Around 1998 or so, I sent him a string of words, lyrics, poems and such that would probalby mortify me to hear them today. But at the time, we thought it was the cat's pajamas, so to speak. I couldn't write a song to save my life, but I was happy to supply the words for old Mr. Luke.

Well, I eventually forgot all about those words and then one day, he gave me a cd and one of the songs on it sounded very familiar... because I'd written the lyrics! The song is called "Connect the Continents" and believe it or not, it still actually means something to me. Click the link to view the lyrics. And please, be kind if you have feedback. I was younger then, with more hair and full of big ideas about the world.

At any rate, I'd recommend checking out Luke aka the Five Dollar Day. He's a gifted son-of-a-gun. If you click HERE, you can download his first album Shine Like Justice for free. It includes "Connect the Continents" on it. I'm also quite a fan of "His Obituary." When I heard that song, I realized Luke didn't need any more of my damn lyrics, he was just fine writing his own.

If you click HERE, you can visit his highly designed web site.

And his Myspace page. If you go there, tell him I said hello. I think he's in the middle of a song-by-song battle with his friend. Each of them challenges one another with a Phil Collins song. they did a fantastic Rod Stewart duel recently too. I promise you, I'm not kidding. See for yourself!