Long before I ever lived in Tennessee, I met Jef while visiting my father on a summer vacation. It was probably around 1987 or so...no later than '89. My mind gets pretty foggy when I go back that far. Anyone who is from there can tell you what a boring town Bristol is when you are 20 years old. For an evening's entertainment I went to Viking Hall to see some Morrell Music sponsored Battle of the Bands. It was there that we first met and he shared with me the places to see and be seen. The next day I was off to Johnson City and The Highlander, where again I ran into him. We watched some bands, drank some beer (illegally) and just had a good time. Although nothing really exciting came from either night out, it left me thinking that maybe the Tri-Cities wasn't such a hick-ass backwards redneck town like I had previously thought.Fast forward a few years to around 1991. I make the big move from Tampa, Florida to Bristol, Tennessee. While the plan was for me to attend school, my initial thoughts were to put together a band. I met Jeff Davenport, who was in my Anthropology class. He had played guitar in The Flaming Napalm Love Gods and he was wanting to put together a band as well. Good news was that he already had a drummer in Jon Crain. We quickly found a willing bass player and The Trailer Park Picassos were formed. We started playing everywhere: The Offshore Cafe, Quarterback's, O'Malley's, Pretzel's, The Casbah, The Sports Pub, City Slickers, ETSU Amphitheater...basically whoever would have us. Any old dump with electricity and a stage was all that we required.
By this time, it would have been nearly impossible for me not to have reconnected with Jef. The Trailer Park Picassos played many shows with Jef's band Punchin' Judy. Then the time came when Jon Crain, our drummer, decided that he wanted to be the co-singer in the band instead of beating the skins. The first person that we asked to fill his shoes was Jef. Fortunately for us, he was going through a downtime with Punchin' Judy and he was available.
We played quite a bit with that line-up until about 1993. It was at that point that I realized what a hick town Bristol really was. (Sorry, no offense to you lifers...I actually love it there now). I packed up my stuff up and headed back to Florida while the rest they say is history.
I lost touch with Jef for awhile, but I always knew that I could find him through his mom. When my band PIG PEN needed a gig while doing an east coast tour, Jef was helpful in cluing us in as to what would be the best suited venue.
Thankfully through Facebook and MySpace, I was able to reconnect with Jef again. We may have only kept up with each other by a quick "wall posting" or a "bulletin" here and there, but it was comforting to me that he was still living the life of a rocker and enjoying making music.Jef, you will be missed. Thanks for always being a friend.
Bobby Addington
