Jake Wolf Music

Happy Birthday Billy!

It’s March 17, 2026. St. Patrick’s Day.

Historically, this was a day when Shakedown Street would play Shamus O’Toole’s in Breckenridge, Colorado. One of the first gigs I had in Shakedown Street post–summer season.

I remember the first time I pulled up there. It was a night like this, before the season had started. I drove into this little ski town and rolled up to this roadhouse saloon… Shamus O’Toole’s.

Coming from the East Coast, had played a couple of biker bars, and they were very different. The ones in Connecticut were like Hell’s Angels havens.

One of them I remember was called the Hanover House. I played that with Dave Frankel and Scott Guberman. My Jewish buddies… walking into this Hell’s Angels bar where there were literally pictures of Hi**er on the wall, and swastikas.
I was terrified. That overwhelming kind of fear hit me.

So when I pulled up to Shamus O’Tooles, I thought,
“Oh man… what’s this going to be like?”

But it was so far from that.

It was all these mountain folk… which I really hadn’t been turned on to yet. I was on the Front Range when I first got here. I had a place in Vail and a place in Boulder that I split with one of my best friends from college. 🥹This mountain culture just grabbed me.

For many, many years, the band played Seamus O’Toole’s. And even when it closed down in the early 2000s, we still found places to play on St. Patrick’s Day.

It became a holiday.
A Grateful Dead. Shakedown Street. Galloway holiday.

Man… it was a week ago tonight.

The last time I saw Ted. We were hanging out two days before he passed. Not even two days… barely a day.

God, I miss him so much.

He had such a sweet way about him. He had this way of being inappropriate that was somehow… sweet. Because of who he was, it wasn’t offensive. But by any other standard, it would have offended so many people.

He was just full of love.

I really loved playing with him. Even in the darkest venues, he just emanated this light, this brilliance, this joy.

And people… the Colorado heads… they were just fixated on him.

So today, being St. Patrick’s Day… Galloway Day…

I will, and probably every St. Patrick’s Day for the rest of my life, carry the fondest memories of one of the sweetest, greatest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing with.

I miss you, Ted.

See you on the other side…
and we’ll rodeo then. 💚