Friends and Fame

Every once in a while I'll have a friend do something big and make a name for themselves. Because of the nature of music and it being in the entertainment industry, most of these "15 minutes of fame" cases are music-related. I've had a few instances where I've played gigs with bigger names, have hung out with world-renowned artists, and have gotten my name out there other fun ways.

With my friends, the earliest case of this that I can think of is when my friend, Danny, was taken up on stage with Robert Randolph and the Family Band when they came to our school. He got to jam on stage for maybe like 5 minutes and it was pretty sweet. I had actually been the one to push him (literally) to go up, so to see him having a blast up on stage was a little extra rewarding.

Matt Stevens

After that, I'd say Matt Stevens' recent success has gone above and beyond the 15 minutes. I've been following his work and keeping in contact with him since right before the release of his first album, Echo, in 2008, where his solo career started to take off. After tons of positive press from over in England, a second solo album, Ghost, and a prog-rock release with The Fierce and the Dead, he's made quite the name for himself. Now working on album 3, Stevens has established a fan base and tightly knit community that has come together as a global network. This ability to engage his fans coupled with the positive press he has received has not only helped with the numbers side of things, but has also helped to land him the supporting act to bands like The Adrian Belew Power Trio.

Caleb Hawley

However, this post isn't about Matt Stevens, and it's definitely not about Danny, either. Instead, this is about my friend and stunt double, Caleb Hawley. I first met Caleb at a B-Sides at Messiah College. He had played and I had listened while playing pool. Impressed by his awesomeness, I bought his newly released, Greatest Hits (his first release). Eventually, I guess my roommate, Ryan, who books B-Sides, was corresponding with Caleb and had given him a link to my music. We got talking, I looked up his picture and the resemblance was ...super creepy.

Height, hair, Strats, Taylors ...creepy

So anyway, I've seen Caleb a few times since then, played a show with him, and have been able to follow his progress. In recent news, he's not only released his third album, but has made it onto American Idol?! Now I'm not the biggest fan of American Idol - actually I rather dislike the show - but check out his audition:

Pretty much one of the best auditions I've seen (though I don't usually watch the show and haven't seen many auditions). It's great getting to see a friend up there and to see the sort of press that he's gotten from this. I was going to post this right after it was aired, but then thought it'd be better to post right before the Hollywood episodes. Which, I guess are now sometime in the next week or two, so that works. So, regardless of what you think of American Idol, be sure to check it out to see how he does. He's already got Steven Tyler clapping along and J-Lo telling him he's cute, so in some regards, he's won already - just not the whole competition yet.






So yeah, it's great to see friends make it and to see them do big things. Opportunities like those that Caleb and Matt have gotten come along once in a lifetime and change the course of your career. We all wish, at some point, that those things could happen to us, but to step back and think about it, that would make my life way too crazy. I like being able to do small gigs and still do this mechanical engineering stuff, while watching friends step into the limelight.