My friend John Buffalo
"walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light" - helen keller
I wrote this piece in November a year ago in preparation for a show I was doing with my dear friend John Dufilho. I’m publishing it now (with a revision about the show details), here b/c I am excited to play again with John and have a wee show with him in a few days. I know damn well that each day, and every show is precious and should be treated like it’s your last chance to sing. Anyways, here goes:
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I've been blessed with friends--I am positively rich with talented, lovely people in my life. At the top of that list is John Dufilho. I'm going to spend considerable time talking about John. If you are not interested in what's gonna be a long personal story, please skip to the end for some details about a fantastic show on Friday.
Here goes. I've know John since the time that he played with Chris Smart in Thirteen, a powerhouse of a band that briefly had a record deal in the early 1990's. Thirteen had wonderful harmonies and could out Beatles the best of us. John played guitar and sang in this band and was perpetually smiling on stage, much like Joe Reyes.
above: me and John, same blue scarf 2017
Over the years John and I have traded scores of songs, we've stayed up till dawn at least a dozen times, and we've become the dearest of friends. John taught me to love the Smiths. John is basically pure good, but with a surprising dose of chaos. His mischievous side is something to behold, something to keep you on your toes. John and I and Jason once took over the stage at Sunken Gardens during a festival, making up a band on the spot--it was absurd, and purely John's impish side coming out.
Many times John has played drums and/or guitar with Buttercup, making us stronger and stranger. To me, his path is twinned with Jason Garner's and they are both gifts to the world, to my world, but Jason gets his own email, soon.
Last year John was diagnosed with a heart condition and underwent a quintuple bypass. This was such a surprise because John is uncannily healthy, eternally youthful, and has been a vegetarian as long as I can remember. The operation had some scary complications, and he basically had to go in and have the whole thing redone a second time, in rapid succession.
I was scared then. Scared that we might lose John. I remember texting him like crazy from a Barnes and Noble, buying him a health food longevity cookbook, putting on a optimistic face, but I was really worried. I really love John.
Thankfully, it's not even the right word, praise-the-lordilly, John recovered. But he was saddled with an insane healthcare bill. Like many of us musicians, John was forced to live on the edge, without insurance--something that can have devastating consequences.
After kicking around some fundraising ideas, one of John's fans reached out with an intriguing suggestion. Novelist and master of horror Stephen King has a special fund called the Haven Foundation exclusively for freelance artists facing "career-threatening situations" -- the twist being (and with Stephen King, you knew there had to be a twist), there's no way to apply for the grant except to write a personal letter to Mr. King and send it to him by mail.
John proceeded to do just that, and incredibly, King responded, offering him the highest grant amount given. Wow thank you, Stephen King.
But John had a long road to recovery -- part of which stipulated he couldn't lift anything heavier than 5 pounds. That meant no guitars, no drums, and certainly no live performances.
As a workaround, John started playing on a synth and a drum machine. Although he didn't know it at the time, he was creating his first all-electronic album. Under the moniker "John Buffalo" this collection of electronic songs, many of which are about his time in the hospital, has been released via State Fair Records.
On Friday in San Antonio we are going to celebrate this new incarnation, this newest rebirth, of John Buffalo. We will witness his prolific, always mischievous musical gifts. Please swing down to the Bar Ludivine. Although the show will be fairly early, I'm sure John and I will watch the sunrise after.
I'm counting on many more sunrises.
pictured above: John and I at Gudeenin’ Studios, 3am Nov 1, 2023
pictured above: young John, rare shot of him pretending to smoke
pictured above: John driving the Buttercup van 2019