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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z3m2tk-Fc8 All the things she gave me - great horns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ3WqNWcXo4 The Pan Within - astounding violin

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do. I always considered Waterboys as a band I'd have liked to play with.

Talbot

MikeTalbot wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z3m2tk-Fc8 All the things she gave me - great horns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ3WqNWcXo4 The Pan Within - astounding violin

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do. I always considered Waterboys as a band I'd have liked to play with.

Talbot

i dug both of those, MT. I'd heard of this band but never actually heard them before. I'll be checking out some of their other stuff for sure. I love how they bass lays in the mix...great tone and really present. great throaty tenor solo on that first one but i was disappointed the trumpet didn't get a solo.

It's always baffled me why those instr.....tenor sax, trpt, and violin aren't used more in R&R bands. IMO, in the hands of capable musicians, they are much more "vocal" and expressive than any gtr or keyboard can ever be.

One of the most enjoyable bands I played w was way back in the day in my early 20's before moving outta NYC...it was a six pc R&R band called Natural Selection ( NOT my idea...i always thought the band name sounded like a laxative!) We had two gtrsts, drums, myself on bass, a violinist, and a great reeds man who played alto, tenor, and flute. Funny thing...i was the only straight guy (orientation) in the band!

Thanks for hipping me to these guys, Mike.

Planetguy wrote:It's always baffled me why those instr.....tenor sax, trpt, and violin aren't used more in R&R bands. IMO, in the hands of capable musicians, they are much more "vocal" and expressive than any gtr or keyboard can ever be.

Yes, very expressive instruments, but the reason you don't hear more of them is because having any of those instruments in them (only) in every song gives the overall sound a 'stereotype' sound that then can't be undone. And its pretty rare when you get a band member who can play any one of those instruments PLUS others.
Examples:
Violin - Kansas
Trumpet - Chicago (Transit Authority) - 50 years later still doing the same kind of sound.
Saxophone - don't think there's any one band that used sax all the time, just not practical, so when you hear it in a rock song (look at Traffic, Bowie and some Todd Rundgren stuff), it's refreshingly different. But what's the sax player do when not playing the sax? Not may can also play keyboards (check out Bobby Strickland), some can also play flute, but that's another instrument you never need a lot of in rock and roll (exception being Jethro Tull - but Ian Anderson was also the lead singer and played acoustic guitar, too).

Los Lobos gets a great balance in their sound from full time member Steve Berlin switching between keys and sax. He's not really that groay either imo, but like I said, it serves the band's music.
Also see Galactic. They have a sax player who switches to harmonica on every other song or sometimes both in a song I believe. Makes their sound yuge.

I've played with more saxophonists, and trumpet players than i can remember....and i dare say that any and everyone of them that played at even a middle of the road level could get around on keys... even it's to just comp some chords. that's how they learn harmony.....working it out on keyboard.

Planetguy wrote:I've played with more saxophonists, and trumpet players than i can remember....and i dare say that any and everyone of them that played at even a middle of the road level could get around on keys... even it's to just comp some chords. that's how they learn harmony.....working it out on keyboard.

If they're any good, then they'r e working in a band doing covers or some genre music where they can make the $$$ that counts, not doing original rock and roll (with its ever-changing "now sound").

One thing I like about the Waterboys is that they use all this different instruments but rarely have the same sound over and over. Their song "Red Army Blues" sounds as good with violin as it did in their early days with sax. And just as poignant.

Talbot