(this is annie)

James was my first friend at Time Out. He was (and still is) a walking encyclopedia of soul, country and blues; he was always introducing me, directly or inadvertently, to something I'd never heard before, some slice of trivia that led me off on a night of music-dork research. At our holiday party, we sang a duet of "Paint it Black." It was great, mostly because James's excellent singing voice balanced out my squawks, but also because it was the only time I'd ever found joy in that song. He came out to say hello the other night — hard to believe it was less than a week ago — and we remembered that unparalleled karaoke adventure. Good times.

Labels: chicago