I'm Back at Ansley Golf Club

The steps on the left lead to the ballroom

Ansley Golf Club holds many memories for me.  I played there in the dining room back when I was at Georgia State University in the early '90's.  We were a drummer-less quartet with Sam Skelton on sax, Daniel Pardon on piano, Tom McGill on bass, and myself on guitar.  Yep.  Those were the days.  We played every Friday and Saturday for a couple of years.  It was a great experience that I will always carry with me.  Funny, but I haven't really played there much since then.  Perhaps once or twice.  Nothing stands out.  This running blog helps me recall dates a little better, but it only started 4 years ago.  Has it been going for 4 years now?  Hmmm.  Time keeps flowing like a river...

So I was back at this fine establishment.  It's been remodeled a bit since I've been here.  Load in was at the front valet area, but up some steps.  No worries.  I don't mind steps, but it was a few trips as I wasn't travelling light today.  Brought my acoustic guitar, which I actually didn't play as we came up with a new arrangement for Landslide.  This was one where we had an early soundcheck and then a long time to wait until we played.  The good news was that we had a huge green room and a fine hot meal with salad.  They took good care of us.

The Green Room

I played my NS/Stick on the Paul Simon tune Father and Daughter.  It's the third time we've done it and it sounded good.  I do my best to cop the acoustic chords with my right hand, while grooving on the bass with the left hand.  It worked fairly well, although the song was cut short and we didn't play the bridge this time.  The father of the bride just decided he had had enough and walked off the dance floor.  Okay.

Anton and Ben

The band watches Glen

All Of Me

The big news was that we had Kevin Harry back with us on the front line.  Kevin sets the standard for a personable front man who brings a touch of theater to the stage.  We have missed him and have learned that his position is a tough one to fill.  He sounded great and slipped back into his old role of keeping it fun and relaxed.  Since he was back for one night, the pressure was off of me to sing Friends In Low Places, which I had worked on a bit.  That song may never go away, especially now that Garth is back with music and a world tour.  The song is challenging in many ways, more than I first expected.  The low A is something to embrace, as it is hard to make it as loud as the other notes in the chorus.  At any rate, we never got around to it...  We did get around to the other song I was penciled in for, Take It Easy.  I've sang it before.  I just need to practice more.  It's something I can do, but it's a stamina thing.  Playing bass and singing takes a lot out of me, so it seems.  A song like like just keeps on going, with little breaks in the melody, and the notes are all up somewhat near the top of my comfortable range.  I thought it came off well, but I think the crowd was wondering why we were playing it at that point in the night.  It was requested, but maybe it should be earlier.  The song really needs at least 2 guitars, doncha think?

Here are a couple of great pics from the lens of the wedding photographers.  They were posted on the Platinum Facebook page, so I hope I can show them here as well.  Everybody had a great time, although my photos didn't convey that so well.