The Freight and Salvage Show and Final Thoughts
For both bands, by now we have adopted a loose practice structure where we run the sets, kind of a warm up run, then we run the sets again and focus on rough spots (run breaks, tidy up entrances, etc), then we run the sets again for real. All this takes 2-3 hours and is always accompanied by good humor, jokes, and we get to have a laugh when someone really screws something up. Granted it isn’t PG-13, ribald and racy probably describes our communal sense of humor, and as far as I can tell no one has come away feeling poorly after practice…rather the opposite. One nice benefit to the practices are the refreshments….Curtis is a wine aficionado so he sometimes graces us with a good bottle, beer is often present, my personal fav, so we generally socialize a bit while playing.
The week before the show was spent trying to not practice too much. We scheduled two practices for “4 Cold Walls” and one for “6 Floors Up”. The first “4 Cold Walls” practice was flat, no spark, a wee bit lifeless, dead like the parrot wired to its perch in the Monty Python skit…no matter how much you try to convince everyone it is alive, it just wasn’t….we acknowledge this at the end and just rack it up to all of us collectively having had a long day. Several of us are taking Friday off, our last scheduled practice day, to relax and we schedule an early practice at TJ’s house.
The final “4 Cold Walls” and “6 Floors Up” practices were great……..for both we ran the first set, stopped, looked at each other, and just smiled. At one practice we actually floated the idea of just stopping there and going home…..it was about as good as it could get.
We did one thing different at TJ’s house that gave us an unexpected sound. Since TJ’s basement studio is small, we couldn’t spread out into our stage positions so we bunched up close. After a couple of songs everyone is looking around and making comments like “wow…great break” or “great fills”. In our usual stage positions it is difficult to hear the folks on the other side of the band and some of us hadn’t really heard up close what was being played. For me this is actually a really important thing. I tend to cue off what other folks are playing, so if someone is leading into my break I can start playing when I hear their final few bars. And, because some of my breaks have rather tricky pull-off runs, I need to hear the rhythm guitar to keep my timing in sync, otherwise it all falls apart. This will come back to bite me at the show.
Saturday…….up and out of bed. Take the dog for a walk…..of everyone he will probably be the happiest that the TTS is ending. This is my dog and bud “Batso” a 5 year old Cardigan Welsh Corgi…..not what the Queen has. Corgis are herding dogs, more laid back than Border Collies or Australian Sheep Dogs, but not exactly an “undemanding” breed. One trainer I know describes them as dogs with a mission…when they get you up in the morning they have their Blackberries in hand, want to know the day’s schedule, and then proceed to “help” you accomplish everything during the day. For the past 8 weeks, Batso has not had the pleasure of controlling my time and has been routinely ignored while I am practicing. Take it from me, it is a challenge trying to play dobro against the background of a demanding Corgi with a bark that can rattle your brain. There’s just something about the pitch and resonance of his bark that makes it almost painful.
We arrive at the Freight early, about 6:30. The first band “Last Exit” is on stage doing the sound check. Everyone is in good spirits and excited about performing. Folks from both my bands are trickling in and I make introductions to my wife. Hilary Perkins the TTS director is there and gives hugs all around. Dave Zimmerman, our coach, is setting up cameras for the video shoots and checks in with the bands but largely leaves us to our own warm-ups. It is exciting seeing friends show up and come over to greet me. Most of these folks also play, some perform, some are TTS alums, and some will probably be future TTS participants so it is especially meaningful to have them there supporting us…it is also a little nerve-wracking since the competitive side of me wants to pull off a killer show to impress them.
One disadvantage to being in two of the four performing groups is that I don’t get to really see any of the show……my time is taken either on stage playing or warming up with one of the bands to play. So while “Last Exit” is onstage, “4 Cold Walls” is out in the parking lot running kicks and finishes without Terry our fiddle player who is onstage with “Last Exit”.
Stage time! Dave is on stage doing the introductions for “4 Cold Walls” while we wait in the Green room. Up the stairs and out we go. Adjust the microphone for the dobro, and we start. The first song is “Drinkin Dark Whiskey” where I do the kick and it is a pretty good one. So far so good, in the grove, we’re moving at a good beat, the break works out ok. Then we go right in to “Wichita”….got the intro to that ok…..
Now remember, I have been playing dobro less than 2 years and this is my first performance in probably 35 years so it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn there are a few unexpected gremlins that tend to pop up when I play under stress. One of the gremlins is what I call “happy fingers”. Basically what I think happens is that my fingers are so happy to be playing in public that they go off and do their own thing, seemingly independent of the body and mind they are supposed to be attached to. In addition, I really haven’t been satisfied with my Wichita break, which is a good example of the other gremlin that shows up under stress, “random rearrangements”. Somehow, don’t ask me how because I don’t know how, I will modify my dobro arrangement on the fly. These two gremlins in combination are a serious challenge for me to bring back under control and the little buggers decide to strike simultaneously for my Wichita break. Somehow I rein them in and get through the break, but with more slop than I wanted.
On to “Broke Down and Lonesome”…..got the intro bit I wanted to hit but my break here has been only about 70% which means 30% of the time I fluff it. Earlier in the evening I told one of my friends that I am playing on the ragged edge and I am beginning to feel like I’m on the wrong side of that edge. I get through the break ok but not the way I wanted.
“Like a River” came off ok, I hit the intro, which I have sometimes forgotten, jumped my break a little early but recovered.
The last two songs are possibly our “4 Cold Walls” showcase songs. With “If it Hadn’t Been for Love”, Wendy and Terry have some killer parts. Wendy absolutely smashes the vocals and Terry’s break is great. Our last song is one of my favorites because I get to sing. This is a bluegrass gospel song “When I Get Home, I’ll Be Satisfied” which we arranged a 6-part harmony to open and close. What we hope is unexpected in our arrangement is that I sing a deep low bass and hit a really low note. I haven’t figured what the note is but evidently it is low enough to surprise. Now, everyone says they really like my voice in the song but then they seem to giggle when I sing. I haven’t completely reconciled these conflicting observations, but since I enjoy the vocal part I don’t pay much mind. Apparently it works. My wife hadn’t heard me sing my piece in “When I Get Home” and told me she couldn’t stop laughing…..I assume she was laughing out of surprise and awe.
We come off stage and out into the room to take a break while the stage is being rearranged. Folks in the audience seem to have enjoyed the set and my friends compliment me on my breaks and vocals……the low bass vocal appears to have had the effect we wanted.
As I have mentioned before, “6 Floors Up” has a different personality compared to “4 Cold Walls” One reason for that is Scott who has a unique sense of humor and a great stage presence. We come on stage and get to work. The first song was Woody Guthrie’s “Do Re Mi” which comes off ok. The gremlins are struggling to get out and have some success but I work hard to keep them contained.
There are a couple of things I should mention about being on stage at the Freight and Salvage. One is that, thankfully, the stage lights pretty much are in my eyes making it all but impossible to see much of the audience…their faces are blissfully in the dark. I can barely make out a few folks the front row and my wife in the second row. But now I begin to notice something different with the sound as well. The monitor volume has been increased……a lot. With “4 Cold Walls” I really couldn’t hear myself in the monitor at all…now, oh jeez even a good 6 inches away from the monitor I can’t hear the rest of the band over my playing. Ok……somehow I’ll deal with it.
I kick “Old Folks”, a little fast, not too much so, but the gremlins decide this is an opportune time to strike. Now they are fully out of the box and wrecking havoc on me. I get through the kick somehow. We kick the next song “Don’t Get Too Close” and I get that under control but barely.
Scott decides to do some unrehearsed stage banter before “Wagon Wheel”, looks at me and gets an evil glint in his eyes. Uh oh, he mentions my name and something about fantasy and the internet……..oh boy where is he going with this…and then he takes it in the direction of baseball,,,whew…I guess payback time for the blog.
Scott was ramping up the crowd…he did a good job because he got a few cell phones in the air. “Wagon Wheel” is where my gremlins really started their carnage though. I sing harmony on the chorus for “Wagon Wheel” and have a double challenge……I have to walk behind Scott to share a mic with Lisa and then get back to my mic to cover instrumental parts immediately following the chorus. The second challenge is to hit the right note in the harmony…..which I have been struggling with. So, I go stand at the mic a little early to make sure I am there for the chorus while avoiding tripping over the instrument stand…….so far so good…….but I can’t find the right vocal note……and then the carnage begins…….I remember too late to get back to my mic for the instrumental….the gremlins are having a heyday. I get some unexpected respite from their grief and hit the other vocal and instrumental parts in “Wagon Wheel”.
“Against the Wind” was our next to last song in the set and one where I had a long fairly prominent break. Everything is going well, though it seems a little fast. Then the break comes. Remember where I mentioned earlier that I needed to hear the rhythm guitar to keep my break on track and also remember my mentioning the loud monitor volume. I should also mention the “playing on the ragged edge” comment again….these are not 3 things that work well together, especially when trying to contain stubborn gremlins. The first half of the break went ok but I had this long pull off run for the second half that flat fell apart. There is a point at the end of the break where I recover to finish but I really wanted this break to work……I’m bummed.
Our closer was Bonaparte’s Retreat. We stacked this song with tricks and it is a lot of fun to perform. I get to kick this song, we hit everything just like we are supposed to…….racing for the finish line…..hit the syncopated parts and end.
I feel exhausted……
How can I summarize my TTS experience. For starters there isn’t a simple way to wrap it all up. Take 6 people, strangers with different levels of musical experience, different musical tastes, different personalities, and throw them together in a small room for 8 weeks and see what comes out the other end. Sure we’re all supposed to be grown ups, but with egos, ideas, and dreams. In some ways it is remarkable that the bands come together as well as they do and don’t simply implode along the way.
It is easy to identify the roots of the TTS success. The roots are Hilary Perkins and the coaches, Dave Zimmerman, Dan Booth, and Jacob Groopman. Dave, Dan, and Jacob were able to manage a group of disparate, overachieving, sometimes cranky, individuals spanning a couple of generations from teens to 50 and 60 somethings. They did it with exceptional style and grace and were able to help us learn how to pull it all together. Hilary of course manages the whole kit and kaboodle….and almost certainly has a harder job than the coaches. Apart from organizing everything…she was the first contact before we were assigned coaches…..which means for all those weeks before our first session…Hilary was the sole contact…...answering questions and trying to maintain the entire group. Hilary was largely behind the scenes once we started practicing, but was never far away and clearly moving along other aspects of TTS. I have worked in several organizations and teams and I marvel at how skillfully these guys managed the whole effort.
But it doesn’t matter how many coaches and directors there are if there aren’t musicians to coach. I believe the body and soul of TTS really are the folks that come to play. I haven’t written equally about everyone in my bands and have barely mentioned the other TTS bands and I hope they will cut me a little slack for that. From my experience, it is rare to meet and play with such a fine group of individuals; people who are willing to compromise their egos and dreams to make dream that they can all share. I hope we can keep the momentum going, keep the dream evolving, and make something more out of this.
I’ll close with this last Twain quote that I think captures the essence of what TTS is about:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain
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