A Pool Party to Commemorate the Last Day of Summer

It was worked around our schedules, and for that I am grateful.  It was a warm-up for the following night in Asheville.  The party had a very nice turnout, although it was dwarfed by the sheer size of the surrounding pool area.  The folks were digging our brand of classic rock and nifty twists.  Rare to get the five of us together lately: Chris, Walt, Brian, Mark, and myself.  I had noted that the last time we were together was for the recording session of the East Coast demo.  We more or less rose to the occasion.  I am siding with Walt that it would have been a good opportunity to play some of our lesser played tunes.  As such, we ended up giving them a representative sampling of our certified pleasers, after a credible opening with Remedy.  I found out halfway through the first chorus that I could hit the higher of the two harmonies as sung by the female singers.  It blended well, to my ears anyways.  I also learned that I did not know the key for Southbound, and that can be rather catastrophic (Chris held up his thumb and forefinger in the shape of a C - C is for CTUPID).  Ugly sounds when the bass ain't right.  We should have done more Dead, if nothing else!

Speaking of Chris, he has a secret weapon: the harmonica!  Sounds so good on Long Train Runnin'!  Many bands play that song, but to hear that bluesy wail from a harmonica on the solo a la the great biker-rocker/original-Doobie-Bro visionary Tom Johnston actually makes your hairs stand up!  He later told me a secret for learning how to play blues harp: you have to learn how to play one note, and then play another single note.  Makes sense to me, but people who first blow into a harmonica undoubtedly play several notes at once, a la Bob Dylan.  It's not as easy as you think it would be.  Chris has worked at his singing and breathing to improve his stamina.  I don't have the drive to do all of that, but I sure would like to work on it.

My phone had locked up seconds before we started the first set.  I had to remove the case for the first time since buying it and take out the battery to restart it.  In doing so, I clumsily dropped it!  Well, that did get the battery to come out.  Luckily, it landed (on the concrete) face up and unscathed.  The pics I took in the beginning were without a flash.  I like the one of Mark a lot, and made a decent crop of Brian "all smiles".  Later, I turned the flash on, but it sure does make for conspicuous shooting.  This was a fun gig with good family folk near my neighborhood.  I don't get to play events like this often enough.  Kudos to Walt for rallying us together and working around our schedules.