Back in 1986, when I was in Library School, I met a couple named Thaddeus and Sandahbeth Spae. They were musicians and they called themselves Amber Tide. I first saw them singing outside the steps of the Student Union bookstore on the U of A campus. They were from Seattle, if I’m not mistaken, and were living the gypsy life, going from town to town, playing music wherever they could and eeking out a living on the road. At the time, I lived next door to my friend Ted in a two bedroom adobe house with lots of space, and I invited them to hang out with me and told them they could park their camper in my driveway for a while. We became good friends, but after a while, Ted wasn’t too thrilled about them staying with me. They left after a few weeks, but we had some great times together. On one occasion I invited them over to my parent’s house to help me celebrate my birthday. My mom made a bunch of food and a lot of relatives showed up. Thaddeus and Sandahbeth gave a mini-concert for the family that day, and one of my brothers just happened to tape it. I’ve kept the cassette all these years, with the intention of one day transferring it to digital format. Well, that day has finally come. I bought myself a tape to mp3 converter a couple of months ago, and tonight decided I was going to figure out how to work the darned thing. Lo and behold I figured it out! What follows are the three songs my friends performed for me and my family. The last song, Your Cheatin’ Heart gets cut off early too, unfortunately. At any rate, I’m thrilled to be able to share this with my friends and family. Sandahbeth passed a way several years ago, but Thaddeus is still active and living up in the Seattle area.
Click on the text below to hear the performance.