20 years ago on Tuesday, Heather joined ilyAIMY at the Java Head in College Park, MD. We'd practiced singing together really, really, really fast and she wore leather pants. I don't remember much else about the show and neither of us realized just how much it would change the trajectory of our Lives. We probably howled to "Deep in the AM" and we probably didn't play any Heather songs yet.

By now we've outlasted most other bands around us, and many of the venues we've played, as well as most of our friends' marriages. 

Happy ilyVERSARY Heather Aubrey Lloyd. We'll be celebrating Tuesday night at the SPRING (just a LEETLE, Mark Muleman Massey's the feature, more below) and with Live from the Lair on Wednesday, and Live in Mount Airy on Saturday (though the majority of the denizens of Red Shedman Brewing will have no idea who we are or why we're there but I've got new speakers so they'll get the message PDQ).

Full a full calendar, please visit www.ilyaimy.com/calendar

ESPECIALLY nowadays with COVID restrictions and so many outdoor shows, it's probably not a bad idea to call a venue ahead of time to make sure there are no surprises. We try to keep everything up-to-date on ilyAIMY.com - but our social media it's probably more up-to-the-second! Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are where we'll probably manage to get cancelations, schedule and detail changes first - so make sure you follow, Like, finger us... whatever it is you do on those crazy thangs!

We have a fascinating week ahead of us, one that requires a deep breath : 1^st off – Heather and I celebrate 20 years of playing shows together. We’ve outlasted many marriages, most bands, through thick and thin Heather and I have played together. November 16^th, 2001 we played at the Java Head in College Park together and it was the first time she appeared under the ilyAIMY name, and lo, she was One of Us. TO celebrate, Heather and I will be doing Live from the Lair, just the two of us, this Wednesday. Our 86^th Wednesday night webcast.

Rowan and Sharif had been playing with me for a while at that point, ilyAIMY had existed, but it wasn't fully recognizable as what it would become till that day.

Now – to gear up for Wednesday, she’ll also be joining me on TUESDAY at the SPRING – and I’m really eager to share this night with her because our featured artist is another trinym (totally a word) Mark “Muleman” Massey. He’s a passionate player out of Mississippi who picked up playing the blues while doing time in the infamous Parchman Farm Prison.  This is ALSO the last week that Sandy Spring Museum will be showing “Incarceration and Creation”, with the walls covered in the art of those who are either currently or formerly incarcerated.

I think Tuesday night, with the music echoing through our halls and the paintings hanging around us, is going to be a uniquely powerful night… and something that harkens back to ilyAIMY’s mission statement when we first started touring : disparate human experiences coming together through the power of music. 

Hope to see you this week. Say "hi" in the comments. We wouldn't be here 20 years later if it weren't for you dear listeners - thank you thank you thank you.

And to my poor, long-suffering partner Heather Aubrey Lloyd:

*clink*

Happy ilyVERSARY.

-rob
ilyAIMY
Baltimore, MD 
www.ilyaimy.com