This is episode 37 of the podcast, and number 2 of 2 with fellow podcaster and music lover, RJ Bee. Although this episode is heavily steeped in our discussion about music and the band Phish, this may be the most that one of my “Fork in the Road” episodes focuses on fatherhood. Usually, these secondary episodes with guests are complete offshoots onto other topics. However, you’ll still find some fatherly gems between RJ and myself in this one.

RJ and I share some strong similarities within our musical teenage years. We both spent a lot of our teen years following bands that toured heavily, had tremendous communities and people who taped each of their shows enabled us (and hundreds of thousands of other fans) to collect and listen to shows like the true fanatics we were.

So, let us just thank tapers. Oh, what’s that, you ask? I’m glad you asked, because tapers deserve a lot of praise and gratitude. A taper, simply put, is someone who goes to a concert and tapes it. But, there’s a lot more that goes into it. These people put a lot of their own money into very expensive equipment and then help coordinate the distribution of those recordings to other fans. My devout love for the Grateful Dead — and the eventual multitude of other musicians and bands that ended up leading me into loving — would never have become even close to what it was and is without the existence of tapers.

RJ and I were on two different collecting paths way back when. He was heavily following and collecting tapes of Phish, while I was doing the same on the west coast with the Grateful Dead. During this episode, we bounce our experiences off of each other with those two bands, but our efforts were pretty much identical.

Today, we find ourselves on another identical path: as podcasters. RJ is one of the founders and hosts of the Helping Friendly Podcast aka HFPod. The podcast focuses on the Phish universe and the people that are affected by the music and everything that goes along with being part of that vast community.

One thing that makes this episode unique – and, possibly, somewhat confusing near the end: we ended up adding a segment of recording on a day much later from our original recording. So, the bulk of the episode was recorded before the summer. Yet, we recorded again following the summer. So, there is a small section that discusses an event that took place much later than the original recording. Don’t let that throw you for too much of a loop. We are not soothsayers or time travelers… as far as we know, at least.

I’ve said this before of previous episodes…you don’t have to be a fan of Phish or the Dead to enjoy this episode. It won’t hurt… that’s for sure. We end up reverting back to our previous episode in this conversation and reflecting on fatherhood here, as well.

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