Well, finally some results. Pulled in the driveway a few days ago and there's a note on my mother's car, (she's out of state and left it with me for safekeeping). Some fellow's name and number, looking for a guitar player. Called, he came over and talked it over for a while, it turns out he plays drums (right hand) and bass on a keyboard with the left. Sounded interesting so I took the Fender Champ and a couple of guitars to his practice room and we started jamming.
It's going quite well so far, he does a very good job of covering bass and simple drums, sings pretty well and it's surprising how full we can get it sometimes. So far we have over 20 songs worked out we can do (all covers) without a long drawn out rehearsal schedule. Nothing is perfected of course, and we're not going for "note for note", just as close as we can get with our instrumentation.
He's a seasoned musician, (name is Randy) plays quite well and not hard to get along with, and we both have very similar musical interests, primarily blues and rock. Some of the tunes I like doing he's been trying to get people to do but they weren't interested. And we've been pulling out some oldies I never expected.
I Got A Line On You - Spirit
Melissa - Allman Brothers
Magnolia - JJ Cale
Crazy Mama - J Cale
just to name a few. And a bunch of bar band standards, of course, including a couple we can't wait to drop from the list...soon as we have time to work up some tunes we like and want to do, but will take some work.
Now here's the kicker...Either this weekend or next, a club about an hour away wants us to play their grand opening, which is why he contacted me. I can't wait actually, I LOVE playing under pressure...we don't have 2 weeks of practice together yet, and don't have a full song list really worked up and off we go...I can't wait.
And - Some of you may remember I mentioned selling a guitar recently. Work slowed down a whole lot, the uncle I work with got sick, had to bite the bullet and sell my Washburn BT 2, the only one I could part with and get a little cash for.
So I'm replacing it. Put some money down this weekend on a Hamer I liked, I was the first one to play it the day it came in, same guitar Martin Barre played with Jethro Tull for years. I'll also be able to take it to gigs before it's completely paid for. But should be able to pay it off within a few weeks, between the job we have going and any gigs that may be booked.
So it looks like I may be out there playing again real soon, it's about time...whether this grand opening falls in place or not, Randy has contacts locally to play almost everywhere in town with no problem, and a good reputation to help out. I have a good rep with a few clubs too, so we'll be gigging within a month I'm pretty sure, maybe a lot sooner than that..
My sister said "boy that's something else, you go from nothing to 7 days a week"...that's about it, I was up getting ready to go to work (building a large deck) at 4AM yesterday, and practiced until almost 10 PM after work. It's really tiring sometimes, but worth it...
I'll post pics of the new Hamer soon as I get to take it out and beat it around a little.
It's going quite well so far, he does a very good job of covering bass and simple drums, sings pretty well and it's surprising how full we can get it sometimes. So far we have over 20 songs worked out we can do (all covers) without a long drawn out rehearsal schedule. Nothing is perfected of course, and we're not going for "note for note", just as close as we can get with our instrumentation.
He's a seasoned musician, (name is Randy) plays quite well and not hard to get along with, and we both have very similar musical interests, primarily blues and rock. Some of the tunes I like doing he's been trying to get people to do but they weren't interested. And we've been pulling out some oldies I never expected.
I Got A Line On You - Spirit
Melissa - Allman Brothers
Magnolia - JJ Cale
Crazy Mama - J Cale
just to name a few. And a bunch of bar band standards, of course, including a couple we can't wait to drop from the list...soon as we have time to work up some tunes we like and want to do, but will take some work.
Now here's the kicker...Either this weekend or next, a club about an hour away wants us to play their grand opening, which is why he contacted me. I can't wait actually, I LOVE playing under pressure...we don't have 2 weeks of practice together yet, and don't have a full song list really worked up and off we go...I can't wait.
And - Some of you may remember I mentioned selling a guitar recently. Work slowed down a whole lot, the uncle I work with got sick, had to bite the bullet and sell my Washburn BT 2, the only one I could part with and get a little cash for.
So I'm replacing it. Put some money down this weekend on a Hamer I liked, I was the first one to play it the day it came in, same guitar Martin Barre played with Jethro Tull for years. I'll also be able to take it to gigs before it's completely paid for. But should be able to pay it off within a few weeks, between the job we have going and any gigs that may be booked.
So it looks like I may be out there playing again real soon, it's about time...whether this grand opening falls in place or not, Randy has contacts locally to play almost everywhere in town with no problem, and a good reputation to help out. I have a good rep with a few clubs too, so we'll be gigging within a month I'm pretty sure, maybe a lot sooner than that..
My sister said "boy that's something else, you go from nothing to 7 days a week"...that's about it, I was up getting ready to go to work (building a large deck) at 4AM yesterday, and practiced until almost 10 PM after work. It's really tiring sometimes, but worth it...
I'll post pics of the new Hamer soon as I get to take it out and beat it around a little.
I'm a member of the BOMB SQUAD.
If you see me running, better catch up!
http://billy-griffis-jr.artistwebsites.com/
If you see me running, better catch up!
http://billy-griffis-jr.artistwebsites.com/