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We played with a country band called Mason Dixon last night. These guys are veterans and play in several different groups. Man can they play! The one guitar player could do all the pedal steel stuff on his 6-string, pretty amazing. The other guitar player played a Tele and could do all the country picking and more. The bass player did the majority of the singing and was quite talented. We played after them and everyone enjoyed it, but one thing I noticed is how much country sounds like rock except for the vocals. The other thing I noticed is the general mood is more somber or down, not very exciting. But we will definitely be doing some gigs there, nice big room, huge stage, beautiful PA and LED light system.

Wow, sounds pretty awesome,Did you gig together or just follow only.Did the guitar player just use a slide and foot wha or how did you see that he made that six string give that steel sound.I been trying to do that and I'm not very good at it.

I asked him, he said he uses a compressor and the volume control on his guitar to get the pedal steel sound. He also used a slide on other parts. I'm not the biggest country fan but I got to give these guys props. Oh and we played after them, not with them. I wouldn't know where to start to play some of that stuff.

Was this place in Michigan.

Yep, it's called The All Around and it's only 15 minutes from my house.

Country is basically classic rock! Sounds like you have some respect for country I'm impressed! Maybe there is hope for you after all!

I've always liked Johnny Cash and Randy Travis. But yeah a lot of the newer country does sound like classic rock.

I lived in Michigan in 1978 and managed the Westland Kresge store.I lived in Ferndale right off 8 mile rd.I had friends that Lived in Hammtramck.Then lived in Marine city,then lived in Lapeer.I have lived in Michigan.Are you around any of those areas.

Yeah I have friends in Westland.

jimmydanger wrote:Yeah I have friends in Westland.

Since when did you get any friends? If you had a dog I bet it would bite your butt,... when you were trying to feed it.

Sorry that was non political and really mean. I was thinking of a Texas boy.

I just couldn't resist.

you know....i just don't hear the "classic rock thing" in today's top 40 country. yeah, ya do have more distortion on a lot of the gtr parts and the occasional balls to the wall slide part but the rhythm sections still play w that "on top of the beat" stick up the a$$ stiffness. and to my ears...that AIN'T nowhere close to "classic rock".

after three wks gone (other gigs and being outta town) i got back to my regular Back Door Lounge Midway Truck Stop gig. we've been playing three weekends on and then one off since back in Oct. this is the place that was featured in a regular weekly show recently.

big a$$ old honky tonk saloon w a big dance floor that we keep packed most of the night. interesting, colorful, and for the most part a pretty cool cast of regulars who frequent the place.

we play some newer country tunes like "Getting You Home", "In Color", "Good Directions" and some others that are pretty good, but mostly we play the older stuff like merle, g. jones, g. straitt, dwight yokum, some classic rock, and some blues. good players and they're a good hang too.

four pc...ld gtr, flat top rhythm gtrst, drums and myself on bass. everyone except me sings. these guys are very fine musicians and we just call tunes on the fly while keeping the dead space between songs to minimum. we've never had a prct so there's a lot of playing songs for the first time and things are pretty spontaneous....the way i like it. ld gtrst has a great vocabulary of country tele licks but then he can pick up his les paul and rip. all w killer tone.

nothing is in the PA except vcls and a little bit of kick. so......we carry the room w our amps. (read: we play pretty loud). so far...i've been really enjoying having a gig where i can crank up that much and not rely on the PA.

jimmydanger wrote:We played with a country band called Mason Dixon last night. These guys are veterans and play in several different groups. Man can they play! The one guitar player could do all the pedal steel stuff on his 6-string, pretty amazing. The other guitar player played a Tele and could do all the country picking and more. The bass player did the majority of the singing and was quite talented. We played after them and everyone enjoyed it, but one thing I noticed is how much country sounds like rock except for the vocals. The other thing I noticed is the general mood is more somber or down, not very exciting. But we will definitely be doing some gigs there, nice big room, huge stage, beautiful PA and LED light system.

Jimmy in cover music it ussually takes a set to get a crowd going, if my band is gonna do some crazy song just for us so to speak, we generally incorporate it in the first set. Second set on its a dance athon ussually. TO me that first set is just a warm up.

When we play I kinda like to give them a little sting to let them know were here to play and entertain as best as we can.Then like you JW we will wen ourselves back and empty our back pocket the last hour.