I have vaguely heard of Fastball in the background of my brain, but they never came into my consciousness. They are ultimately an Austin band, and you don’t see many of those in Houston. Or maybe I wasn’t looking. Or it wasn’t what I needed at the time.

Anyway,… i acquired the late 90s album Lounge-a-Palooza soon after is was out, and listened to it a lot. Today it still peppers into my listening. (How can you not love Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé singing Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun? #interobang)

I didn’t notice the fact that track 2, This Guy’s In Love With You (Burt Bacharach and Hal David and Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass), was performed by Fastball. As I didn’t notice who most of the artists were, I just enjoyed a great album.

Years later I became enamored of The Small Stars. A lounge performance act in which all the musicians took on different personas. Normally I will notice a vocal commonality, but I missed it here.

I knew that one (or more?) of the musicians was from Fastball. But I didn’t make the connection to the ‘Palooza album. But Miles Zuniga as Guy Fantasy sings quite a bit differently (more raspy burned-out lounge singer) than Miles singing This Guy’s.

Tonight I found myself listening to the ‘Palooza album, and heard Guy, singing This Guy. Really threw me back. I don’t think The Small Stars performed too often; most of their members had other musical gigs. I saw them several times, I always went out of my way to do so. The performances were so, so good.

Seek out their albums The Small Stars (2005) and Tijuana Dreams (2007) and I sometimes still listen to a live recording made in San Antonio in 2005. It’s not the best recording, but it reminds be about the best of their shows: the show.

I would love to see that band perform again. Lacking that, I’ll seek out the musicians in that band and what they’re doing now. I leave you with Guy’s Lament.