Thoughts from The Townedger January Jam Edition

A few things on my mind before I turn 55 on Sunday.

I have no idea what the future of The Townedgers will be this year.  I have about four projects laying on the table and maybe  a chance to sit in with a working band for a time or two,  plus a added bonus of jamming with Ken Miller (Town's Edge Rock fame) on a Saturday afternoon jam session in town a weekend ago.  He really hasn't missed a step, we did jam on some of the new songs off Fitting Finales and we discussed about working on the next Townedgers album.  As of the moment I'm still working with Rodney Albaugh on some of the remakes of Fitting Finales, probably as an EP called (naturally) Fitting Finales Revisited. The other Rodney has added some nice bass guitar on the already laid guitar tracks and I did do some drums on a couple songs. I hope we can finish up the project soon, I may tap him to do the next album as well.  Maybe finalize some songs and submit to him to see what he can come up with.  I think Rod A has been a very supportive musician and he has adapted quite well to the songs at hand.  I believe we both can go to a acoustic jam session and knock them dead with The Live We Lead.  He loves that song.  He also makes me sound 20 times better when we continue to jam out on that song too.

If there's a chance of working with Rod in a realtime band I'm all for that too, we'll have to pick and choose the time of rehearsal and at least have an idea of knowing where the breaks are at and ending the song.  In 8 months of jamming, I have had a couple offers on the table about starting up a band but since none of them provide health insurance, I cannot give up what pays the bills and keeps a roof over my head.   It has been quite fun jamming with many fine people in the local music scene but I'm also beginning to see some of the more dominant dudes who think that their way of doing a song is their way.  There was another drummer by the name of Joe who popped up to sing a couple songs, and I take it he's one of the better known musicians out there.  As we tackled a couple of overplayed classic rock songs he complained that I was playing it too fast.  I didn't say a word but when I went home and pulled out the live version of this so called song I played too fast it turned out that I was playing the right speed.  To which I took a bow and head off stage right to have him fumble through Radar Love.

First of all, I don't play it by the record with the exact beat and arrangement. What I hear I  interpreted  the song to fit the intensity and objectivity to put my own style on how it sounds.  In my 35 years of playing rock and roll, I always had a eye and ear for the obscure (less played) and original material, I'm sure I could have a nice career of playing covers and getting all the beer and pussy that Joe has enjoyed over the years playing a certain overplayed live version of a tired classic.  I can't say if Joe does a slow version of said song, but when I was up there, I tend to play fast and loose.  I am not auditioning for some bald pony tailed old looking geezer but I'm there to have fun.  I'm not there to show off stick twirling or double timed bass beats but a chance to maintain me providing a driving beat.  And I think I did that.  Joe is a good drummer,  I'll give him that, but look up the Budokan version of I Want You To Want Me and tell me that's not a fast beat.  Or maybe he's more into the In Color version which is slower.

Second of all, I am not into drum solos.  Most of them are boring as hell, unless it's YYZ or Dogs Part Two. Keith Moon wasn't into them either but every song he plays on, he's doing a drum solo within the song. At my age, if I did a drum solo like I did back in 1980 or so, I'd be dead of a heart attack.  I don't think I played drums back then, I was pissed at the world and took them out on a Zickos drumset that would not succumb to the beating or those Zildjians that got big time dings and dents.  Even in my old age, I tend to look at my drumset still as something to take my frustrations out, there's a war within me and you can hear it in the drumbeats.  I know someday it's going to wipe me out.  I'll go down fighting but you can fucking bet that whatever I play will be much faster than the actual song.  Speed kills, either get on board and hang on for dear life or get the fuck out of the way.

That said, on the other side of things, I have nothing but great things to say about other drummers.  Terry McDowell has been one the best drummers and good friends that welcomed me back into the fold. He does things that make me go WOW and he does it with a three piece drumset during jams. There's a younger drummer, Mike Lint, who reminds me of myself when I was much younger.  Only he's more accomplished than what I did back then.  He's talking ghost beats and metal beats and I look at him and just smile.  He's a cool kid.  In a effort to help him out, I basically gave him my Impulse High hats that I scored cheap on EBAY and told him to remember me when he gets to be famous.  He really should be playing in a modern rock band.  And he'll be around, long after I'm gone from the scene and this world.  I think he has what it takes to be a great drummer.  And he is.

A few weeks back, I managed to do a couple songs with Julie Jules Gordon and got to see her stand in for Blue Scratch last Friday Night.  Julie plays in a couple other bands too, Julie And The Mad Dogs and Acoustic Kitties and maybe a couple more.  I can't stop raving about how she sings.  She can do rock with the best of them, even country.  I had to smile when she said she was nervous about singing blues songs but she totally nailed every song that they threw at her.  She got soul and she can sing the blues like Billie Holliday.  That's saying something.  She went out of her way to recommend me to a couple other bands and we only did three songs together.  I'd be honored to share the stage with her in a band in the near future.

Brook Hoover is another great guitarist and player that I wish I can jam with more often.  I think we're both on the same wavelength when it comes to off the wall music.  He plays in the Surf Zombies, a surf band.  The second coming of Dick Dale?  Tommy Bruner, another guitar great that I would give up my night job to start in a band with him.  He does originals too.  His latest album is great.

My idea of a all star jam lineup if and when I host rumors: Tom Bruner, Rod Albaugh and Brook Hoover on guitar, Julie Jules Gordon/T Ray Robertson/Cecie Stark  vocals, Kenny Webb/Russ Swearingen  bass guitar, Tim Duffy (bass/keyboards), Terry McDowell alt drummer, Mike Lint MVP.

I'm fighting a losing battle on this but I have been bought up on obscure songs for so long that if I did managed to get back to bar playing that what we play won't get the dance floor going.  I love Eddie And The Hot Rods' Beginning Of The End or Omaha by Moby Grape or Heighty Hi by Lee Michaels but I have this feeling that the bar faithful are going to be more interested in hearing Mustang Sally for the 55th time or Can't Get Enough or (God forbid) Free Bird. I think that's one of the reasons why I haven't done the classic rock bar scene.  And time is against me.  Which is why with The Townedgers I did pull out Already Gone by Eagles, Jet Airliner by Steve Miller and even Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot. Hell we can do Skynyrd, (On The Hunt) but I fear that this would all be for naught and even jam sessions there's not much stretching out on the obscure, which frustrates a few jammers from showing up.   But it seems that if your a woman playing in a band, it's a requirement to sing What's Up. Which I have done on previous jams and even (!) Radiohead's Creep when Barb Myers got up to sing.   And I never played it before.

Still, even at the end of last year I had a feeling that something special is going to happen in 2016 and I still believe it will come true.   The wheels are beginning to turn.  I can't wait to see what it's going to be!