Poached from my editor’s note in the current issue of Relix to commemorate baseball season and the April-May SCI cover story…

Back in October 2003, I wrote my first Relix feature on the String Cheese Incident and spent time with them at the Orpheum in Boston, while two miles over at Fenway Park, Pedro Martinez took the hill against Roger Clemens as the Boston Red Sox faced the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. (That was the night that Yankees coach Don Zimmer charged at Martinez.) The story that I wrote drew parallels between the two events and it remains one of my favorites (even if my Sox did lose that day and eventually dropped the series—but heck, they’ve won three World Series titles over the intervening years).

That article also chronicled the group’s creative struggles while making their Untying The Not album. The next time I wrote about String Cheese in Relix [August 2007], they were about to embark on what would become a two-year hiatus, so the band was somewhat somber. However, as the author of our current SCI cover story, I was able to finally check in with them and find the six musicians in collective good spirits, anticipating the release of their next studio album, Song in My Head. Plus, I was able to flee the Northeast weather and commune with them in Mexico. Can’t beat that…

Later days and peace,
Dean