Little Pink Houses For You and Me

Saturday I had the blessed karma to fill in with Mark Letalien's Square One.  Mark took care of all of the logistics: van and trailer rental, meeting time and place, accommodations, dinner, first dance and set list, clothing, you name it.  He really had all of the bases covered.  Blessed to have someone who really looks out for us.  It makes for a carefree travel day. Along with Mark, I was joined by Chris Garner, Brian Molin, and Dan Barker.  Jeff Dittrich is invariably the bassist.  He chose to stay in town.

This date was in Savannah at an event facility called The Olde Pink House.  We were stationed in Reynolds Square, one of the many squares or wards that make up the layout of downtown Savannah.  The Olde Pink House is next door to it's hotel property, Planters Inn, where we spent the night.  We were reserved 4 rooms, not too shabby, although we are a 5-piece band.  I offered to share a room, and Dan obliged.  The load in was not easy, with cobblestone sidewalks and al fresco diners, then a slow elevator.  The room served double duty with the ceremony and reception in the same room.  Nice but a bit stressful.  Hard to make it happen in the time allotted.  My tardiness in the morning didn't help.  I brought my guitar pedalboard and finally had my dual setup for the NS/Stick.  Great to have separate control over the guitar half of the 8-string.  The first dance of The Script's I'm Yours was rehearsed a few times and by the time of the performance, I had a nice right-handed arpeggio worked out.

Low to high:

Bb chord: f c d, then
C chord: g d e, then the
F chord: a c g

all add 9 chords.

During the verses, I followed the voicings heard on the recording, where the bass note as played on the guitar would be the third, walking up to the tonic on the I chord:

| Bb/D                 | C/E                           | F                             | F                            |

Dan noted the #11 over the Bb.  He played some nice organ pads that would have been enough if I didn't have the NS/Stick Guitar-Bass instrument noodlings.  The bass tone on the NS still needs a bit more meat, perhaps low-mids need to be addressed.  I switched to the Stingray for the lengthy funk, rock, and country we settled into.  The old school country always seems to work, particularly Family Tradition.  Then again, we were in the deep South.  Chris did a great job on Don't Stop Believin', even in the original key.  Packing up took too long when I bring this many toys.  As an aside, I left my jacket in the rental van.  The folks at Triangle Rentals were nice to hold it for me.  Always climb back in and look everywhere for those sure-to-be missed items - you're welcome!

My room I shared with Dan - quaint.
We got ice from room service and relaxed, watching the Georgia/Alabama game until it was time to eat.
We learned during the reception that the Dawgs didn't prevail.

Dan's mobile tunes.

Mark arranged for a great hot meal.  We enjoyed the great weather and dined in the open air tavern.

Dan "Emerson" Barker

We stuck to Mark's set lists, but there were a few audibles, as the crowd was beginning to change on us.

Acting the fool in the park outside the venue and hotel.

Platinum Soul Sings Happy Birthday

We were a five-piece, but wait, a six-piece after all.  But wait, now DJ's on tbe gig too!  Tbe party was held at St. Barthelemewl's Episcopalian Chutch.  Let me tell you, them folks is crazy!  Rolling around on the floor crazy!  We sounded good and I'm about 95% there with having Last Dance completely memorized.  Virginia and Di had a great time swapping their lines.  I wanted to keep on with Prince's Kiss - too used to the longer version I always do with Martay.  The birthday boy loved it - heartwarming to have his friends there and the shrines of knick-knacks all laid out.  Good food, beer, and wine, everybody must have had a lot of something.  Glen and Derek flew outta there to get to their next gig.  It was over before we knew it...

Hovering Above the Jazz Police with The Flycats

The end of the Thanksgiving weekend gave me an opportunity to play some jazz with the mighty Flycats.  They have a semi-regular Sunday brunch gig at Moondance in Suwanee.  Of course, this provided me a few hours to hang with one of my best friends going back to my early years in the ATL, Master Reece Harris.  Reece is a formidable drummer who can play just about anything.  He took the sickest solo on Paul Desmond's Take Five I have ever witnessed!  Too bad I was one of the four people there to check it out.  Glenn Tocci on the guitar gave us a run for our hard-earned moolah!  He led us through a little bit of That's the Way of the World, Isn't She Lovely, and a request from the owner('s husband - she was out for the the weekend, along with everybody else who frequents the establishment) of Stormy Monday, complete with an impromptu harmonica solo - nice!  We rocked the joint and ate our weight in omelets, bacon, and hotcakes.  It was a joyous noise.  Those guys are so complimentary.  I can't think of better comrades in that regard.  They truly pumped me up until I felt like I could do no wrong.  My intonation was a bit quirky every so often, but I had the drive to keep it aggressive and confident.  Thanks to the 'cats!  Hope we can reconvene again before we get too much older.

A Recording Session With An Old Sparring Partner

I almost forgot to jot this down: a session with Rin Vinson.  What can I say about Rin?  He has built his own home.  What's that you say?  Yes, he built his house, and oooh, it's nice!  He's good, real good!  He now has his own business.  Trucks.  There's money in trucks.  My wife doesn't want to hear about it.  I get it.  He's quite a remarkable engineer, audio wise.  A killin' drummer who knows the value of John Henry Bonham and a few others as well.  He's putting together a cd and wanted me on it.  God bless him.  Fortunately for him, he can punch me in and out and blend my tracks till I sound like Marcus Miller on the first take.  Well, maybe not quite.  He does know what he wants and he has a great personality to pull it out of me.  Very cool vibe.  It's hard to describe.  I really respect him and it felt like I had just seen him after all these years have gone by.  We tracked through Duke Ellington's Caravan.  I shall write more when I have a moment.  Such a cool track that we ended up with...

The Egyptian Ballroom: The Hard Way

Note the marquee with the advert for Boortz' Happy Ending - famed talk show host from WSB AM 750 (and now 95.5 on the FM dial) is retiring.  Sad but true.  Talk radio is about to lose a major constituent here in Atlanta.  I waited for the blurbs to cycle around once again to capture Neil's upcoming goodbye show announcement.

It can happen to the most seasoned professional, one who has amassed a stellar history of legendary gigs with hundreds of noteworthy peers.  It can also happen to the likes of me.  I forgot a crucial piece of gear: my cart.  No wheels means that everything must be carried from the car to the stage and subsequently back to the car after the show.  As I typically do not travel light, this can be quite a burden.  The Fox freight elevator can make for a memorable process.  The wait for the freight!  The fine caterers, audio-visual (in this case lighting), furniture and props, etc. all add to the demand of this smallish lift.  Gus was there, not too far in advance, and he was still dealing with the continuing physical therapy of his knee.  He and I both chose to carry our gear up the stairs that led to the stage in the ballroom.  It actually worked out okay.  I got some exercise.  Had some troublesome chest pains as a result.  Got to keep the ticker working for a bit longer.  Fortunately, I brought the golight 115 and not the older Goliath 410 (85 lbs. or so).  Couldn't find my stand bag - had left it down on the dock!  Still there.  Parked at the Georgian Terrace, comped but still a bit of a hassle.

We set out to make the bride happy.  She wanted some particular hip-hop tunes.  Her number 1 choice: Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx performing Gold Digger.  Such a fun tune!  Don't play it for your momma!  Also learned Flo Rida's Club Can't Handle Me, Big Boi's I Like The Way You Move, and David Guetta's I Can Only Imagine.  The night went by fast; only 2 sets to get through.  We had Margarita subbing for Dianna.  I thought she sounded great!  My poor little Ashbory needs to have that electronic upgrade performed.  It is just not cutting the mustard with the big guns.  Got to get that figured out.  I would be willing to pay for that procedure, or at least purchase the complete parts package through an Ashbory dealer.  I'd also want to make the LED a blue one, which has been discussed as well.  It would be a better toy after that.  Those white strings are great!  They actually stay in tune, and so far, knock on wood, they don't break!

Getting out after the gig?  Fugget about it!  Trey Songz was performing in the theater.  Nine trucks!  The dock was not going to be the exit.  Nine trucks!!!  Huge!  The concert let out and traffic was not going to cooperate.  Gus and I circled around the block until we came to our senses and double parked on Ponce.  Loaded out the front.  It was a 2 hour ordeal!  What?  I met up with Anton and Derek at Churchill Grounds for a Grey Goose martini (up with olives) and an ice water.  It was a necessity after going through a seemingly impossible mission.  What a way to end the night.  We played well, although I noticed my fingers were not responding the way they used to.  I need to practice more, or at least warm up on some of those Motown and Stax things: Ain't Too Proud To Beg and Soul Man come to mind.  Looking back, no major brown notes to be shameful of.  We got our accents and and kicks in all of the right places.  The bride had the time of her life, and the father of the bride gave me props as I summoned my waiting chariot before the bitter coda to the evening.

A bad picture mainly because it does not convey the volume of people, buses, trucks, and congestion I encountered in my attempt to rescue my waiting gear.

Martinis with Anton and Derek at Churchill Grounds.

A Weekend of Playing Through the Fog

Friday the 9th I had my gear with me to head straight down 85 (a lovely autumn jaunt with about 20,000 of my closest friends doing the same thing) to set up and play at the Capital City Club with the Billy Batts Ensemble.  It was another round of distinctive blues, jazz, and soft rock for the fine folks in downtown Atlanta.  We were inside, even though the temps had rebounded to the milder side.  Big TIme wasn't with us.  In his place was Keith Hicks, who has played with us before.  Hey, I just realized we didn't get around to Bright Size Life.  We did a fair amount of blues and such: Little Wing, Tenor Madness, All Blues, Song For My Father, and a request for Take Five with an enforced drum solo by Mark Letalien.  Really, on of the highlights was the last tune we played; an afterthought of a jam on Stevie Wonder's Love Light In Flight.  The melody and changes lend itself to a real smooth Latin-tinged groove, far removed from the '80's electronic blandness of the original from The Woman In Red.  Walt "Middleshelf" Austin had the changes and pretty much everything.  Stevie doesn't write too many bad ones, but for my money, once he started programming everything, the heart and soul vanished.  Keith played really well, if a little too loud (what guitar player doesn't?).  He should be doing it more often.

A surprise - young drummer-extraordinaire Reece Harris (of the trad-jazz sensation The Flycats) came by
during a break in his band's set taking place one floor up.  Ever dapper and spreading his bonhomie like
Tinkerbell scatters her pixie dust, Reece make everybody in the room smile and see the lighter side of the situation.

Saturday was with the more flexible conglomeration of the same cats, Atlanta's own Sweetwater Junction.  We played a high school reunion for the classes of '71 and '72 from Chattahoochee High School.  Their football team is the Cougars, so a big sign was hung that read "Welcome to Cougar Country".  How appropriate.  There were many cougars present last night.  Well preserved ladies in short skirts out to have a good time.  We did a decent job of giving them some nice music.  Acoustic based first set, using my Johnson fretless.  It does indeed seem to distort a bit if the volume pot on the bass is all the way up.  By nudging it down to about 8 or 9, it breathes a bit better (thanks for the tip, Walt).  I compress the signal anyway, so the volume remains about the same, just a little less hot.  I love the sound of it; a nice alternative to upright or electric upright.  I'm thinking the guys in the band are not so crazy about anything other than a Fender.  Well, it worked in giving us a different vibe for the lengthy first set.  The batteries in my 6-string died on me during I Saw Her Standing There.  I had to switch back to the Johnson.  I brought my Stingray as well, so I brought that out for the funk-filled third set.  One of our best from this night was a high-energy filled Hard To Handle.  Mark Letalien was on fire, brimming with boundless energy that I dutifully stayed on the leading edge to keep the bus on course.  We had some nice rhythmic and melodic turns - I thought of Geddy and Neil during those composed fills over Freewill.

A Night at The Biltmore with Class Act

Brent & John at The Biltmore, with the rest of Class Act in the background
Photo by Brent Whiten

Got this past Saturday night booked on Halloween, thanks in no small part to my friend Brent Whiten.  He regularly plays with the band Class Act, or as it is sometimes labeled, Class Act Band  They needed a bass player for this Saturday and I was indeed available.  The band is led by keyboardist/vocalist Judy Boehm.  She was very nice and helpful.  Her style is to just go right into the next song, giving the night a free-flowing non-stop array of tunes.  Many times the keys were different from the original (not an issue, if you really know the song), but she would hold up 4 fingers indicating the key was E (for sharps in the key signature).  The guitarist, Ed Sanker, gave me some good audibles as well.  He shared many of the lead vocals with Brent. 

The song selections were spot on.  Uncanny how similar the flow was compared to what I encounter with my regular band: Waiting On The World To Change, Don't Know Why, Everything, When You Say Nothing At All, Better Together, My Girl, Love Shack, Shout!, Brick House, Play That Funky Music, Get Down Tonight, You Are The Sunshine of My Life, Crocodile Rock.  You get the picture.  The first dance was Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love.  Love those syncopated breaks and that neo-swing groove.  Brent gave to a nice authentic vibe with the clicks on the rims during those breaks - very cool.  I brushed up on it to nail the correct changes and that quick low F (after the Em - A7 turnaround) that I had never learned in the past.  The guitar solo goes to Bb instead of simply repeating the IV of the bridge.  A great tune to have under your fingers.  John Deacon always played the perfect part on those original Queen albums.  His lines are worth studying.

Everything was great all night except for our attempting to honor a request.  I was over my head with It's Still Rock and Roll To Me.  Overstepped my bounds and really just tried to stay out of the way.  It sucked the wind out of my sails, but they really wanted to hear some upbeat Billy Joel.  Well, you can't fake it all the time.  Lesson learned, I hope.  All in all, a great night in the reverberant chambers of the Biltmore.  We were able to dine from the buffet, so no cold chicken boxed lunch!  It did get loud, but in my opinion it was fairly manageable.  Nobody complained, and everything sounded good.  I stuck to my Fender Jazz.  My other bands would have remarked that I only played one bass for a whole night.  Maybe I should try that more often!  Many thanks again to Judy for having me fill in for her husband Jim.  Class Act is appropriately named!

Getting a little bit lower now during Shout!

You've made it this far - here is the arm-chair quarterback ocd-centric fakebook-approved chart for Billy Joel's It's Still Rock and Roll To Me.  Suitable for framing, although I was already framed!  It never hurts to have a little 80's Billy Joel in your back pocket.  Remember, we only play 80's Billy Joel - what movie was that Uptown Gurls band from?  Too funny!

The Temple Hosted an Elegant Wedding Reception

The big news on this one was me fronting the band for the first dance.  A song from the North Carolina neo-bluegrass group The Avett Brothers entitled Swept Away.  A nice song that grew on me.  Soundcheck went well.  I felt a bit self-conscious singing but I thought I could improve the delivery.  Well, the ceremony came fast and we had walk-on bits to play, including I Feel Good.  After the funk, I had to quickly switch gears, put on the acoustic guitar, and step up to the front.  I didn't have the first line of the song in my head, and it didn't start too comfortably.  It wasn't a disaster, but it was rather timid and uncertain.  Still, I got a nice big compliment from the groom as we were starting to pack up and that made me feel good.  Rule number one when you sing: have that first line ready to go!  Don't think it will just come to you.  It was just too much going on just before the song for me I guess.

Earlier in the evening, I happened upon Daniel & Carla Padron performing as a duo during the cocktail hour.  It was good to see them and they sounded great.  It had been while, certainly.  Daniel complimented me as well.  I played with Wild Rice for many years.  I think some of my final gigs with that band took place just as this blog began back in 2010.  I miss the music and the salsa, but in retrospect I suppose the decision for Daniel to get somebody who could be more consistent was a good one.  Time has become that precious commodity that I value ever so much more these days.  Work sure takes a lot out of my day and energy.  Yeah, not like I'm different than most others out there.

I didn't take any noteworthy pics.  Kevin managed a couple, one of me up front trying to stay on track.  A nice shot, if I do say so myself.  He got Virginia as well, looking fine and confident.  She was a welcome co-lead-singer up there with me.  Kevin is the man!

Padriac's: Four Months Later

Those in the loop know that I had surgery two months ago.  Happened to fall on the date of a gig with Martay and Co.  Couldn't be avoided, as our health insurance was about to be dropped and the busy season was quickly approaching.  As a result, I missed the gig and now it's exactly 2 months later.  Thus, a long 4 months since I happened into Padriac's in fashionable Vinings.  The place hasn't changed, but they did have spooky Halloween decorations - some large spiders that were strategically placed just outside the bathroom doors made me do a double take.  We were able to jump right in and fire up the willing engine after a long hiatus.

Hurts So Good was the opener.  I wasn't quite there.  Martay's yelling over the din that we're in Eb. Confusing for a few reasons.  When I tune for Martay, I tune down a 1/2 step from standard; I was already there, so to speak.  My tuner calls the low string D#, but that's a technicality.  I wish it thought in terms of flats and not sharps.  Anyways, the last time we did this, I remember playing it in G, down a whole step from the original key of A.  Keep in mind, A sounds like Ab as far as our tuning is concerned; G sounds like F# (or Gb, but who really thinks in terms of Gb, unless you're in E flat minor?), and so on.  Well, this time Martay was in E.  I hadn't played the song in E before.  That puts it in concert E flat - cool, a tri-tone away from the original!  So he's yelling "E flat" to me, he's playing E, I was playing A, I fumbled down to G, then saw his left hand grabbing an E chord and moved it down to my open E (for the last time, Eb).  Now I got it!  To me, it's almost not worth doing the song anymore once you move the key so far from the ingrained key.  Really, corporate radio has slammed that song into our subconscious!  You can't mess with it too much.

Now that I typed that all out in my own disorganized fashion and have re-read my thoughts, I realize that we had played it in E before.  Maybe once, maybe twice.  It had been a while.  I accept the responsibility, and the blame.  That said, it's up to the wanna-be musician to keep track of the keys, changes, and arrangements.  Bass players have it fairly hard in that we need keen ears and an unfailing reliability.  The band (and the crowd) count on us to keep the format intact.  No pressure!

Bill showed up early and sang like his life depended on it.  Man, no one else can get the Led out like Mr. Bill!  Bobby Plant would have been proud to witness this!  Whole Lotta Love indeed!  We should have done more Zep, in any case.  With Martay, it always comes down to the guitar solos.  We did pull out some decent Van Halen: Jamie's Cryin' and Panama.  Also did some 80's hits that not everybody can pull off: Your Love (Josie's On a Vacation Far Away) (The Outfield) and the ubiquitous Don't Stop Believin'  (down from E to D, which in our tuning is C#, a necessity even for Brent's deluxe vocal range).

My Precision had a mighty large tone, certainly owing somewhat to freshly boiled strings (don't tell anybody but I think this was the 2nd go-round in the hot water for the current set...).  The night before I was reminded by removing the strap to polish the wood (!!!) (ha-ha) that the horn's strap hook screw had become stripped over time within the body's wood.  I had to procure a longer and slightly more robust screw to adhere the hook to the horn.  Several minutes of searching through my collection of screws yielded a few good candidates.  It wasn't overly taxing to slowing screw that puppy back into the bass.  It will never come out again!  Back to the tone - so fat and yet so clear.  The clarity owes itself to the jazz pickup in the bridge position.  Love that feature, even if it taints a true P-bass tone.  I can always pan over to just the p p/u, but I never do.

Great to see Cliff, as well as Christine and Dorothy.  Mary, the chief bartender with the bitter soul, has left the building.  Alas, no love lost.  It felt like old times for sure.  Real nice playing with these guys.  We just don't do it often enough!