One year ago today: November 8, 2018, locked out by Google.
Five years ago today: November 8, 2014, Miami Maker Faire, ho-hum.
Nine years ago today: November 8, 2010, $52 worth of groceries.
Random years ago today: November 8, 1982, yes, but that was 1982.
Look at this, I think it is the morning sun. It’s been so long, I may have forgotten, damn, Nashville. Sunny and cold is the forecast. Yes, but can I burn leaves? Check back after it gets warm enough to walk in the sun. I spent some time researching wind propulsion for ships, hoping to find something new or different. Nope. Most never get beyond the ancient technology of sails. Sails are unwieldy and don’t fare so well in rough weather because they must be furled. I was more looking for information on wind turbines. Most of those are also outdated windmill designs. What I wanted was improvements on the Flettner concept of 1922. This are the large stacks that catch the wind from any direction.
I messaged back the slide guitar player, he has a gig tomorrow in the east end. I sort of know the area, that’s up near Nadine’s, the breakfast place. My best case scenario is that he is a soloist gone weary of that dry existence. It takes most guitarists such a long time to realize the limitations of what they do. They conclude a full band is the way out, without considering the organizational skills that entails. Most of them don’t have what it takes. But a rare few realize a duo is a better idea. The snag there is that they try the wrong kind of duos a few times and give up. Most fails are a two guitarists, or a guitarist and a bassist who used to play guitar and still wants to. Such duos days are numbered from the word go.
That was the guitar player just on the phone. This will have to wait, I’m contending with those azz-clowns from Redmond again. They are insisting I want their so-called Windows 10 update. Like I don’t know they just announced another “improvement”, no one of which has changed an apparent thing on my computer in twenty years. Hint, when Windows does an unwanted update, turn your computer off when it says do not turn it off, then use the restoral point you made right after the first time you used the computer.
Rock ptarmigan.
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Total responses were eight guitarists, at which point I took down the ad. I eliminated three right off the bat. One lives too far away and the next two had severe cases of guitar-think. That is a serious mental condition for those that have it, so no laughing. Both had the attitude that I was a lowly bass player looking to back up their show. You know how far the got with that. One has not responded, so the remaining four are:
1) a slide guitar player who has drawn many of the same conclusions I have about live performing and how it should accommodate the audience, not the musician
2) a guitar player who admits to not being all that great, but is totally sold by my ad the way it targets what I don’t want. Says he’s put up with the same.
3) a music teacher with an expansive web page who sees the logic in why a duo is the best fit in the current music climate.
4) an admitted amateur who understands the value of getting on stage in a setting where he’ll get the experience needed to deal with small venues.
Now the fun part. I received 13 replies that were not for auditions. They were from people who loved my advertising and the way I spelled out what I didn’t want. Without actually saying so, it was an indictment of bad guitar attitudes. I see I may be the first one who came along and said so. I used no direct language, but when I state “there is not enough room on my stage for a second ego”, it’s pretty obvious. Another departure is I intend to play bars as a regular direction for the band. It’s in vogue for guitarists to sneer at playing pubs. Or say they are tired of that circuit, where I look at bar-bands as just as much a musical category as blues, gospel, or string quartets. If you don’t like playing bars, you’re doing it all wrong. And doing it wrong is exceedingly common in the music trade.
The other popular quip was that I stated no slow music. This is where most guitarists and I don’t see eye to eye. And they can go screw themselves. It’s amazing how many of them will argue that the audience wants or it is good to do slow music. But this cannot be easily proven. It’s not like you can directly show the audience wants upbeat music when there is always some sentimental goof out there who loves the sad songs. I realized early that tips are the way a musician keeps score. This is true even of the stars—they exist because people pay for their music.
Here’s a picture to liven up this section. It’s the boys at the lake. I suspect Sparkie, the bigger dog, is having hearing problems. He doesn’t respond as before when called, and is spooked when you touch him to get his attention.
Ah, but is there indirect proof? Yes, it takes the form of keeping a record of tips over a long period. When I play fast music exclusively, tips are as much as half again as much as playing a mix of fast and slow. As for an entirely slow music show, I don’t know, I’ve never tried. But I do have plenty of video footage of the crowd reactions to fast and slow. With slow music, it is very rare to have anyone pay attention to the stage the full song. And I can easily prove people who look at the stage are the best tippers. I know better than to try to get a guitar player to follow that logic because they confuse applause with tips. I’m convinced the cards say play fast music when applause by itself is not good enough.
I’ll try to set up a decent session with these guys, since Nashville is full of people who do music for a living. My view of playing bars as an untapped resource would appear a novelty. No matter, bars and clubs are fun to play and you never know who will walk in the door. This was one of many factors that drew me to a duo. It’s the best compromise that avoids the headaches of a bigger band. I know that I’m better than average on bass, but when it comes to presentation, ah, that is my wild card. I carefully designed my show to be better than any guitar soloist. I carefully weighed the soloist strengths and weaknesses, and made it nearly impossible to simply copy my act. You know how I detest copycats.
ADDENDUM
I usually ask the guitarists for a song list too see if we are on the same page. This has the strange effect of making most of them quit on the spot. My theory is that everybody’s list has at least a few tunes the other guy detests. Myself, it gives me the heads-up on what the other guy is used to and the most prolific fault I find is slow music. This explains a lot about why they seek to change their format yet most of them never make the connection.
If I never said, my experiment with fast-only gigs dates from my thirties. A taxi hit me on the way to work and for three years I had a slow-healing wrist wound. There’s a tension, however mild, to playing and I was forced to stick to shorter, faster tunes or my injury would come back. I noticed the immediate leap in tips. No, I have never tried playing a gig of only slow songs and that is back to the circular logic of the situation. People don’t watch the band through a slow song and the tips drop off when they don’t. Put another way, I’ll let somebody else prove how to make less money.
Here’s the song list of the one reply I have so far:
Your Cheatin’ Heart
Mama Don’t Let Your Babies
Always On My Mind
Folsom Prison Blues
Kiss An Angel Good Morning
For The Good Times
Tulsa Time
Tennessee Whiskey
Make The World Go Away
There Goes My Everything
Well, no wonder the guy wants to change format. He’s in a rut of slow music. Most of these tunes drag along. Hardly the material to fire up a crowd. Eight of the ten songs are too slow for a pub. Two of them I never heard of until now. Of what’s there, I’d play Folsom and Tulsa to a Friday night crowd.
