MikeGentry wrote:
By the the way I would give up my band to be in yours anyday.
That's some gratuitous sh*t if I ever heard it! LOL
Thanks. Much appreciated!
btw...
Our drummer Brian is home from the hospital, and his recovery time may be only 6 to 8 weeks they are telling him now, because the breaks on his back are considered "insignificant" breaks. They happened on places where the back does not endure alot of stress or hold alot of the body's weight. So that's VERY good news.
Even though the recovery time is shorter though, not sure he will be back with us. I guess it's safe to say now, that he had told us to look for another drummer BEFORE the accident happened, cause he felt he was going to hold us back as a band. He drives a 5 hour round trip to come practice with us. He lives almost in Chattanooga, and it had been grating on him, but the real problem, is that he took ALL his vacation time, to make room for some big music festivals we were going to be playing in. And now that we have someone booking us full-time, he realized that our regular gigs would be increasing dramatically soon.
We've played more in other states than locally, and now that we are finally concentrating on our own backyard (Atlanta area) we are starting to develop a name here pretty strongly already.
I think we will be on a completely different level by next year. We've had some MAJOR setbacks just as we were about to break out which has hurt us and set us back by several months each time. This accident with Brian is just the latest in a string. But I think we've paid our dues by now and will have some great things in store.
We just heard that we may be opening for Jimmie Van Zant in June.
We auditioned a drummer and bass player yesterday and things went really well. The drummer is as good as Brian, maybe better. He has 5 drum kits, and is somewhat of a local legend around our area, having played in some well known local acts.
Our bass player started a new job, that SUCKS as far as scheduling for the band goes. In less than a month he will miss two GIGS (an almost unforgiveable sin to me personally) and 1 practice. He may have conflicts with some other gigs as well, that we have commited to, but don't have times for yet. He also has a baby on the way (number 2) so his wife is not working, and it became clear, though we love him as a founding member of the band, we are forced to go in another direction.
He accepted stepping back, into a back-up role, and making room for a bass player that can play full-time with us, without scheduling conflicts. In staying on good terms with the band, we promised that if his position opens back up in 6 months or a year, and his circumstances have improved, then he can take his lead role back.
It was terribly painful to have that sit-down with him, but I think we went about it in the right way, and left the door open for him.
In any event, these guys that auditioned haven't heard any of our stuff. It was probably the best "cold" rehearsal we ever had with musicians wanting into the band.
So I am pretty happy that we are back on track.
