Yes, Laymon got typhus from a fleabite, and his ongoing recuperative process is, in part, what took him off the road with the David Nelson Band and back to the area just more than a year ago. It could be a glass-half-empty scenario for a touring musician, but Laymon doesn’t see it that way.

“I’ve been knocking around my old hometown and reconnecting with a lot of my friends who haven’t moved away,” says Laymon, who has kept up his musical chops through solo, duo and guest gigs (such as those with Tom Irwin) around town.

Smaller shows such as Saturday’s solo set at Sunsup Koffee Kafe are a change from Laymon’s “rock ’n’ roll adventure” of being heard around the world and on more than 100 albums.

Laymon graduated from City Day School in 1973 and, just a week after his 1981 graduation from Sangamon State University, moved to California and eventually accomplished what he’d told his friends he’d do - play bass for New Riders of the Purple Sage.

The band began as a country-music extension of the Grateful Dead in which Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart indulged a taste for twang. Laymon joined when the group had morphed into a extended-family branch of the Dead and its fans, and he played here with the group in 1990.

The David Nelson Band, a reworking of the New Riders by one founding guitarist, followed, and that band regularly visited Springfield from 1997 to 2001. Laymon also frequently filled in as a substitute bassist for Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Casady when Casady had other commitments.

So many bands on stage and in the studio that a picture with Laymon and Nelson hangs in Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but so little time for his solo material.

Since 1989, Laymon has been putting together his own album, with the working title of “The Great American Novel and Other Road Stories.” His “sidelining” also has afforded him the opportunity to move closer to completing the record.

“I have a fairly good commitment from (Grateful Dead soundman) Dan Healey to master the project this year,” Laymon says.

In recent area shows, Laymon has featured his own work, as well as material from the New Riders, Dave Nelson Band, Jefferson Airplane and other favorites of his.

He also recently formed a new duo with Black Magic Johnson guitarist Raoul Neese. Dubbed the Smoking Section, its name has obvious local influences.

“It was sort of a shock when they introduced the smoking ban in Springfield,” Laymon says.

“It’s just a hoot in the same vein as when I was living on Maui. I put together a group over there with some guys from Willie Nelson’s band, and we called it the Patriot Act, which was timely then.”

Meanwhile, the David Nelson Band, which still is a Deadhead attraction, is on the backburner, waiting out Laymon’s recovery and new endeavors from other members - among them Nelson’s new version of the New Riders and guitarist Barry Sless’ gig playing lead for the Dead’s Phil Lesh.

But Laymon says he’s very much on the mend and ready to tear it up on tour again.

“Everybody’s doing different things, so we’ll have to coordinate schedules,” Laymon says.

“When it comes to rock bands, national acts are businesses.

This is not a hobby for anybody. It’s their livelihood. Those guys are all my brothers, and we’ve been through a whole lot together.”

Nick Rogers can be reached at nick.rogers@sj-r.com.

photo from  www.nelsonband.com