The first time I met Michael Pancini, in person, for we had connected on MySpace was at a Bottle Rocket Blue gig in a dive bar in Hebron, Indiana in early 2005. A mutual friend Adam Lee Roney, opened the night. Mike and Jill (not yet married) were at a table drinking hot tea from bone white china, not Miller Lite out of plastic cups, like many other patrons. They looked like artists. Bohemian clothes and hand rolled cigarettes. I remember that Mike wore his vintage Smith’s tshirt. He connected with Monroe over this, who loved the Smiths too. Mike would sometimes play an acoustic cover of the Smiths “Sheila Take a Bow.” They struck me as reserved at first, but observant, and loved to laugh. Mike was a deep thinker kind of Christian, and his music had covert spiritual imagery which those in the know caught, but otherwise anyone could relate to his art. These were my kind of people.

Recently I went into Blackbird Cafe in Valpo on a work trip and saw that Michael had a show of his going on. Most of the pieces had sold.

In the episode, I mention Jillian took my absolute favorite picture of me. Here it is on the cover of my “Best Of”

Here some snapshots from the aforementioned early, pre-smartphone, scene days.

Here is the 2008 “From the Living Room” Videos with M. Pancini. So primitive, but still so good.