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Post by jbone on Jan 4, 2020 17:14:03 GMT -5
Another GREAT Busk/Practice on Main St., Bandera! Turned a few folks on to some live music. Always a cool deal. Made a buck or 2. Thank the Powers we don't have to survive on tips and gig$$ or we'd both be skinny as rails... But every bit helps.
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Post by jbone on Jan 7, 2020 10:53:06 GMT -5
So we're continually looking up places to work with and get some dates on the books. I okayed a farmers market next week, afternoon time slot, supposed to be nice weather. Also chatted with a gal at a saloon close by this morning. She's wanting us for the nights her karaoke gal can't come out. Sounds like some kind of ironic twist of fate but the $$ sounds right. Some 24 years ago we had a gig near Dallas, full 5 piece band with a gal singer up front, and the deal was we could play and get paid but we HAD to clear the dance floor/stage at midnight sharp for the trash disco DJ and his "posse". But there again the $$ was right. I don't know if this is a national trend but we've seen this in Cal and also in the Rio Grande Valley, where someone puts jam tracks on the laptop to a p.a. and plays or sings along like they are fronting a band. Of course we are Raw Real and Right Now. I had a friend in Denton Texas years ago who was a very good guitar player- if he was in his living room jamming to Joe Walsh or Satriani or some of those cats. But he was neve going to get out and play with a band. Which if he's happy with that so be it. Me on the other hand, have always been a ham. Born that way and got on a stage before I was ready.
The adventure continues.
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Post by jbone on Jan 9, 2020 22:44:32 GMT -5
Our first paying saloon gig went smooth tonight. Not a real busy place but we did well and aside from the pay the bar gave us we made some nice tips in the hat! So I'm definitely going to hit that one up again along with several other places tomorrow.
If you want to dine on fish you must cast and reel a lot.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 16:58:39 GMT -5
I play along with my original backing tracks that I made on my Digital Audio Workstation every single practice day. I made complete bands by myself including many many originals and a few covers. Although it is not a band, that backing track computer always but always showed up on time, and it never misses a beat, and is always in tune. I don't have to put up with ego freaks and bad tempered musicians at all.
I tried that way back in the late 1960's and only could find a few musicians that I liked enough to play with. My buddy a smokin bassist and I were pards, I got to visit with him last August when I went back home to Long Beach Island NJ, it has been a minimum of 35 years since I have seen him. Anyways me~n Big Bottom (his stage name) formed two bands, first a 5 piece band (including the vocalist) called The Brant Beach Blues And Boogie Band, a jam band, bass, drums, keys and me on guitar, then when that was over, Big Bottom and I formed a new band called The New Children Of Jazz, a jam band as well, 3 piece, guitar, bass, and drums, no vocals. Both bands could empty out a night club by the second set, not because we played badly (we were a hit among the local musicians) but because the drunks could not fathom a band that played originals, and we played the songs differently every time. Both bands were smokin good however, but not for the local drunks, that was my playing heyday because I practiced 4 or more hours every day with at least an hour of scales.
I took lessons from Bob Aslanian a jazz guitarist whose claim to fame was teaching Al DeMeola. Taking lessons from Bob, it took me 2 weeks to absorb and practice what he taught me each week.
Later on I built a recording studio with 16 track 30 ips Tape deck, a half track (stereo deck) and a 24x16 console. (Cost for those there items around 50 grand) I learned to make my own backing tracks from scratch back then, and that is how I would go out if I wished to do so. There are a few guys I know that I would play with, Steven Weinglass Hollywood producer/actor, a bassist, and Malcolm Lukins a keyboardist whose claim to fame is; he played keys in Roy Buchanan's band, and is now with Guitar Shorty and also Crazy Tomes as well as other bands in the LA area. But I would have to pay those guys because show biz is the way both of them make a living. So if I hit the Power Ball I will do just that (I play 2x weekly)
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Post by whitefang on Jan 11, 2020 10:31:10 GMT -5
Well, good luck with the power ball AND the real band. And I'm guessing that favor never materialized, eh? Whitefang
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Post by jbone on Jan 11, 2020 11:56:53 GMT -5
I think my origin as a player- I sometimes hesitate to say "me" and "musician" in the same sentence since I am largely self taught and could not do a scale if you put a gun on me- was as a bedroom struggling wannabe. I remember the album I was trying to play along with, Doobie Brothers Long Train Runnin'. There were actual musicians in the hometown and any of them would have likely tried to help me, but I was kind of proud and did not want to be a student. I had no money for lessons of any kind and there were few harmonica players who impressed me there. My stubbornness paid off eventually, some 2 decades later. I mean I could sit in on some stuff with others but I had no real foundation to base my playing on. I found some blues notes on a harp and figured out how to navigate between them and that was it for a long time. But I played what I could with conviction and people noticed. I spent a lot of time with Lynrd Skynrd albums, which a lot of their stuff was I-IV-V, so I got something out of that. The real blues harp players I heard, I just could not grasp how they "did that" for a long time. I hung out at a lot of jams over many years and heard/saw some good harp players, but I was too prideful and cheap to ask for any sort of help or lessons. So my path was very long to the point where I could play halfway ok. I first attempted to play a harp at age 17. I got on stage at a jam the first time at about age 24. There were a few places around the edges of Dallas where I could play a bit and not be found out as not knowing what I was doing, at least that was my thought process at the time. I still did not want to be a student. A pivotal event for me was getting clean and sober at age 32. As time went on with no substances clouding my mind I realized that I had not been very capable of learning like most people did. I have never been diagnosed with a specific disability but I look back at my school years and work life and see how I had found a way to get by, but it was not in the traditional way. So a few years after my beginning in sobriety I began hanging out at jams and open mics and eventually began to try and play some harp on stage again. I was around some guys who did not tolerate bad manners or sloppy playing, and I was kind of forced to become somewhat better. I began getting invites to sit in here and there, and to work in bands as well. As time went on I did get some very good input from fellow harp players, and things began to make more sense, and I made progress as a harp guy with a few tricks in his bag. I took up vocals along the way since there was a real need, and because if you sing you get to pick songs. It was something else I did badly from a technical standpoint, but my enthusiasm was attractive to audiences and peers. I began forming bands with people who were actual musicians and it forced me to improve. I got some vocal lessons and that improved my singing and my harp playing since if you are using your air column well you have much better control over vocal cords and harp reeds as well. To date I've worked in about 10 bands and duos, a few of which I've had a hand in putting together and picking out material. I did do side and front man subbing for a while and it kind of Reinforced the idea that I could go into a gig with guys I didn't know, we could figure things out just before we went on. If I was just playing harp all I needed was the song key and I could wing it pretty much of the time. Improv is pretty much my baseline.
I said all that to say this: Music for me has been a school especially out live, and it's been a social thing as well. If not for the hours I spent in public trying to be what I wanted to be, I doubt my future would have been as bright. I depended on people once I did become a student, and they taught me a lot. As did a lot f time with blues CD's and other genres as well. I will also say this: I am addicted to the wave front, on the edge quality of playing with people. You get surprises and they aren't always good, but out on the edge is where synergy happens for me. I do prefer a duo setup because it's simple. I had personnel quit bands in the past, or go to jail, or get loaded and make an ass of themselves and the band. Not too pretty. So less personnel in the outfit the better the odds you can succeed in a given market. I'm in my best iteration ever with Jolene in that sense. We know what we're doing as a unit and we do it well. We were described as edgy the other night, I think that was a first. It fits well. We have a cohesion you don't get unless you work with someone over the long term. One day I may get a shot with another amped band, but my criteria are not attractive to most outfits. I insist on low volume. Most bands are not willing to do that. I am also for the most part a front man, not a side man. It's just a fact I have never been able to change.
I'm Raw Real Right Now kinda guy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2020 13:02:57 GMT -5
When I played out, way back in the day, I was the one on stage that talked to the crowd. I always was a happy camper so my personality showed through and I was the one who got the patrons to put something in the tip jar. I have no trouble with showmanship. When I practice, I also practice the why's and wherefores of why I wrote or covered the song. For instance, I do a song called The Big Easy Shuffle, I wrote it the day after the Katrina Hurricane. I was feeling for those folks down in The Big Easy I did it in a Dr John style backing track, which I composed using Jammer Professional or Band In A Box, both would convert the style to my chord progression, and give me a MIDI file that I could render to audio using synths and samplers. If I was performing it, I would give a story of why and where I wrote it for. I would do a couple of minutes on that story. It would give the audience a connection to the song and perhaps cause those listening to it to pay more attention. I am very friendly on stage, and have no trouble going back and forth with the audience (that is fun).... I do consider myself as a Blues and Blues based rock musician, I also consider myself as a recording producer songwriter and arranger. Because I have relatively mastered those skills, I could always learn more of course, and that does not make me feel better than others, that simply makes me "qualified" to attempt those kinds of projects.
My only trouble in getting on stage is; I am rough these days on guitar. I play a fair amount of clam notes, and sometimes I miss strings completely with my pick. I am still learning to use a standard sized pick after playing for 40 years with a smaller Fender Jazz Pick. The habits I learned using the Jazz pick are not the same as the pick I am now learning to use. That mastery would take weeks of relentless practice on scales and on my songs, I do an hour practice every day these days. If I wanted to play out, I would have to up that to 3 to 4 hours a day for several months to regain my picking articulation.
I would get up on stage however as a singer (Which I never did in my club playing days) if I had the side men to play the leads and rhythm section.
Click on the link in my signature below and listen to my songs, that is my production and songwriting skills as well as my playing skill. A lot of the songs are from early on in my recording process and some of them are rough.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2020 14:44:17 GMT -5
By the way jbone My stage name on Soundclick is Harvey Cedars
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Post by jbone on Jan 12, 2020 1:17:04 GMT -5
You got chops! I can't imagine doing it all, I have had enough just doing what I do.
RE: picks, Jo is very particular about them. She does some fingerpick kind of stuff as well.
Now. Small world. That fall after Katrina and Rita hit I was living not far from Little Rock Air Force Base. The mayor of the town I lived in was hugely active in liaison with the AFB trying to secure beds for those displaced. He spearheaded a donation center which I was proud to help with a bit and we donated a lot of unused clothes to. Jo was a journalist for the local paper and she did some stories about the folks who ended up in town after the disaster. I remember being in line at the bank one day and the folks next to us were from Waveland MS, not so far from New Orleans, and they were pulling out all their money. They'd been wiped out and the teller was asking them what they planned to do. The guy said, "We got a pad left, we gonna start over". That was one of many vignettes I witnessed in coming weeks that just pierced me. At jams in Little Rock we met musicians who were trying to get connected with bands. I only wished I could have helped them. BUT. Here's why I said all that. Between the constant news stories and seeing these people up close and personal, that all worked on me. I was at a jam in Hot Springs Ar. one night and I was called on stage. We did something, Mojo Workin' I think, and after that song the bass player asked me to play "something different". Some sort of lightning hit me and I said something like, OK, do a reggae rhumba thing, give me a sec and I'll cue the start. So I addressed the audience and told them I was about to write a song RIGHT NOW ON STAGE. I cued the band and somehow they got what I was needing, and I just blew out the words that had been percolating for about a month. Katrina Blues was born. We do it still and it's on a CD we did. It's Am and I get out the big G chromatic and play a good third position part. It's a kind of upbeat thing. When I got off stage that night a fellow musician told me, "You got moxie, doing an upbeat thing about that tragedy." He didn't get that I was reflecting what I saw and heard from folks who had been there and survived it. I'll see if I can find it and send it to you if you want. It's not online. I could maybe send it in an email.
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Post by jbone on Jan 12, 2020 1:19:30 GMT -5
Incidentally, we swung by a wine tasting room this evening and secured a date! It took 3 or 4 visits but I guess that's sales for ya.
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Post by jbone on Jan 15, 2020 21:34:41 GMT -5
We actually played a farmers market about 25 miles east of here. Very small, 8 vendors and almost no shoppers. I think it will be a month or more before it picks up any. We made a buck and I got a jar of persimmon jelly.
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Post by jbone on Jan 17, 2020 18:31:29 GMT -5
New date: Mar. 20 at Flying L Ranch Saloon. Looking like it will be outdoor stage weather which means amps and p.a.!
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Post by jbone on Jan 19, 2020 0:31:04 GMT -5
Aaaaaaand with that, we had to really debate whether to do the one tomorrow. I get an email from the brewery gal a couple hours ago- so inside 24 hours- and she's saying that the people who will be there tomorrow will be wanting to watch sports on their TV's there. So she asked if we'd want to reschedule. After some discussion with Jo we replied to the brewery gal that we'd reschedule if she'd pay us a bit. She replies that she's not cancelling, just offering an option. We decided what the hell, we're doing the gig anyway. Typically we put the set lists together a week before a gig and practice those songs so we nail it every time out. Plus doing the shakedown on the amps etc. We just figure ok, so we get to put up with patrons who may not care what we're doing, or even get irritated at us playing music. So? We're going to do what we're hired to do.
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Post by jbone on Jan 19, 2020 23:08:52 GMT -5
So we went to the place and waited for their brewer's association meeting to get done, then we set up and did the thing. It went very well even with low pay! Jo stuck with the acoustic Gibson J15 and we were plugged it and had the house p.a. for vocals. I had my amp as well and the sound was near perfect even with an unfamiliar p.a. Audience was appreciative, good tips and sold a couple CD's as well. So over all it was worth while. My lesson is, even if it's the first gig you get in a new town, get the compensation settled before agreeing to do the date. We may do that place again if they ask us to. I think we can ask for better pay next time but I doubt we'll get what we're used to. Still, it can be worth a bit less if it's a good joint. It's THE brewery in the county. I handed business cards out to the other brewers from nearby countis who were at the meeting. Possible gig opps there as well.
We are tired but it is that GOOD tired.
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Post by jbone on Jan 20, 2020 21:49:25 GMT -5
We did a little road trip today to Kerrville, talked to at least 9 venues. Out of that, one person at one place was the booking person, and she's going to call after she sees her calendar. Which I will likely give her a call a few times until we get something. We dropped business cards all over and I picked up cards where I could. Just called/texted a few and going to do some more tonight. Most of the places on the Guadalupe River have decks over the water, which is a cool place to play live. Promo has been easier some other places we've been posted up. Coastal areas seem more interested in a quick close. A lot of venues around here need maintenance, several visits/calls. But the squeaky wheel does get the grease.
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