One year ago today: June 15, 2018, no building ever passes.
Five years ago today: June 15, 2014, Texas, Oklahoma, or Arkansas.
Nine years ago today: June 15, 2010, bought a drum box.
Random years ago today: June 15, 2004, 1574 years ago today
my ancestors sacked Rome.
Finally, I found time to study why I have such trouble installing small hinges. I was trying to line up the wrong edges, for starters. I can only do lids that fit flush at this time and I’m not happy with what hardware is starting to cost. It easily doubles the cost of a small project. It was a nice morning out in the yard and porch. Wait, I got a closeup of one hinge. This hinge fits and works, and represents the first time I’ve installed one that works properly. It is also one of the first times I used a chisel to get something like this together. I hope to do better soon.
The expected phone call arrived. From the band manager, he was on a bench to the side of the stage, but he spotted quickly how my act is geared toward the room, not the band. The good news is he sent a different song list, one that is more, what’s the word, ambitious? Yeah, more ambitious tipping us off that he was quite that bass playing can be done without any band synergy. Not that this is wrong, I mean, listen to The Eagles.
List also contains music in accidental keys (keys with tonic sharps & flats), another sign he was aware of the limitations of a guitar-player-switched-to-bass. I’m looking at it, and note that it coincides with the original music, such as Gretchen Wilson’s “Red Neck Woman” in F#. Most guitarists would move it up to a much easier G. Something tells me I’m going to be glad I learned all my music in the original keys before doing any transposing. This is why I so often capo the bass, which can raise eyebrows from the more narrow-minded side of the stage.
There are 54 tunes, some of which (to me) are Broadway tunes, such as “My Heart Will Go On”. That’s a rather large number of tunes for a band that rehearses once a week. We had more, 61 to be exact, with my five-piece band in Hollywood, but that took intense practice and excluded learning almost anything new. I think upon giving some of the music a deep listen, I may have to dig out my five-string. Most have descending fifths that can’t be played on the low E. Check with me on this, because I’d hate to give up my trusty Danelectro.
My take on this is I will go about learning the material as time permits. If they have been using hired guns, they are likely not too demanding. That means a possibility I could fake it and get out there long before I get the bass lines up to my level. This band is out there and plays some of the best places, including the really big clubs on Broadway. It’s not the Opry, but it’s a damn sight closer than a lot of people I could name. But I won’t because this is Nashville and you never know who might be in that audience. Just playing in a big band in that town would be a fitting reward for me, since I got there the hard way and far too late.
Calling the BS in Germany.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Here’s the song list: (a complete list, more than 54 tunes, but some are already retired.)
Ace In The Hole
Already Gone
B4 U Cuz Me
Baggage Claim
Best Of Your Love
Broken Halos
Calling Baton Rouge
Cowboy Take Me
Crocodile Rock
Crossfire
Crossroads
Devil Went Down Georgia
Don’t Stop Believin’
Dust My Broom
Faithfully
Folsom Prison
Great Balls of Fire
Head Over Boots
Hell On Heels
Honky Tonk Woman
Horse With No Name
House is a-Rockin’, The
I Love Rock ‘n Roll
It Is What It Is
Jolene
La Grange
ady Madonna
Last Dance MJ
Layla
Listen To The Music
Liza Jane
Long Train Runnin’
Momma’s Broken Heart
My Girl
My Heart Will Go On
One More Last Chance
Orange Blossom Special
Pride & Joy
Proud Mary
Ramblin Man
Red Neck Woman
Rocky Mountain Way
Run Down Dream
Satisfaction
Save A Horse
Shallow
harp Dressed Man
South Gonna Do It Again
Summer of 69
Sweet Home Alabama
Take It Easy
Take It To The Limit
Tennessee Whiskey
The Weight
Wagon Wheel
Watchtower
When You Say Nothing
Whole Lotta Shakin’
You Don’t Know How It Feels
I would shit-can around ten of these tunes instantly, starting with Last Dance, closely followed by Watchtower and Run Down Dream. But, this is the price some gotta pay just to get on that stage in Nashville. If it happens, I won’t be the first to have done it without any musical talent.
I hate to bear the bad news, but I had to inform a vegetarian lady that falafel is not diet food when you deep fry it. The mixture soaks up a third of its volume in cooking oil. Unless it’s your one-course meal, you are not gaining anything because it is meatless. You can bake falafel, but like potatoes, it becomes a course instead of a fried treat. Just letting you know.
ADDENDUM
Let me explain something to the imbeciles of the world. Speaker phones don’t work. Only people stupid enough to buy them think they work. I had to make an intense business call this afternoon which should have taken five minutes. Instead twenty minutes. Since I rely on the other side for other things, I could not complain. On and on it went, I must have said fifty times please repeat, I didn’t hear that, are you in a tunnel, say again, and fifty times she said she could hear me just fine. Possibly speaker phones emit an ultrasonic beam that gives the users brain damage. It’s a tragic situation, a speaker phone on a business call where the other person obviously cannot hear you, but you keep telling them things are fine at your end.
And another thing, I would explain to people who should know better. Skype is not a secret phone line. First of all, it is a MicroSoft service which is all we need to know. Skype to Skype calls are difficult to trace, but not Skype to cell, Skype to landline, Skype to tablet, or Skype to mobile. This is why government offices don’t use Skype. Ah, some people retort, but I use Skype premium services which allows calls to non-Skype devices. True, but to pay for that service you must subscribe using a credit card, and the instant you do that, there is no such thing as privacy.
All Skype to Skype calls are encoded at the 256-bit level. It is considered uncrackable, but every encoded call is recorded for a time in the future when it can be cracked. This is why I will use a flip-fone for business calls until they pry it from my cold, cold fingers.
