Joe Freeman, The Guy from The Pat Sajak Assassins

I would hate to think I would give another human being the brush off, especially at a beloved local bar - full of people who had pinched a buck out of their wallet to stimulate the finances of a tireless local gig booker and bartender who is currently depleting his savings at a bullfight in Madrid.

But I think I gave him the brush off. I guess I just didn't think that he was The Guy.

He said he was with The Pat Sajak Assassins. I love The Pat Sajak Assassins. I want to work with The Pat Sajak Assassins.

However, fairly or unfairly, on the testimony of mutual friends, I take The Pat Sajak Assassins to be a band who has a The Guy - a bandleader and primary songwriter, a ghost in the machine. This may be unfair, but this is my impression.

And this did not look like The Guy.

Then I asked this guy to sign the Brett Underwood Stimulus Package Baseball. He seemed to sign it as a "Joe". The Guy in question is indeed a Joe, a Joe Freeman. Then the guy introduced himself as Joe Freeman. Shit! This guy is The Guy!

I became visibly more interested in this guy, now that I knew that he was The Guy. Before you knew it he was calling my cell phone and we were locking down one another's number into our phones.

I realized, then, why at first I didn't think he was The Guy. A great album cover for his band has a boy superhero in flight. I guess I was looking for a boy superhero in flight, not a slim hipster man with a cool black beard. Pretty silly.

Glad to know you, Joe Freeman, The Guy from The Pat Sajak Assassins.

And now for the good news: Joe said something like, "I'm not too good with words." Shazam! That's where I come in! I have been blessed to make music for half of my life for one reason and one reason only - because there are creative musicians in the world who are not too good with words!

I moved in pretty quick on Joe and explained the Poetry Scores project, the putting to music of other people's poems, treating published poems like lyric sheets. And that is when The Guy reached for his cell phone and called me up so we could lock each other's number in.

Cool.

It all goes to show: When you throw together a tongue-in-cheek fundraiser for a tireless bartender who got his bicycle wheels stolen just before he left on a Spanish vacation, good things happen to you.


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Photo of Joe Freeman by Eric Fogleman from the Pat Sajak Assassins My Space page.