Randy Meyeres, Wichita, Kansas, USA tells us a nice story about the Connells and romance. :)I discovered the Connells one day several years back from a college friend who was visiting South America. He was in a bar and heard this incredible band playing on a piece of carp mono cassette recorder. He wrote down the name of the band and when he returned to Kansas told me I would love them. Since the Connells (sadly) aren't too big in the Midwest, I had to special order their CD's from a nearby record store. Wow. The first one I got was Boylan Heights. I was giddy like a squirrel on speed. I gobbled up the rest of the discs. (By, the way... not that you asked, but "Ring" is by far my favorite connells album) I was working in a radio station at the time doing a morning show. One day, my General Manager came to me and told me about this woman I was going to interview on my show the next morning. He apparently met her at the local post office. I was a bit leary about the whole thing but did the interview the next day. Her name was Ananda and she was walking across the country from Seattle to Delaware. She was doing this to raise awareness about Salmon Streams in the Northwest United States. Well... through a series of events we stayed in contact as she finished her walk. I sent her a new compilation tape at every mail stop... usually filled with connells music. In fact, she listened to George's "Brainjunk" through the entire state of Missouri. We called it the soundtrack to Missouri... (By the way... it was the only good thing about that god forsaken state) And through another series of events... Ananda and I fell in love. (everyone say "aaaah...") The connells' music was a very important part of our courtship considering it was a long distance one for over a year. We've been together for about two and a half years now... and finally got an opportunity to see them play live in Kansas City a couple weeks ago. It was an incredible evening. The band was very "on." And they were very nice. They came out and hung out with the crowd before and after the show in the club. It was very cool. Ananda told George about how we met and her walk and everything... and he made her feel very important. It's so easy for a "famous rock star" to be totally self-obsorbed... but not these guys. They took time to hear all of our drunken stories and answer all of our silly questions. Ananda and I have talked about getting married. We're trying to decide which connells song should be played at the wedding someday. Any ideas?
Randy Meyeres
KFDI Radio
"Eat your vegetables..."