So the other night, my daughter and her fellow jazz band members from University of Idaho played the opening act for the Monday night jazz show at the Ichiban Sushi Lounge in Spokane, Washington. After the main band took the stage, their boss announced they were gonna do some Pat Metheny song.

Which got me to remembering a long-forgotten Metheny song that Jim Boyd used in one or more of his slide shows back in the day. A little looking turned up the title, "Last Train Home." If I'm not mistaken, I think Ted Benson turned Boyd onto this song (correct me if I'm wrong, Ted).

Anyway, that song was a staple on MTV, VH1, and FM radio for quite a while after its 1987 release. Really fit well into Boyd's show, or any others one might have put together. But to be honest, before long, I really got burned out on it after sitting through one too many Boyd-a-thons from one end of the country to the other.

A quarter century later, it sounds sweeter than ever. Even the worst memories of magazine deadlines or dead-end road trips with Boyd have been softened by age. I wish he were still here today, just so I could take him on a little drive through my home turf, with his Metheny tune on the tape deck.

Winterailers, see if one of you can manage to fit "Last Train Home" into one of your next shows, or at least have the boys play it while doing the "three favorites" segment. In honor of Boyd, of course.