july 2008

10 years of sweet adeline

may 18, 1998 isn't 10 years from today, the anniversary of sweet adeline, but it was the day that got things going that lead up to this day. in the beginning of 98 i was lucky to be introduced to elliott's music through good will hunting. angeles caught my ear because it reminded me of the beatle's white album. something sincere, something as beautiful in my opinion as julia or long, long, long. also i took something personal from my life at the time and it just seemed to capture how i felt or what i experienced and i know so many fans had the same experience from all the emails and comments i've read over the years. anyway as time went on, collected more of elliott's work, and got to see his wonderful performance on the oscars it lead to the excitment of seeing elliott live at the bottom of the hill in san francisco on may 18, 1998. the setlist was awesome, the atmosphere of the people who were there was something you would take home and never forget because of the gentle, quiet, respectful and communal feeling you got from it. but it was the end of that show that shined for me because i was lucky enough to approach elliott for an autograph and as any fan fears who put themselves out there feel like they might be setting themselves for some sort of rejection or bad experience especially a dork like me. it was so simple, elliott was so kind to me and had no guard about him, willing to take a moment and put his beer down to take a minute with me. he asked my name while signed my 7" division day single with a heart. this simple act of kindness made an impression that has lasted me 10 years.

as i moved on, i learned that atmosphere wasn't limited to experiencing an elliott show or meeting elliott. it's something that i would eventually realize as i help put together the site with other fans. at the start i had to reach out to a lot of people to see if anyone was interested in helping me. i was lucky to find 3 great fans right off the bat. they are: scott kohler, jonathan vidal (both did elliott tablature for fun) and casey crynes (skylash/elliottsmith.com). scott and jonathan work on elliott tabs and were willing to let me post them on the site. not only that they went beyond and began tabbing more songs for the site. casey had an awesome elliott site of his own and became really busy with other projects. he was willing to push down his own site to help promote sweet adeline at the time. to me that was really unheard of especially when it was really competitive at the time when people were finding a place on the web. those fan contributions just grew from there. so many contributions in so many areas of the site and many names to thank and for me to try and remember. all this for free with no strings attached. it felt like it was something that was shared, that we loved elliott's music, that we were willing to do anything for the music or elliott to show our appreciation. the great thing is that elliott got to see that. i know elliott appreciated it so much too. from the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone. there would've never been a site if it wasn't for your kindness and support over the years. thank you for going out of your way to make the site something special to elliott, other fans and me (because i'm still a fan still too). i wish i could name names but it would be a long list and i wouldn't want to leave anyone out. your guys kindness means more than you could ever know.

thank you to everyone who was close to elliott as a family member or a friend too. your collecctive support has meant so much to me since elliott has passed. it hasn't always been easy to continue on and be reminded everyday of how much of a great loss elliott was and all the great experiences i had with him as a fan and through the site, but your kind support, inclusion, emails, actions, thoughts and stories have helped me through tough times and gave me the encouragment to continue on these past 5 years. thank you all for doing the right things in elliott's memory. you deserve more praise than you get and i truly appreciate all you've done. thank you to my family and loved ones for their patience and understanding about what i've been doing on sweet adeline. i am thankful for their support.

i'm sorry i probably wrote more than what another site would've wrote on their 10th anniversary but everything related to this site means more that i could tell you without going on and on forever. i really wish i could've had a big celebration to enjoy this milestone but like i've learned, elliott fans like me don't have much money hehe. i hope down the road that might change that we can get together for something one more time or for the first time to celebrate elliott's music with the people he loved and the people who loved him. in meantime, thank you everyone for making a dream come true and thank you elliott for the good you brought to so many people. i'm so happy to hear we were able to give something good back to you too. love charlie (7.11.08)