I forget if this picture is a repeat, but even so, I need it as a reminder of why I’m in Florida. Sure, the winter scene is idyllic, but you weren’t there to experience the blasting cold. This is the place I lived for five years (1991-1996) out on the west coast. If it’s all the same to everyone, I hope I never see this much snow again. Nothing quaint or romantic about it whatsoever.
Today I attempt to change over to the new International date format. If you see 2009/08/01 you should be able to figure out what I mean or you’ve probably got the wrong blog as well. Music dominates my day but is not music “the universal addiction”? Eddie called while I was minding the computer shop and scheduled an impromptu rehearsal. Good move, and here is why. Last day I described the synergy that exists in our musical styles and this time around we’ve both had time to adjust, to pick up those subconscious queues that polish up an act. Sure enough, we’ve got a sound that a guitar player who was a hundred times better could probably not improve. Even if this band fails I’ll soon have another, for I finally found a guitarist who followed my theory and now have proof I was right. I state (in all modesty, of course), we have a fantastic sound now that he’s learned what not to play.
Eddie is working double shifts and practice is difficult to arrange. Plus it is smack middle of summer. I had to get home early and place five fans around the living room to create a comfort cocoon in the center. Merga-troyd, it is hot. About this time, I discover my Alesis drum box is on the blink. This unit is a necessity for this two-man show and it didn’t last three years. For its shortcomings (too many “Japanese” beats) it is still the best machine for stage work.
Plus Eddie has been soloing so long we need the beat box as a metronome to stop him from dropping measures. I bought it at Guitar Center meaning I have the receipt, so let’s hope. Even without the box I report an extremely successful rehearsal. I am stunned by the “country quality” of our sound since neither of us are true country musicians. Eddie has completely picked up my bass philosophy and we are nailing down stage-ready versions on the first try. He now stops chording at times just to enhance the bass effect. No not a bass solo. An effect. He's learning, but at a rate that is slowing down ominously.
For years I’ve been telling guitarists about this technique but could not find one who’d listen to what was good for him. You know who you are. I think they take fat-head lessons and develop an attitude that the greatness of the whole band is somehow dependent on their indispensable riffs. Well neener, I recently completed a two-year house gig without a guitarist and finally found somebody who tried my methods and became convinced. Remember, what we play is generic and rather sparse, the opposite of the “wall of sound” a lot of duos try to achieve. I’ve often said I make a so-so guitarists sound good, but I had trouble finding one mediocre enough. Eddie’s the first to admit it he fits that bill.
Part of my philosophy is to forget about “parts” of the music. You are not playing a guitar part and I’m not playing a bass part. Together we play whatever is needed to convey the feel of the beat, so much so that the room instantly knows what is going on. That is my specialty and no, it is not your specialty. I’m saying anybody can do it to a minor degree, but compared to me they suck. Play it the way Jimmy Buffet or The Doors would be forced to if they only had a duo.
And a duo it is. I tell you right off, a country duo is not some crackpot idea I chanced upon to waste my own time. I’m a manager who has been watching for the right combination to come along. I also know this town is a tough road where even the best singles acts are dying a slow death from tedious overexposure to a shrinking market. I’ve heard every competing act within driving distance. I predict we will soon be a popular show and the local soloists will be outmatched for the material we do (an important restriction). My target audience is not the middle-aged barfly Hendrix/Clapton fan that so fascinates guitarists. Nor other musicians, like the bunch that wants you to play “Mustang Sally” so they can pick it apart, but who run like chicken-shits the moment you want them to play Johnny Cash.
Making a success of this will require clear-headed decisions and a tight rein. I’ve already had to cool Eddie down over several standardized “guitar-think” ideas, like a live drummer or a demo tape. Eddie has said he’s never heard anything like what we do, which is true since he is the first eastern guitarist who ever listened to me. Read my lips, “We don’t do lead breaks.” Yet the sound is superior enough that I am confident we already have the competitive advantage. Very few patrons will be able to ignore us on stage--this is far more important to me than to most other musicians. If the audience isn't watching you, they are not listening to you.
[Author's note: This guitar player did not not work out either, once again for the same basic reason as the rest. These guys cannot learn new material. They play what they play--and have usually done so for decades. I see this crowd as a sub-class of musicians. The songs we played that were "fantastic" were the ones where I showed Eddie how I wanted the guitar part to sound. He could copy what I played, but could not go beyond that. So we stopped at the end of the six songs I can play on guitar and got no further.
Their limit seems to be twelve songs they can play the dickens out of. But at that point, their evolution stops. They then develop an inventory of excuses why they won't learn anything else, which quickly degenerates into an argument about musical tastes. Which they know they can't win, but also can't lose. End of guitar player.]
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