Well, like I don’t have enough already to do, I went and volunteered to help memorialize the winter 2009 Take The Stage in a blog. I’ve been thinking about it for the past couple of weeks and the thoughts kept churning in my mind so it seemed like the only thing I could do to try and exorcise those dobros, vocals, guitars, fiddles, basses, and banjos from playing all day in my brain. (The banjos were giving me a headache.) Evidently there might be some other blogs covering the winter TTS so you could have the choice of several perspectives, opinions, and purveyors of scurrilous gossip.
Making the decision (Summer 2008-November 2008)
"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live." Mark Twain
An introduction is probably in order. I am Geoff Sargent, a (gulp) 50-something boomer, getting back into music after a 30+ year dry spell. Back in the day, I was a horn player trombone (actually valve trombone), baritone, tuba, a little trumpet, and very little guitar. Jeez what was I ever thinking when I stopped playing. Oh I know……life got in the way. About 2 years ago I decided to start playing music again and somehow backed into playing dobro, or rather “resophonic guitar” as it is sometimes called. Go figure.
Anyway, since I am the only dobro player in this TTS round I courageously, or foolishly, volunteered to play in two bands. When I did this I thought “cool, I’ll get to play a lot”. What I didn’t think about was, “I have to work up 10-12 songs to perform in 8 weeks on the stage of the Freight in front of a whole bunch of people!!!!”……..that little reality didn’t kick in until about the first practice. The other reality that Hilary Perkins, the TTS Director/coordinator/producer, didn’t really mention when I volunteered to be in two groups is that this would result in a 5-hour, marathon practice session on Sunday evenings. All I can say is that when I mentioned this realization to her, she just smiled.
And, it’s going to get even better (or worse depending on your point of view and my mood) because the groups sooner or later will practice during the week outside of our coached sessions. I think this is going to be great though.…I am going to get to play till I puke (or at least until I get a headache)....but now I am a little concerned I’ll be able to put in the amount of time between scheduled practices, home practice, work, my wife and dog, and everything else to pull off a good performance at the Freight at the end of March. Be careful what you wish for.
Ok…..so how did I get here? Well one of my motives for doing something like TTS, is getting more performance experience. I can still remember from when I played in my teens how good it feels to give a good performance in front of a receptive, responding crowd, especially as part of a small band. I also remember the knots in my stomach right before a performance, the zillions of practices and rehearsals, and the roller coaster from confidence to frustration and back in working up pieces. One important difference though…….as a teenager I was almost certainly a much better horn player than I am a dobro player. I wanted to see how it would all play out again, and yes you can probably accuse me of trying to recapture some lost adolescence. Thankfully I don’t have enough cash on hand to go out and buy a top of the line dobro….or hot sports car…….and my wife would slit my gizzard if I even thought about…..nope not even going to go there.
Another part of doing TTS is to try and take my musicianship up another level. It’s one thing to sit at home and play along with my iTunes library and fantasize about giving Jerry, Rob, Ivan, Mike, and Phil a run for their money…..obviously it’s completely something else to put fantasy aside and deal with the nitty gritty reality of discovering what I can actually play in a performance setting. And, while playing in jams can be kind of fun and helps to get over some of those “playing in public jitters”, in a jam you can’t really develop or experiment with musical ideas that you can as a band. Maybe, just maybe some of the folks would like to continue playing after it is all over and try to do a few low key gigs.
So summer of ’08 I was casting about looking for a way to get some performance experience and came across Dave Zimmerman’s program (www.thepicksf.com) in the city and also came across the TTS program (www.thefreight.org/workshops.html; www.nellrobinsonmusic.com/nellrobinson_005.htm)…..I actually came across TTS first because they used the space upstairs of the 5th String in Berkeley during some of the Thursday evening 5th String jams and folks would come and go between the two. I later had some friends participate in the Fall ’08 TTS, went to their performance….and that is all it took to push me off the fence. At first the cost seemed like a lot…but when you consider it spread over 8 weeks, with coaching by working musicians, and a sound class….oh yeah, and a performance at one of the nation's premiere folk music clubs, the "Freight and Salvage", it is a real steal.
The Fall ’08 TTS performance was really good. I knew a couple of the folks performing and went to give them some moral support and check out the end result of the fall program. As usual I didn’t by a ticket in advance and show up at the Freight and Salvage to find a long line, with Freight staff running out every now and then to get the folks in the door picking up prepaid tickets...this was looking like a full house. I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout and support but also a little annoyed that I might not get in. Once inside though I settled down, caught up with familiar faces and waited for the show.
Pretty soon Hilary Perkins the TTS Director/coordinator/producer gets up onstage to give the history, gore and guts of TTS, makes her plug for the winter TTS, and I make a mental note to talk to her when I get the chance…..which was about 30 seconds later. Hilary is a very energetic, enthusiastic lady with a streak of what looks like post punk blue in her hair. Not exactly my image of your typical blue grass vocalist, which I admit is stuck somewhere in the 70s, but no matter…….I give Hilary my registration on the spot and promise to send in the deposit soon.
To make a middling story short…….6 or 7 emails later, I put a check in the mail and Hilary sends us the details about the introductory jam on Sunday January 11. Now, during the weeks leading up to the intro jam I have been scouring iTunes and Rasputin’s for potential TTS song ideas…..I figured that since I wouldn’t know the musicians and instruments that might be in my groups I should try and find songs that aren’t too complicated….and if I want to try a lead vocal……it’s going to have to be something that would sound good in the baritone range. The musical theme for TTS is American roots music…whatever that is….but I take it to mean everything from old time to blues to bluegrass to folk.
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