2007

On their very last tour, I was fortunate enough to see them in Atlanta at a club for which I cannot remember the name. I had always thought that The Reivers were something special that I shared with a few friends. Well, that night, I realized just how much the Reivers meant to others.
I was up front with some pals and the band were playing “Cowboys” when I turned to my right and saw that everyone, and I mean everyone was singing along. I just remember the look of pure happiness on everone’s face. I don’t know why but that stuck with me. So everytime I hear that song, that’s the picture I see in my head.

-Joe Graves (Dec. 15, 2007)


The long, cold winter of 1986-1987 was hard on me. I was crippled by raging, untreated depression (I’m OK now), alone in Denton, desperately poor, in deep trouble, and without prospects. But when I heard “Electra” from _Translate Slowly_, I felt like a human
being for three minutes and five seconds.
“Blue Eyes” further cemented my love for Zeitgeist, and by the time Saturday came out (with that great Don Dixon sound!) the Reivers were my favorite band.

Today, I’m happy, healthy, and fine. That sad, frigid winter is only a bad memory now ¡½ but when I hear the Reivers on live365.com’s 70’s 80’s Jangle Radio! channel, I suddenly remember how those great songs were among the best of the few happy things that happened to me back then.

And so, here’s a heartfelt “thank you” to the guys and girls of Zeitgeist/The Reivers. Your music helped me, and I’ll always be a fan.
-Bruce Lewis (Oct. 11, 2007)

I was at UT Austin from ’89 to ’93. The last few weeks of the summer of ’89 were a blast – I was 17, just out of high school, finally out of the folks’ house and far away from there, with free time before classes started. Hung out with other kids living on the same floor in Jester dorm. We explored Austin, spent late summer afternoons at Zilker park, weekends at Lake Travis, partied a lot, no money, no worries… We took in as much of the local music scene as we could, and it was amazing. One of the guys down the hall (Kyle) grew up in Austin, and he raved about this band called the Reivers. He raved about their music, and had quite an infatuation for Kim Longacre! I’m not sure if I’m remembering this right, but we went to see a 10000 Maniacs show at Liberty Lunch, and I believe the Reivers was the opening band. It was a great show, and I remember hitting it off with a friend of Kyle’s who was a real cutie. Alas, summer came to an end, and that cute girl went off to college in another state. I never saw her again, but the Reivers’ music is the soundtrack for some of my most fond memories…

Needless to say, I caught as many Reivers shows as I could during my first couple of years at UT. One of those shows was an informal gig at the UT student union, and for an encore they did a smokin’ cover of Rolling Stones’ “Shattered”. Wish I had a recording of that one! And yeah, the Peanuts tune was always a crowd-pleaser…

I was extremely happy to read that Amazon carries the reissues of End of the Day and Saturday, since my old cassette tapes of those recordings have long since disappeared. I just ordered the End of the Day CD, and I’m listening to Translate Slowly as I write this. Thanks for facilitating my little trip down memory lane!
-Andrew Zenk (April 5, 2007)

Imagine my surprise to see a site dedicated to one of the best bands from the 1980s that’s ever been shafted by their label (and that’s a lot of bands).

I found Zeitgeist when I pickup up their cover of “Atlantic City” on the “Cover Me” Springsteen compilation album (sorry Bruce, their version kicked the crap out of yours)! I still have the LPs of “Translate Slowly” by Zeitgeist, and “Saturday,” along with the 45 of “In Your Eyes.” The literacy of the work, combined with the emotions and the harmonies in the performances on the albums was what stood out for me. And the live shows were a hoot (love the Peanuts theme).

I was lucky enough to see them three times, once in Pensacola at the September 1991 show at Sluggo’s, and twice at Einstein A-Go-Go in Jacksonville Beach. I had play lists and tickets from the shows, which I kept with my CD collection; all stolen back in 1993. I remember a show in the spring (March or early April) 1990 at Einstein’s, as part of their trip to spring training for the Texas Rangers in Port Charlotte. The other show was in the fall (?) of 1987 (?). What I remember from the show was a lot of songs off of “Saturday,” and that Kim Longacre was pregnant. The friend that went to the show with me was an audiologist, and she kept whining about how the unborn child might be damaged from the music. Anyone that had been to Einstein’s knows how crowded it would get, and how unpretentious the place was, so the hundred or so that were there could still get pretty close to the stage.

If the band members read this: America wasn’t ready for your music, and that’s their loss. Thanks for helping keep me sane.
-Robert Mathis (Jan. 20, 2007)