Brian Berg

I received a note over the weekend from TD, a former restaurant co-worker of mine who was a student at a Portland art school in the mid-90s.  He didn't mention where he lives now, but I know at one point he earned entry to Hunter College in NYC to pursue his advanced art degrees.

I hired this kid to be the restaurant's weekend morning chef.  He did a helluva job, too.

He found my blog when he was "feeling nostalgic," he said.  He discovered my piece on Kal Tanner, a Portland musician TD and most others in our crowd really liked, which caused me to look up what I'd written.

That is how I discovered that another music friend who breezed in and out of the old neighborhood--when it was teeming with artistic and musical talent, from the daily performance art of one's existence to the bands that provided the sound track to that existence--had died.

Brian Berg was 58 when he died in Oct. 2015, apparently of suicide, in his Salem apartment.  Along with Kal Tanner, who was also from Salem, these two band leaders rocked Portland before the big record companies found out that Portland's music scene was on par with Seattle's, which had been labeled the "grunge capital" of the USA.

Kal led the Webbers.  Berg's outfit was .44 Long.  Their music was good old fashioned rock and roll with some alt-country influences.

Both bands made my days and nights a pure festival.  Berg, like Kal, was a big-hearted dude.  His talent was also awe-inspiring.  Even Rolling Stone gave him high praise.

I was bothered all day yesterday after learning of Berg's death.  It reminded me again of how far from the mad old crowd I've roamed.  Life was different back then, most of it better than today in many respects.

Listen to Berg's voice on these tracks from the band's first album.




TS