In 1985, Hamilton invited another member to the band, Jane Scarpantoni. Scarpantoni, who is still in the music industry, has gone on to record with Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, and Christina Aguilera—on the cello.

“It takes a special bunch of people to let you just go with it and get used to playing in a group,” she says, remembering her transformation from a classical cellist to a rock musician. “Through them, I was able to get used to playing in a rock band.”

But the group was not just a rock band. In a newspaper interview, Hamilton would later describe Tiny Light’s music as “a hodge-podge of 1970s AM radio, folk music, and improvisatory tendencies.”

This mixed bag of sounds seemed to work for Tiny Lights. “A lot of people heard that sound and went: Wow! Strings!” says Scarpantoni. “I think they were a bit ahead of their time.”

The band branched out even further with the addition Andy Demos, a drummer, saxophone player, and talented multi-instrumentalist.

“Tiny Lights was going to be simple, happy, pretty,” Donna says. “We did whatever we wanted to do, basically—kind of like what John does at Harvard,” she ribs, turning to give her husband a cheeky glance. He chuckles.

‘MUSTARD CRUNCH’

After a few years of playing clubs in Hoboken, the group began touring in earnest in 1987, after Hamilton graduated from New York University with a degree in classics and German.

“We toured like mad,” Dreiwitz says. “John would just book these gigs in between working his restaurant job and going to NYU. He was the skipper and the captain and the navigator.”

Hamilton, who worked as a waiter, translator, and guitar teacher to pay the bills, managed all of the tours himself. Tiny Lights, he says, never had an agent or a publicist: “Just a telephone, a press kit, and our latest record.”

“We were a bunch of friends, going on the road, making music,” Scarpantoni recalls. “Sometimes we’d play for two people, and sometimes we’d play for hundreds.”

Concert performances for Tiny Lights were as eclectic as the sound the band would create. Before each show, Hamilton would survey the audience—Donna remembers it as him “feeling out” the crowd—and cue the other band members with a mood to start an improvised introduction. Tiny Lights traveled throughout the country and headlined at the first two South by Southwest Music Festivals in Austin, Texas.

But even as the group members gained recognition, their rock musician lives were far from lucrative. The five bandmates frequently shared one hotel room or slept at campgrounds.

Over a full plate of cookies on the kitchen table, Donna remembers when they had limited options for food. “When we were in the van, traveling at points, we had cereal, we had condiments—”

“So we made mustard crunch, by stirring in the cereal crumbs,” Hamilton interrupts. Both laugh. “In the morning, we found enough change in the bottom of the van to buy a cup of coffee, which we all shared.”