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.
BREAD IS GREAT!
PRAISE CHALLAH!!!!