Just wanted to stop by and say that I was glad to see Graham hit his milestone. What he's done for the Rice program is phenomenal.

it's not new news, but you are a good egg.

I am glad that Graham extends his requirement of excellence to the National Anthem. I get unhappy when it gets butchered by someone like Roseann Barr.

(06-26-2013 10:44 AM)13thOwl Wrote:  Last year when Will Johnson had a break in-between tours, Paul Agosta and myself invited him down to watch a Rice Baseball game. Paul and I had met him at Fitzgeralds earlier and got talking about baseball. Will is a big St. Louis Cardinal fan and we started talking about Lance Berkman and Lance led us to Rice Baseball. Will had heard of Wayne Graham and knew of Rice (he has previously lived in Denton and Austin) and the idea of Will singing the national anthem came up. Now most sane people would never sing that song in public as it is pretty hard, but musicians are mostly not sane people. Will said he would think about it. He excused himself and said he had a show to do. The show was great.

A couple of weeks later, Will said he would love to sing the anthem and would find it a challenge. That set me scurrying to Reckling to find out how to get approval for such a thing. Well all things Rice Baseball eventually lead you to Wayne Graham. Wayne looked at me and said, "Sure, he can sign the anthem - BUT HE BETTER BE GOOD!" No pressure here. It was April Fool's Day versus Southern Mississippi and Will gave my favorite rendition of the anthem I have ever heard. Will's wife came into town with him that day and I don't know who teared up more, her or myself. In my opinion you could feel what that song means to Will and that just struck an emotional chord in myself. One of the best two minutes I have ever spent before a baseball game ever.

During that game (which Rice won), the entire Section F family got Will up to speed on Rice and Rice Baseball. Paul Agosta and Paul Reece providing what Rice means from a actual Rice graduate perspective and everyone else from their own personal experience. Will is a hard core baseball fan and keeps a scorecard for each game. He was very gracious in answering questions of what being an indie musical icon is like. Finally he started asking questions about the man he met before the game - Wayne Graham. Pretty soon all of Section F was telling their favorite Wayne and Tanya stories. Will and his wife soaked all of this in and after the game we were soon talking about Will doing a "folk art" painting of Wayne. So we soon struck a deal on commissioning the painting ( http://www.will-johnson.com/paintings/ ). I intended to present the painting after the game in which Wayne won his 1,000th game at Rice. If you go to the link above, you will find that while Will's actual artwork is very identifiable, it is the lyrical quality of his narrative that is incorporated into all his paintings that make his paintings unique. I was anxious to see how that narrative would develop for Wayne.

I have a theory that you should celebrate people, accomplishments, and hell everyday life as they occur - you shouldn't save them up for some formal occasion. So, after the release of his solo album, a couple of solo tours, a European tour, recording a new Centro-matic album, the release of his new side project "Overseas", Will had the painting done and would be available to present it to Wayne during a window between the Oregon and NC State series. So much for waiting until win 1,000.

It was fun watching Will get all geeked up to present the painting to Wayne. Wayne was awesome in receiving the painting and spent a lot of time talking to us during a very busy day in-between coastal air travel.

My introduction to Rice was really KTRU. I grew to appreciate Rice while walking around Rice with my wife and dogs. But I didn't really love Rice until Wayne Graham. The guy just gets it.

I just wanted to share our story of celebrating Wayne and encourage y'all to do the same. Thanks and have a great summer.