Staggering on

In our swing/jazz/Dixie seven piece (sometimes eight if we have a singer) band we usually play 3x45. Almost all of our music is from charts and the horn players (4) don't get many breaks and we don't waste time between songs so they get a chance to rest their lips at the breaks. The bluegrass band mainly plays at festivals and that usually means anywhere from one to three sets of 45 minutes. We might play an afternoon and evening set on one day or the sets could be spread out over a couple of days, most bluegrass festivals work that way and only the big name bands play longer sets. Over here in Canada back in the '70's when I had full time gigs it was 4x40 sets a night (9,10,11,12) six nights a week but by the '80's it had dropped to weekends only and 2 or 3 sets. Now it is the odd weekend and one nighters or a festival.🙁

Me too but in my case it's my DB and my Yamaha SLB 200 EUB...you never know what might happen with a big fragile wooden box. I also have a spare DB pickup in my gig bag. I'm a belt and suspenders/braces kind of guy.😁

I had them on my Czech ply bass that I use for bluegrass and they felt good to play and sounded OK but not very loud, they are recommended on many sites as a good string for bluegrass. I switched to Spiro medium, a very different type of string but also used for bluegrass, and got a real boost in volume and better sound and have stayed with them. They work well in acoustic situations and better than the Obligatos with a pickup, might not be the same for all basses of course.

That's what I was thinking, just about to post it but a bit late as usual.

A week late but here are a couple of photos from August 10 and 11 when Simply Blu played our last festival of the season, great venue and the best sound system we have used this year. Some well known touring bands and supporting bands and some great music and workshops including one for bass players which I attended and picked up a few tips and licks. We played three sets over two days and our last one on Sunday morning included a last minute gospel medley that began with a walking boogie bass line solo while I sang the chorus of Will The Circle Be Unbroken. I started playing the song that way as joke in rehearsal but the rest of the band loved it so we did it that way for the first chorus and then settled into the usual rhythm for the rest of the medley and the crowd loved it. Not all bluegrass fans would be happy with this version but this festival features everything from ultra traditional bands to some "newgrass" sounds and was a great way to end our festival season. I used my trusty '70's Czech laminate with a Canadian made Schatten Design pickup into a Canadian Traynor SB112 combo with DI to the house system, sounded great. That amp is quite popular in North America for DB. 😊

I enjoyed the video and was surprised when I saw the banner at the front of the stage. My grandfather Bartlett was from Yeovil and came to Canada in the early 1900's and I expect I am related to the Bartlett of the construction company on the banner. An uncle of mine did a lot work on our family history and met a number of Bartletts from Devon and I heard about some of them when I was in Yeovil a few years ago. Sorry to derail the main topic but it was interesting to see my family name on the banner. My son who doesn't have any children will be the last of my grandfather's side of the family in Canada to be surnamed Bartlett.

Do it. You will probably have a chance to play music that is not what you usually play and that is a good thing and although it can be a challenge and you will come out of the experience as a better player. Once you play one show word gets around about your ability and you move up the call list. I have found that is important to 1) show up on time 2) understand that the MD is the boss so do what he says 3) understand that you are not the show now, you are a supporting part of it 4) be prepared for a lot of "hurry up and wait time" at rehearsals 5) practice and really know your music. The best ones I have played have had a couple of band rehearsals before working with the cast so music problems are solved ahead of time. You will meet musicians that you don't know and that can lead to all sorts of good things, sit back and enjoy it.

Good band! I have seen that mic used for bands like this but the one we used was a different model, ideal for groups that often rehearse acoustically in a circle or semi circle. As I have said before, bluegrass is great fun to play and sing and not as easy as it sounds. 😊

Much better last night but even hotter than the first night. This time we tried using one mic (not sure of make and model) as suggested by the sound crew for all vocals and instruments except my bass ( bass to amp to PA) and no monitors, just what we could hear on stage and it was great! The bass was loud and clear on stage and we just moved in and out for vocals and instrumental breaks. We had seen other bluegrass bands using this system but this was our first try with it and we love it, we hope we can use a similar system next week at another festival. It's an old school way of doing sound but with today's advanced mics it is better than ever. I'm mainly a jazz guy but I have to admit playing and singing bluegrass is a lot of fun. 😊

Bluegrass festival gig last night. A little bit under rehearsed but no train wrecks, it was made worse by monitors that weren't loud enough. The sound guys at this venue are usually very good so we are expecting a better set tonight as part of a roster of four bands. I used my trusty '70's Czech DB and ran a DI from my amp to the PA. We are in the midst of a heat wave here and it was over 30C in the evening and very humid with no wind on the stage, forecast is for the same thing tonight.

Since I was 16 I have played guitar and then bass(EB and DB) I have been playing DB and EUB in a variety of bands for the last 35 years playing mostly jazz and blues. A year and a half ago after a jazz gig a guy in the audience asked if I ever played bluegrass and I said I had played a few folk and country songs over the years. That was good enough for him and now I am playing in a bluegrass band that played a couple of festivals last summer and this year we are playing at four festivals. I also still play jazz and a bit of orchestral stuff and some theatre shows but the bluegrass is so much fun that I'm really getting into it, not all bluegrass songs are just three chords and some have some tricky timing and of course I also have to learn vocals as well. I am playing with very experienced musicians and it has been a steep learning curve but a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to more gigs, who would have thought that at 78 I would be entering a whole new world of music? I have to admit that listening to bluegrass is sometimes tough to do, I listen to the best and learn the songs but don't listen to very much of it for pleasure but love playing and singing it. I really like a quote from Todd Phillips who is one of the most famous bluegrass and country DB players...'bluegrass is a lot better music than it sounds'. 😊

Another gig at a bluegrass festival last night. Only 4 of us (bass, banjo, mandolin and guitar) and we met for our usual one hour rehearsal just before our set and then had a lot of fun on stage with only a few minor issues. We have played this festival before and the sound was great, even better than usual with the perfect mix coming through the monitors. I had a bass solo in one song, quite rare in bluegrass, and nailed it and came home feeling very good about the evening. No photos this time but it was a lovely warm evening, perfect weather for an outdoor show and we will be back in early August for another festival. I'm mainly a jazz guy but these bluegrass gigs really keep me on my toes and playing with very good musicians is always a bonus and of course learning new songs is good for me musically and mentally. 😊

I saw that too but headed in another direction in my post. 😊

Here's one that I have...

A bit late but it's been a busy week. Last Thursday I drove 400km to Manitoulin Island to play at a bluegrass festival with a band called Simply Blu (dumb name, not my idea) that I have been with for about 18 months. We have 5 members, 3 of us live close to each other but the others are 3 and 5 hours away so we decide on set lists and the three of us rehearse and then meet up with the other two at the venue for a run through. All are seasoned bluegrass players and excellent musicians and the music comes together quickly and away we go. We played two sets on two days of the three day festival and had a good time with only a few bad moments. It was supposed to be on an outdoor stage but incredibly bad weather for all three days with wind and rain and temps in the 10 to 13 C range meant we played in a small hockey arena that was on the festival site, sound was a bit of an issue but we managed, good FOH sound crew. I also played a set with a band that needed a bass player. I had never met them before the festival but they sent me a set list and I learned the 13 songs and I met them the evening before the gig, we had a one hour rehearsal the next day before our set and it went amazingly well. That band is basically a family band, the leader and his three teen kids are the main part and a banjo player and I filled things out and we all had a good time. The highlight for me was the Thursday night open mic jam, I was the only bass player at the jam and spent a wonderful two and a half hours playing some songs that I knew and a lot that I had heard but never played and a few that were new to me. Luckily I also play guitar so I watched the guitarists for the chords but in bluegrass that is made a bit tricky because they use capos all the time, I had some nice compliments about my playing so I guess what I played was acceptable. Great fun and I learned a lot, I'm primarily a jazz guy so I'm still learning bluegrass. We have two more festivals to play this summer and I'm looking forward to them. I used my old Czech bass with Spiros and a pickup into the PA and it sounded great.

Third year of the musical "Five, the Dionnes" a show about the famous quintuplets born 90 years ago just a few miles from me. The previous shows were in a large old theatre in North Bay and I posted about them, but this year it was a lower budget fundraiser for the Dionne museum in a smaller hall with seating for about 180 and we had a full house. The seven piece band was squeezed into a corner but since most of us have played the show for all three years we managed very well. Most of the actors were returnees but the two new ones were very good singers and this was the best version we have done, lovely harmonies in many songs. The production is performed the way an old time radio drama would have been done with the actors reading from scripts and into individual mics and playing several characters with sound effects and background music and songs scattered throughout the play. The audience loved it and other than a bit of a bobble in one song I managed OK, two of the numbers start with a few bars of a solo bass riff and I nailed those. The photos were taken during the sound check in the afternoon, I used my Shen SB 100 into my Traynor SB112 and DI into the PA. All in all a good night. 😊

One bass player has a very good left hand shape, I'm the other one.🙄

Last week once again I was one of a few adults who fill out the cello and bass sections of my teacher's youth orchestra and it was a wonderful concert in the cathedral in North Bay Ontario. An entertaining mix from Bach to fiddle tunes and a couple of solo pieces as well and the crowd of about 350 loved it. The last number was a version of "Boil the cabbage down", an old fiddle tune, and for this piece about 9 of the youngest members were added and played like pros...from memory! In the second photo you will see a couple of the youngest musicians, they are 72 years younger than I am. 🙄 Loads of fun and I'm looking forward the next concert, probably in about 6 months, this one was a definite high point of the year for me and had some challenging music, I always learn a lot from these concerts.😊 Next up are a couple of jazz gigs, a theatre show next week and three bluegrass festivals in the summer.

Here's a photo of two of the instruments I referred to in my post on May 8. The guitar is a 1967 Gibson J50 ADJ that I bought new in Toronto in late 1967, I still have it and enjoy playing it and it has been gigged extensively over the years as explained in my earlier post. I was 21 when I bought it, I'm really old now. The banjo is a 1975 that I bought new when I joined a trad band in mid '75. It is an Ode tenor built when Baldwin (of piano and organ fame) owned the company, thus the Baldwin Ode name. I use it on some jazz gigs including one last weekend, lovely to play and stays in tune better than most banjoes and sounds great and has been used on hundreds of gigs. The only downside is that it weighs 14.6 pounds(!) due to the heavy cast bell metal tone ring but it sounds so good I just live with it and use a wide strap. Edit: While I really like playing both of these I LOVE playing my DB. 😊

I bought a brand new Gibson J50ADJ acoustic guitar in 1967 and have played it in hundreds of environments and venues from gigs in posh hotels and restaurants to campfires and house parties. In late '67 you could still travel by ocean liners(NOT cruise ships) and I took a ship from Vancouver to Sydney and spent 5 months in SE Australia on a Honda 175 Srambler (!) with my Gibson strapped on the back. I had great fun on the ships both ways playing at parties in the bars and cabins and playing at the various amateur nights. The guitar has survived all that abuse, the only repair was just after I bought it when the bridge developed a crack and had to be replaced. I don't play it much these days but it always feels and sounds good and the narrow fingerboard works well with my small hands. My next oldest is a Baldwin Ode tenor banjo that I bought new in 1975 to play in a nostalgia/trad/20's-50's trio. We played a lot of club gigs and parties for the 8 months the band lasted including two month long house band stints, one in Toronto and the other one halfway across the country in Regina. No repairs and I still play it, in fact I used it just last weekend in the trad set that the swing/trad band I have been in for 7 years includes in most of our shows. It's tricky going from DB for the swing to that little skinny banjo neck but it's fun to play and adds some sparkle to the music and an authentic sound. That banjo was $CAD 1100.00 when I bought, a huge price at the time. I also have a 1988(?) Yamaha RB 750A bass that was bought new and I gigged (jazz, blues, pop)with that until I went upright with EUB and the DB in 2015. EUB (Stagg then Yamaha SB200) in 2015 and the to DB in 2018 after I travelled over to the Basschat DB Bass Bash in 2018 and that started me down the DB path. As you can see I am not one who wants to keep buying and selling and luckily managed to find instruments that work for me and have given me thousands of hours of enjoyment over the years.

Up to a point that is true of course but most Canadians don't want to be referred to as "Americans" simply because we share a continent. I expect it would be much the same if we were talking about "British" music and included music from all of the countries and regions in the UK, or maybe we could talk about "European" and include everyone... maybe not. Probably not worth debating I guess but we Canadians are proud of our contributions to "Americana", whatever that actually is, and to music in general. Interesting discussion though. 😊🇨🇦

Neil Young and the Cowboy Junkies are Canadian, Young has spent a large part of his life in the US but started his musical career in Canada and The Junkies still are based in Canada. Just sayin'.....🇨🇦

Busy couple of days with a rehearsal with my teacher's youth orchestra yesterday where I am one of a few adults who fill out the cello and bass sections, not enough big kids to play full size cello and bass. Lots of fun playing everything from Pachelbel's canon to a medley of fiddle tunes and we are getting ready for a May concert. I left that one a bit early to rush across town to a rehearsal for the swing band I am in, we have a show in early May. Five of the seven members have music degrees of one sort or another so it is a challenging group to play with, we have been together for 6 or 7 years and have played gigs in a lot of different venues. This afternoon I had a three hour rehearsal with a bluegrass band that will be playing at three festivals this summer, it is our first get together since autumn, the band leader spends the winter in Forida. Lots of fun and we managed to remember most of the music and our vocal harmony was pretty good considering the long break. The banjo player is a joy to play with, he is a sensitive musician and doesn't overdo things, quite rare for a bluegrass banjoist! Lots of variety, I played my Shen ply bass arco for the youth orchestra, same bass through an amp for the swing band and an old beater ply Czech bass acoustically with the bluegrass band. For the rest of the week I will be practicing for these bands at home and prepping for my lesson on Friday, happy to be busy.😊

That's a great idea! Mine go into my gig bag in a small fabric bag with a drawstring along with a usb cable and adaptors so I can plug in and charge if necessary. The WL 20 is great, I have used it for practice, rehearsals and gigs for years with no problems.

Hmmmmm, what is the date today? 😊