returning to blues jam, finally

[Abaco]

It's been a while since I attended a blues jam. This time, I'm cheating a little. I often don't like the lighting fast pace that blues tunes are played at open blues jams. The tempos get up so fast that it squeezes the emotive qualities out of the songs and each song becomes a circle jerk. I happen to know some good musicians - the other guitarist in my rock band, a great bass player I happen to sit next to in my new day job, and a drummer I've known for quite a while. I just burned a CD of 3 songs for each of them and they agreed to show up with me and tear it up. Should really be a blast. I'm calling this (and probably future) blues project "Tabasco Blues". I just like that name - I hope it's not taken. Of course, I'll be playing a Hamer Studio - something that always gets attention at these things. For anybody near Folsom, CA (I don't know of any here, but) we'll be at The Powerhouse Pub at 8:00pm Sunday night.

Oh, the tunes are Tommy Castro's "Right as Rain", Dave Meniketti's "Bad Feeling", and "Red Rooster" (Robben Ford's version is the only one I've heard). No rehearsal. That would take the fun out of it. In honor of the HFC I will play a lot of notes.... 8D

[cmatthes]

Sounds cool - let us know the outcome!

[Abaco]

Well, it went really well. After the crowd was accustomed to the host band playing 1-5-4s for about 45 minutes we opened up with Right as Rain - which is far from a standard progression. It got a great response from the crowd. Man, our bass player was kicking some serious ass right from the start. I was very impressed with his playing. It's always been tough for me to perform at jams like this because the first set, I'm just not warmed up and am just nervous enough to get a little gummed up. But, it was very fun. My vocal chords really dug in well when we played Red Rooster - I always enjoy singing Robben Ford material. We got many words of encouragement and praise from people in the audience and the host band, which was great.

[shankyboy]

No wonder the host band was boring. They couldn't even play their fast tempoed blues in the right progression. A 1-5-4 progression must have sounded awful. Had they played a I-IV-V (1-4-5) instead, I bet that they would have sounded a little more coherent. Also, I had no idea that Dave Meniketti was a Blues player. Wow!! I'll have to look him up and listen to some of his recent Blues stuff because all I have is the Yesterday & Today and Y&T stuff. When did he switch over to Blues, or was it just a one time thing? Now Tommy Castro, there's a good choice. He is a wonderful and soulful player & singer. (and a great person to boot) Right as Rain is a pretty righteous tune.