Gene Eugene: In Closing

I hope that this was cool for you to read, it certainly was a great collection to put together. I wish I had been able to meet Gene, his music touched countless lives as did his friendship. There are really cool clips on the Adam Again MySpace page of Gene with Greg Lawless, as well as many of Gene’s friends and band members reminiscing about him. The new Adam Again website is being worked on and will hopefully be up soon, as well as a new MySpace page for the forthcoming “Worldwide” documentary. If you don’t know about “Worldwide,” here’s the back story, the info and the update:

It was July of 1997, with Gene’s blessing and personal stamp of approval, Eden Z Films began work on a low-fi indie documentary with no budget and no real time line. Todd & Lorrie Zeller were just a couple of Adam Again fans who happened to be in the right place at the right time, and that was oddly enough, Eugene, Oregon. Zeller and Greg Lawless had become friends, as Lawless had been living in Cottage Grove, Oregon and still resides their today along with fellow artists, Richard Swift and Chris Colbert.

Gene & Greg invited Eden Z to shoot the rehearsals for Cornerstone 97 in Cottage Grove. Gene flew in from Huntington Beach and Jonny Knox flew in from Nashville. With Greg on guitar and a guest appearance from Keith Schieder on bass, the Cottage Grove Community Center had never sounded so alive as it did for a couple of long Oregon summer days as the legendary underground band Adam Again ran through some of their best songs. Many hours of Hi-8 video and B & W Super 8 Movie film was shot, then later that same summer, just after their incredible Cornerstone performance, Eden Z went to the legendary Green Room to document rough songwriting for the new Adam Again record that Gene and the band had been wanting to work on ever since Perfecta….

One more chance to film came in 99 when Gene decided to accompany Mike Knott on a handful of show dates. First stop was Eugene, Oregon with Gene and Greg opening the show performing “Dig” and “Stone,” and Gene backing up his longtime friend Mike Knott on the Rhodes piano. Another show in Portland, Oregon was filmed, that was the last time Gene and Greg performed together as Adam Again before Genes untimely death in 2000.

Of course with Gene’s passing came the need for a different direction for the Worldwide film. Eden Z has collected around fifty interviews with Gene’s friends and comrades. After a few false starts and rough cut edits, the film is still on the shelf due to lack of funding, as well as hurdles in securing licensing for Gene and Adam Again’s music for the film. Since Zeller runs a full time production studio, most hours are spent on projects that pay the bills. That said, Zeller is a huge fan of Adam Again as well as all of Genes music and side bands. This film is a near and dear labor of love. 2009 has opened up new doors of opportunity to complete the film, as well as the involvement of other artists and individuals.

Look for www.adamagain.com to finally launch this season along with updates on the films progress. Thanks for your patience and keeping the music and memory of Gene alive. As you have read from the stories above, I’m sure he would be humbled…

www.myspace.com/edenzfilms
www.myspace.com/adamagain
www.adamagain.com (coming soon)