Ode to PJ

Is there just one band that, when news of a new album is coming out, seems to get you motor running? Im sure that the few who read this often non-updated blog have some sort of musical inspiration during their daily routine. Music has played a big part of life, not so much since i have been married, though it is always in my head through out the day. Pearl Jam, a band that hooked me the day i heard them 16 years ago, is coming out with a new record in September. Not since the days as a kid listening to the Beatles, Elvis and Johnny Cash, has a band moved me so much, especially in my adult life. I used to be in band( well, by accident anyway, i guess i can sing O.K.) we wrote our own songs and jammed in my friends' basement for years, played live a few times at parties, even released a couple of CD's. I don't wish for those day to return, though I loved recording the music and creating it as well. On a side note I owe a lot to my friend Jeff Ledbetter for showing me a road that i never knew existed in myself. Pearl Jam was the band that really made me feel connected to something in my own world, yeah, the Beatles got me hooked on the melodies and Cash intrigued me with his dark songs, but i never really felt connected to them in such a way. Pearl Jam inspired me to express myself in ways i never thought i could, whether it be writing or even singing or creating my own sounds. I cant express the exhilaration I feel when I hear a favorite song on the radio or cd, Pearl Jam made me hear music of all kinds in a whole other light and I thank them for that. Forcing one to grow with a band as they produce new albums is a very rare thing in Rock n Roll and I wish more bands were able to do that as well, but thats what separates Pearl Jam from the rest i guess.