General Music Chat

I think I had shared on here that I had called a CL ad looking for a guitarist. So sat night I went down and jammed with these guys.

They were very good, I had a blast playing with a keyboard player who was very good.

I dont think I will be joining up, cause there just wasnt that vibe, but I have to say that I was suprised at the level of these guys, and there ability to ad lib on a lot of things.

We started around 8pm and played til 1:30. We never repeated a song.

I see on here how many people put down CL, but in this case it was a great group of musicians, who if I was in a different frame of mind, I might be interested in joining.

Probably half of the song I had never played before, and I suprized myself in that I just went with it, later the guy said you sounded great, I said thanks. He seemed suprized that I hadnt played a lot of the songs befoe, and I said hell its just rock n roll, and I like it. Oh yeah we even played that, along with Sympathy for the Devil, which I had never really played with anyone, but I sang lead on it, and when the lead guitar part kicked in I just winged it, from having heard it so many times, and it was very very close to the original solo. I just took my guitar and my pod pro and my trusty ole LP, and plugged into a Lab L7 amp he had there, it sounded really really good, even to my ears.

What was cool is that everyone kept thier volume in check. Could hear everything comfortable, which suprized this guy cause he and I had played once before about 20 years ago, and he said all he remembered from then was that I was really loud. LOL!

Glad to hear it went well John!

Nice JW.

Thanks for posting.

That's a lot of playing time for an 'audition'! Bet they are disappointed that you don't want to join up with them.

Ha, right Mike! They should have paid him for that much work.

Well guys it was fun.

Im trying to think of some cool stuff we did, I Am The Walrus, and A Day In The Life.

The guy playing keys would say do it Raggae style in the middle of songs, and we did.

Did a big variety of blues songs, we did a killer version of Redhouse, kinda lazy or slow rythym with lots of starts and stops in it, and then I pulled off one of those killer solos on it, I havent played that in years.

Comfortably Numb was another one, I hadnt ever played it before, and just winged a big long solo, and it came out quite nice, big long slow bends.

Man I cant remember what all we played, lot of memphis music, soul stax type stuff.

One area they didnt get into was anything funky, which I love playing funk when I get the chance.

Did some rockabilly type things.

When I jumped on Zep they didnt know any other than Stairway and I just said never mind, LOL!

The thing that was cool compared to deals Ive answered in the past, these guys could play, I know many times I would go sit in with a band that was supposedly ready to gig and they honestly couldnt play one song thru.

Yea I guess with all of that playing I should have been paid! They dont know it but they got a hell of a deal!!!

On the home front my band Aint Yo Mama is booking a couple of shows(gigs) over the next 3 monthes or so before our bassist leaves, so as far as music the next couple of monthes I think Im gonna focus totally on that. Like Ive always said I have a musical home and family, and 6 years ago when I was getting back into playing, these guys I sat in with, I would have been ready to roll with them, but after being involved with the guys I have all of the years, I dont think I will ever find that chemistry again. In fact Ive almost got it in my mind that after we do our little farewell shows, I may just retire from live playing all together, focus totally on getting my originals recorded.

The thing that was cool compared to deals Ive answered in the past, these guys could play, I know many times I would go sit in with a band that was supposedly ready to gig and they honestly couldnt play one song thru.

Yea I guess with all of that playing I should have been paid! They dont know it but they got a hell of a deal!!!

ha! wow, that makes me feel somewhat above average then! I have 30+ songs I can sing/play all the way through by myself, let alone with a band!

and listening to you play, you should get paid just to interview!

So where in the 5 plus hours did you feel it wasn't for you?
Good gawd... I hope they bought you a beer or 12!
Too bad man sounds like you had fun... but it Aint Yo Mama!
I'm sure another door is waiting for you. Good Luck!

Retire from live playing ?

Parish the thought.

John's just wanting them to call him begging him to go back, and so it begins.. LOL

Jahva I love to play guitar, so 5 hours didnt seem like that much to me, especially since they were pretty good.

Dane Im not waiting for the call they already made it, but sometimes you just have to really think is this something I want to get involved in. Its not that I didnt enjoy playing with them, but I know the committment that goes into being in a band. And before anyone says yes to joining a group, you should feel that you can give it that committment, and I just didnt feel it. Is that wrong? They mentioned practicing every fri-sat night, I mean come on, we played the first time and had enough songs that sounded good enough to go out and play at least a 3 hour gig. Im used to a situation where we agree to play things, and we dont get together and practice them, we play them live, if they feel good then we just add it to the list, if not we drop it.

I do feel like a decent cover band needs 60-80 songs in order to really do well, and it needs to cover a lot of songs that most of you cringe at, but it works if everyone is on board. But this isnt a debate on that, just my opinion.

Ive been playing in live bands off and on, since I was 12 years old. I estimate that over that period of time Ive probably played around 1400 to 1500 gigs(shows lol). I love it but going out and playing a bar for 4 hours a night, not getting home til 3-5 am. It just doesnt seem like something I should keep doing, Im 50 I need my beauty rest! LOL

That doesnt mean that I might totally quit playing, but to continue I really need to do something a little more reasonable time wise. Its just a fact.

At the last AYM gig an old college friend happened to be in town. His first response was man you sound better than you ever did, but he said I remember you when you really were on fire, laying on the floor all the guitar tricks, looking like a guitar god or something, he said you sound good now, but in a lot of ways you are just going thru the motions. That hit me pretty hard, but there is a lot of truth in it.