Thoughts From The Townedger-May Edition

Happy Memorial Day to all who served this country.  I don't know you but I do owe you.

Also I do know that my best friend Russ Swearingen served his country for two terms.  He put the band on the back burner to help us stay free.  Semper Fi.

It's been a strange month to say the very least.  Started out getting yelled at for bashing somebody's cymbals too hard, got offers to join a couple bands, worked a couple weekends at work and still managed to sit in on a couple numbers with Julie And The Mad Dogs this weekend.  We said goodbye to Tiffany Z and Tim Duffy, and watched both of them make one more encore showings at the popcorn jam.  And I got to play drums on Tiffany's song too.  And then have Dewayne Schminkey pop in to play guitar a couple weeks ago too.   I think the Duffy's Finale Popcorn Jam is the best jam I have taken so far.  Each jam has its own special moments and hopefully if I still keep my interests in this, we'll see a few more jams with highlights as special as Tiffany and Duffy's finale.

I hope I didn't make Ernest mad at me for not be able to play drums in his project.  I had lots of fun of sharing the stage with him last month's show.  And still will in the future.  Between work and getting things done around the house and keeping going with Townedger Radio and a couple blogs, and being extremely lazy, I can only do weekend popcorn jams for a couple hours.  As they say, life happens, I'm not blessed with contacts to play music as a job, or have enough bars to play at, and despite what the Wiley Kat says, I can't live on 30 dollars a night playing gigs.   And personal to Wiley Kat, you have to polish up your music to sustain any chance of playing live gigs.  If you been playing Little Wing or Voodoo Chile all these years and still can't get the introduction right, chances are you're not going to go over very well with the crowd.   If a different drummer can't help you get better, you might have to take a deep look in the mirror to see who the problem is.   Last time I checked Herman is one of the best drummers out there.  And even he couldn't help you.  Learn the songs and the arrangements and work at getting better.   Unless you can't do that.

I'm sure the opinion about me has changed since cutting myself loose from The Wiley Kats from the man himself and it shows from yesterday when he made a ten second appearance.  Or his three song set earlier in the month. I can see why he's not exactly well thought of.   I made it clear that if my work load got in the way of the band, I was taking myself out, no need of acrimony if it came to pass.  There's other drummers and bass players that can do the job just as well.  My final thought is the same as before,  I'm open to jamming with Wiley in the future, I've never said no.  Nor have I have sneaked in behind his back just to see who's at the jam either.  

It's hard to play guitar and sing at the same time; I know this to be a fact.  The Townedgers know this too well.  Singing and remember the words while playing guitar chords is a feat among itself.  Tommy Bruner does a fine job singing and playing.  So does John Shaw, but they also have a lead singer that can take the lion's share of singing the songs.  I've been doing music for 35 years and from what I know, you have to find ways to make the band work, even when your drummer works evenings, you can still work with the bass player to sort and smooth out the rough edges.  And every gig, you're putting your reputation on the line, hoping to keep people interested and dancing on your three hours of gig playing.  I sit in on two numbers and I'm ready for a nap after that. Playing drums is fun but it does drain me.

When I play live, I play full tilt, going all out on every song and it's like watching a war from the front lines, you're in the middle of chaos and beware of flying sticks or a wayward cymbals come crashing down.  And someday I might end up having a heart attack or stroke on stage and that will be the end of it.  But you know, it's not a bad way to leave this planet, doing the things you love to do.  I can't see things from Kim Bean's point of view when he's seeing me attacking his drumset with a Keith Moon manic style playing, there's a certain sound that I'm trying to relay on the drums, but they don't come off very well on electric drums.    When I played in Tyrus Paraphernalia and the first 10 years of The Townedgers, when I played live, I went full tilt.  When I retired, the sound was a bit more altered  and the recording was more simple, but now that I have been playing live for 11 months, I'm back to that destructive style of playing.   I could get away with it when I was 25, but now I'm 55 it does wear me out.  But I'm still giving it my all.

Ben Bernard is a good bass player but he's like me;  he is more into improvising and taking the song to new directions.  I wouldn't rule out working with him in the future.  This weekend, I worked with Troy Harper, and not only he's a great bass player, he's also an outstanding drummer too. He too is good at improvising.   Terry McDowell likewise.  Craig Dewitte is unpredictable, but he can stretch them out too.    There is no shortage of great musicians out there, and even though I haven't worked with very many of them, a few do stick out.  Barb Myers, I jammed on about four numbers but she made me actually play Creep just like the record (and I hate that song so she's doing something right).  Julie Gordon is another outstanding vocalist to which I first worked with her, things just fell into place.  And of course Tommy Bruner, but he and Julie have been expert at playing live.  They make you feel comfortable enough to play alongside with them.  And Kevin Michael, is yet another super bass player too.   I would certainly welcome any chance of doing some project with Julie musically.   

It's been 30 years since the album Wapsipinicon Dreaming came out.  I have entertained thoughts of doing the whole album again live but there's some songs I rather never sing again. Running In The Rain is one of them.  Back then, it was written with good intentions about somebody that was a negative part of my life and it turned into a thirty year belief that she was the one that gotten away.  In reality, I can look back and perhaps think we had chances of being boyfriend/girlfriend. Nowadays she has her own life and the guy she married was her soulmate and any mentioning of my name give her the heebie jeebies.  If we had to do it all over again, I'd rather not met her at all.   And I should have taken American Studies 1 when I was a freshman.  We would have never gotten into that mess in the first place.  And perhaps life would have been much better.