The other day I ran across a great find: a new blog — here — by Steve Keith, ex-member of Private Lightning, a Boston-area band from the late 1970s and early 1980s. He’s also made a great collection of their music online (linked from that blog), and suggests that he will not only be adding more but sharing some reminiscences.

Private Lightning was one of my favorite local bands from that era. (It also curiously provided an early point of commonality with a couple of friends that I met at two different software contracting jobs way back then). I’ve long wished that some of their music was available in digital format, and from time to time (say, annually) have gone searching the web for news of same, always to give up and vow to one day digitize what I have on vinyl (those being: their 1980 album release, a 45 single, and a couple of tracks on a “Live at the Metro” LP). The other day, a woot offering of a fairly inexpensive USB turntable prompted me to go another search, apparently on the very day on which Steve started his blog.

What joy! Private Lightning ought, I think, to have had great success. An older posting by Steve that I’ve run across before, here, on a New England Music Scrapbook site, might explain why great fame did not come, as might another posting by Joe Viglione here. Who can say? Those have some sad reflections, but there’s been a lot of water under the bridge at this point, and I’m just happy to now be able to hear some of their familiar tunes plus many that are new to me. Thanks, Steve.