Oh, Goose.

Those delightful scamps with their whimsy and vigor and penchant for looooooong jams. We’re almost to summer, and so far in this mildly depressing slog of a year, the band has been making moves, whether that’s taking their live shows up a notch or leaning into that special kind of 80s vibe usually reserved for movies where someone pulls something over someone and hijinks ensue.

By the time this year is over, it’ll be interesting to see what Goose has become, or probably more accurately, what they appear to be on the verge of becoming. No torch talk here, friends. But Goose definitely feels on the come-up.

Now, for those keeping track at home, I’d say I’m currently 78% into Goose. This represents an increase from recent polling, which itself reflected a decrease from the polling that took place before that. Long story short, I have a moderately healthy relationship with the band, and I’m cool with that. I have some issues with them, but I’ve found ways to combat those issues, and currently, one of the tools I use when Goose does something that rubs me the wrong way is listening to their song, “Jed Stone.”

“Jed Stone,” which predates Goose and goes back to Vasudo, Rick Mitarotonda and Trevor Weekz’s pre-Goose outfit, is a slow burn of a tune. It rambles along, telling the story of a woebegone traveler haunted by a possibly troubling past and looking for some rest and peace of mind. For a band that typically tips its hat at the music of the past with covers like “Electric Avenue” and “Shama Lama Ding Dong,” “Jed Stone” is the band taking a swing at the kind of storytelling-driven classic rock that would make some of the best rock troubadours proud.

It’s a beautiful song. It’s a great live song that preaches restraint. It’s a perfect song to listen to while walking your dog after the kids have gone to bed and you need ten minutes to slow things down after another busy, weird day. “Jed Stone” is one of those tunes that helps you make sense of things, especially when those things make increasingly less sense and seem like making sense is an unattainable goal.

But alas, “Jed Stone” is also a song that makes me pine for other situations where it would be the perfect musical accompaniment, as it makes me want to do things beyond just walking the dog.

Like what?

Well, I’m so happy you asked.

Ready? Let’s go.

• Build a fire, sit by said fire, stare into the fire, and you know, do some contemplating
• Walk along a beach
• Look out at the ocean from a tall peak
• Walk a horse out of the stables
• Do something in slow motion, like raise a barn or plunge a shovel into the ground, and then, after, wipe the sweat off my brow
• Fix a broken bicycle
• Console my daughter
• Bring an old car back to life and celebrate (in slow motion) as the engine revs up for the first time after spending weeks working on it
• Stroll through a quiet meadow and do the thing where you touch the long blades of grass with your hand that hangs loosely at your side
• Head out on a meaningful road trip
• Look through old pictures I found in the attic
• Befriend a spider I found while I was in the attic
• Don’t tell anyone about becoming friends with a spider because, sadly, our society looks down on such things
• Potentially start a social media campaign on behalf of friendly spiders
• Forget about the spider, but then think about it later and wonder what it has been up to, wonder if it thinks about me, wonder if it thinks at all
• Go to a library and read about spiders…in slow motion
• Wear old jeans and get my hands dirty, brushing my dirty hands on the jeans when my wife calls me in for supper
• I don’t know, maybe incorporate a dinner bell
• Feed a chicken
• Walk slowly through my backyard, taking stock of the flowers blooming
• Take allergy medicine because, yes, the flowers are blooming
• Find some old records in the garage, buy an old record player on Facebook Marketplace, and then play those records while sipping on a cold beer
• Remember that today is someone’s birthday and send them not a funny text message, but like, a real thoughtful one
• Call my dad
• Drive a truck through Nebraska on a sunny day
• Weild an ax, but not in a malicious way
• Grow a beard and then, once the beard is just right, sit on a rock, stroking it and thinking about how you want to learn more about the Civil War
• Make a good, hearty breakfast
• Write a letter
• Forget to mail the letter and then find it years later, after the recipient had passed away, and hold the letter close, wondering if sending the letter might have changed things
• The letter was for the spider

So yeah, whenever Peter Anspach might talk too much or laugh into a microphone or the band just jams a bit too long, I turn to “Jed Stone” and think about the aforementioned things.

It’s working and so is Goose.

I like Goose and am excited to see what the future has in store for them.

Maybe? I don’t know. I still have trust issues with them, and trust issues are a hard thing to shake.

Just ask the attic spider.

Categories: Music

Tags: Goose