Some recordings I made of Aaron playing with the Spampinatos. None of them sound great, but they exist, so here they are:

https://anonfiles.com/4470f32…

https://anonfiles.com/MdFafd2…

https://anonfiles.com/y7Kbf22…

The first time I met Aaron Spade was when the band he was in with Tommy Carns “The Hitchhikers” played the Paradise Lounge in SF (must have been in the middle 80’s?). He was wearing a small NRBQ “All Hopped Up” badge so we immediately struck up a conversation and became friends. He worked at Gaylord’s ice-cream in the Inner Sunset where I lived at the time. I’d drop by sometimes on my way to work and he’d make me scrambled eggs using an espresso machine, which I thought was hilarious. He also worked at the Used Record Shop and would occasionally pass me free records, like “Shakin’ Stevens” and go “It’s alright…..”.

We’d have long conversations about music, musicians, songwriting, George Carlin…..he seemed to have a vast knowledge on all sorts of topics and plenty of stories to tell. He introduced me to a lot of music I had never heard like The Incredible Casuals, Sam Phillips (the other one), Matthew Sweet among others. I loved his band The Hitchhikers (later rechristened The Ringos). Somewhere I still have a Ringos cassette with a great song called "Best of Living" which I'll have to find and put up. He was a fantastic songwriter, a great guitarist and sang like a bird. He used to talk about his love for the Incredible Casuals and after spending some time in LA, eventually moved back to Massachusetts and became a full member of the band. His songwriting just seemed to get better and better.

When “Your Sounds” came out, the Casuals did a mini tour with NRBQ in the Bay Area and we got to hang out. I remember being blown away by one of the songs he wrote called “Last Year’s Problems” with gorgeous Beach Boys style vocals.

He was always encouraging to me and a big supporter of the Sneetches (bless his heart), he came to see us play at the Rat in Boston and we again got to hang out and talk.

The last time I saw Aaron was in 2000 when he had recently gotten married. Him and his new wife Alison surprised me by showing up to my record release party. He seemed so happy and I was happy for him. In recent years, we would communicate through Facebook & Messenger. One of the last comments he wrote was that he was thinking of coming out West and that he'd buy me a coffee. I said that would be great. 

I did not realize how sick he must have been, my heart goes out to his family and those that were close to him.

RIP my friend…..

I knew Aaron only very briefly when I lived on the Cape from 1984-1986. I met him through Tom Carnes, when I worked at Paradise Fruit and Produce in the summer of 1984. For about 5 months from late 1984 to early 1985, Aaron, Tom and I shared a small house in Orleans. I am also a musician, so that worked out nicely.

I did get to see Aaron with the Spampinatos a few times. After their show at Bearsville Theater, December 3, 2010, we hung out for an hour or so chit-chatting about stuff that went on during the short time we knew each other on the Cape. We both had a good time.

Aaron was one of the good people in this world, a very fine musician, fun to be around, and he contributed greatly to making those few years of my life much more enjoyable than the would have been otherwise.