Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Hales. I'm Shecky
and today I want to tell you about a band that
had the nerve to break into a bar in the middle
of the night just to finish playing a song. They
got arrested, they stood in front of a judge,
and that judge, instead of throwing the book
at them, gave them community service and said
they appeared to be, and I quote, from good homes.
And that is how one of the most beloved underrated
and fiercely hometown jam bands in New Jersey
got their name. Today we're talking about From
Good Homes. The story starts in the 1980s in
rural northwestern New Jersey, Sussex County,
up near Pennsylvania border. The kind of place
where everybody knows everybody and Friday nights
belong to whoever's playing in the local band.
Childhood friends Todd Schaefer, Brady Reimer,
and Patrick Fitzsimmons had been making music
together since high school. Schaeffer on guitar,
vocals and harmonica, Reimer on bass, Fitzsimmons
on drums. They went through a couple of name
changes along the way, first calling themselves
Old Crow, then the Dogs, but the core three remained
locked in. They were joined by a multi -instrumentalist,
Jamie Cohn, in 1990, who plays guitar, mandolin,
violin, and more, end by saxophonist Dan Myers,
who also plays melodica and keyboards. With all
five members in place, From Good Homes was fully
formed. But now, the name, because this story
is too good to rush past. The band was playing
in a hometown show at a local bar when the owner
decided to close down early. before the band
had gotten to perform a song they had rehearsed
all week. That song was I .O .U. by The Replacements.
They'd worked on it, they wanted to play it,
the bar owner said, no, shut it down, everyone
out. So the band left, and then sometime in the
wee hours of the morning, they made a decision
that only makes sense if you're young and really,
really love that song. They went back to the
bar, they broke in, They turned the amps up to
10, and they played the song. They were arrested.
They appeared in court, and the judge looked
out at these young musicians from the small towns
of northwestern New Jersey, clearly not hardened
criminals, just genuinely passionate about music
to an irresponsible degree, sentenced them to
community service, and remarked that they seemed
to be from good homes. From Good Homes, that's
the name, born out of a replacement's cover,
a locked door, and a judge with a sense of humor.
And from that moment forward, they decided they
had to live up to it. Make every show feel like
that night. That desperate must -play turned
the amps up to 10 energy, every single time.
By the early 1990s, From Good Homes had developed
something generally hard to define. They called
it hip -hop. Critics called it that, too, affectionately.
It was rock, folk, Celtic jazz and a jam band
influences all braided together, rooted in Todd
Schaeffer's sharp, warm, personal songwriting.
It was the kind of music that made you want to
dance and feel something all at the same time.
They stated their mission plainly. We wanted
first and foremost to make a real, honest form
of music that moved people. Both their brains,
and their butts, and left them overall feeling
good. That's the whole philosophy right there.
Move your brain and move your butt. How many
bands can honestly claim to do both? They toured
the East Coast relentlessly, then Colorado ski
towns, then further. And here's something that
might generally surprise you. In those early
years, From Good Homes was the headliner, and
the bands opening for them included Hootie and
the Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler,
all three of those bands at some point opened
a show for From Good Homes. Let that sink in
for a second. Dave Matthews Band opened for From
Good Homes. There's a quote from the band's own
biography that I love. After listening to an
FGH opening set, Dave Matthews reportedly told
them, sounded great, quit your day jobs. coming
from Dave Matthews in those early years when
he was just starting out to build what became
one of the most successful touring acts in history.
That is a serious endorsement. In 1995, their
major label debut, Open Up the Sky, came out
and the band went on a year -long national tour
opening arena dates for Dave Matthews band Rat
Dog featuring Bob Weir and others. They toured
with Bob Weir during an especially heavy stretch,
right around the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995.
Opening for Ratdog at that moment for those audiences
still processing the loss of Grateful Dead was
not a minor assignment. From Good Homes met that
moment. Their songs also landed in 1997 Hollywood
film Picture Perfect starring Jennifer Aniston
and Kevin Bacon. The band's bio notes met both
of them, and Bacon chatted with them about guitars.
Kevin Bacon chatting about guitars with a band
from Sussex County, New Jersey. This is the beautiful
randomness of the music career. And in 1998,
From Good Homes received an achievement award
from Billboard magazine and Irving Plaza in New
York City from the most consecutive sold out
performances ever at that venue. 12 in a row,
sold out, at one of the most respected mid -size
venues in New York City. 12 times that record
stood. If I'm giving you one song to start with
from Good Homes, I'm giving you The Butterfly
in the Tree. It appeared on the 1998 self -titled
album. On the surface, it's a love song, a story
about two people spending an afternoon in the
field, painting each other with body paints and
laughing into the sky. It was that pastoral quality
from from good homes does better than almost
anyone. The ability to make you feel genuinely
at home in someone else's memory. You hear this
song and you can picture the field. You can feel
the afternoon light. Here's what makes it the
right entry point and what makes it more than
just a beautiful folk song. Live it transforms.
The Butterfly in the Tree became the band's signature
jam vehicle, a song that could stretch into extended
territory, full of improvisational interplay
between Schaeffer's guitar, Cone's fiddle and
mandolin, and Meyer's saxophone. It breathes,
it builds, and it goes anywhere. Every great
story needs a farewell, and From Good Homes got
one of the best. August 7th, 1999, Waterloo Village,
Stanhope, New Jersey, the outdoor venue that
has been their annual summer home since 1994.
Except this time, it wasn't a summer concert.
It was a goodbye. RCA had just dropped them.
The band members were in their 30s now with wives
and newborns and lives that didn't have room
for climbing back into a van and starting over.
They had made the decision. That was it. Five
thousand people showed up at Waterloo Village
that night. Five thousand fans who had followed
this band up and down the East Coast to Colorado
ski towns to sold out nights in Irving Plaza.
They came from one last evening of hip -hop in
the fields of Sussex County. The band played
for three hours. Three hours. It wasn't a set
list. It was a biography. They pulled from every
corner of their catalogue the early college circuit
barn burners from RCA album tracks that they
never got the radio promotion they deserved.
The live favorites have had crowds sing alongs
for years. Charlie Loves Our Band, The Giving
Tree, There She Goes, Boulevard of Dreams, and
of course, The Butterfly and the Tree, stretched
into a long, winding, emotional journey that
left almost Nobody dry -eyed. Here's some things
that you didn't know about from Good Homes. After
the breakup, frontman and primary songwriter
Todd Schaeffer formed Railroad Earth in 2001,
the bluegrass -influenced jam band that went
on to sell out venues across North America for
two decades. Longtime FGH fans who followed Schaeffer
on Railroad Earth say they can hear the DNA from
good homes in every note he writes. A second
fact that you might not know is Brady Reimer
got a Grammy nomination. Bassist Brady Reimer
reinvented himself after FGH as a child's music
artist. His 2008 release, Here Comes Brady Reimer
and The Little Band That Could, was nominated
for a Grammy Award for the best musical album
for children. The bassist from a New Jersey Jam
band became a celebrated figure in kids music.
That's a real career arc. They were in a Jennifer
Aniston film. Two From Good Home songs were included
in a 1997 20th Century Fox release, Picture Perfect,
starring Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Bacon. The
band met both of them at some point and reportedly
chatted with Bacon about guitars. From Good Homes
never became a household name. They didn't get
the radio play that they deserved. RCA didn't
push them hard enough, the timing wasn't quite
right, and yet 5 ,000 people showed up at their
farewell concert and the fan base never scattered.
It just waited patiently for 10 years. That's
the truest measure of a band. Not chart positions,
not streaming numbers, but whether the people
who found the music held on to it. Whether it
meant enough to them to keep showing up, keep
talking about it, keep asking when the band was
coming back. From Good Homes made music with
a mission. Move your brain and move your butt
and leave you feeling good. They broke into a
bar to finish playing a song. They got a name
from a judge who saw through the mischief to
the heart underneath and they spent the next
decade and a half making good on that name. If
you've never heard of them, Start with the butterfly
in the tree then take enough home the live farewell
record then find the reunion showing recordings
from Waterloo and If they're playing anywhere
near you, I don't care how far you have to drive
Just go that's it from good homes. That's Shecky's
Jam bands, and I'll see you in the next episode
Stay curious out there and please If you get
a chance, send me an email at sheckysjambands
at gmail .com