Popcorn Jam 8-28-16 A Wide Variety Of Styles

Lineup:

Karl Hudson-Lead vocals, guitar (That Smell)
Greg Mein-Keyboards  (Dreams, Blue Bayou, Fever)
Rick Clay-Guitar (That Smell), lead vocal, lead guitar (Dreams)
Peter Cacioppo-Keyboards (That Smell)
Belinda Christensen-James-Vocals  (Blue Bayou, Fever)
Tommy Bruner-Guitar (Blue Bayou, Fever)
Dan Johnson-Bass (That Smell, Dreams, Blue Bayou, Fever)
Me-Drums (That Smell, Dreams, Blue Bayou, Fever)

Dreams is known as Dreams by the Allman Brothers or Dreams I'll Never See Again by Molly Hatchet

Musical guru: Terry McDowell

Photo: Brenda Snow (L-R: Peter Cacioppo, Karl Hudson, R.Smith, Dan Johnson, Rick Clay)

I don't know if I can ever find a happy medium of playing drums.  There's always the guy that wants to play true to the beat, and then there's my Keith Moon side of bash and crash but I'm getting a bit burned out playing the latter.    In my regular practices, I continue to try to play the songs out in my head and hum along to the bass line.   Since Martin Daniels has other things to do, and Russ not exactly a big fan of classic rock standards, I'm pretty much on my own to improvise in the best way possible.  I like to go over certain songs just in case I get called into playing them.  Fever has always been one of the more coolest songs to play be it Little Willie John or Peggy Lee. It does help to have a woman singer on the latter version, Julie Gordon has on occasion played it with the Mad Dogs and Belinda has also done this before, mostly at acoustic jams on the weeknights.  I have done the song with her earlier in the year, which turned out fairly good, but when you work with somebody before, chances are the next version will be better and a bit more polished, even if it's a jam session.

Out of all the popcorn jams, this was the most players that I shared the stage with and I don't think it was planned that way.  The original intention was to help out Belinda with her songs with Tommy and Dan, then do a couple songs with Karl Hudson, who had recently moved back from Florida.  Why anybody wants to move back here, even before winter comes I don't know, but Karl Hudson has played in some of the better bands here of the 1990s and 2000s. Justin Case was that band.  He tend came back to visit sometime in May around the time that Tim Duffy was leaving and there was a jam session at the Chrome Horse that was packed and I didn't stay very long, but that may have planted a thought that maybe with such a supporting cast, that Karl would then decide to return here.  Peter Cacioppo, who was the host keyboardist played in some of Karl's bands.  Of course Tommy and Dan who be there as well.   Karl Hudson is more mellow classic rock than what Terry does, hard core grunge modern rock, but Terry adapted quite well to what Karl played.  And there wasn't really much dead time, Karl would move on to another song and kept things rolling along.

With this popcorn jams, there's always something coming up at the last minute, an extra jammer would pop up on stage and we'd go along with what they knew.  I was going to do one, maybe two songs at best with Karl and he decided on That Smell, the Lynyrd Skynyrd staple from Street Survivors, and I've never played that one before on stage or even practice.  The problem was trying to wing it and hope I can at least be in the vicinity of the cymbal breaks.  Artimus Pyle was expert at putting cymbal accents and exclamation cymbals hits on the chorus, but I think for a first time, it went fairly good.  Also at the last minute Rick Clay decided to join up to do That Smell since Tommy didn't know it, Rick is part of Four Day Creep.  Rick also plays the metallic lead on Cranberry Lane off the new Tommy Bruner album Camping With WiFi, a great album too. Rick is very fluent on Southern rock and roll, he can play just about any ZZ Top songs or Skynyrd.  But I know for a fact, that he knows Molly Hatchet's version of Dreams I'll Never See Again, a song that I really wanted The Townedger or for that matter I/O (the band that Russ and I did back in 2009) and I actually listened to that song on the way to the jam.  Usually that song is reserved for Terry to do, after all, when they do Comfortably Numb, he's playing it.  He swears he never played Dreams but I betcha after today, he'll be chomping at the bit to play it with Rick.  And he might want to play it double time like M.H. does.

Nevertheless, neither Karl or Pete knew Dreams, so Crazy Delicious keyboardist Greg Mein sat in on that number.  Like jamming The Twist with Ernest, I really wanted to do Dreams one time with Rick Clay playing guitar and I'm surprised I got to do that.  I think this is why I continue to do popcorn jams, the unpredictability of things, and players coming up to stage to play.  When you jam with an experienced musician such as Rick or Tommy or Dan or Karl, they know the song enough for me to be comfortable to play around with the beat, even if its a first time such as Dreams or That Smell, but I did keep the Keith Moon antics down to a bare minimal.  And I come to find that I don't need to pound the hell out of the snare or hit the cymbals harder to get a good groove.  I lost that during the past month of bash and crash and I was trying to get back into a more disciplined sound.  Having Dan Johnson playing bass helps, he's one of the best and he has a way to lasso me into hanging with the rhythm and not rush it too fast.  Dan  and Tommy Bruner has over 40 years of playing time in the CR music scene and can play just about anything.  And make me sound that much better.  But I like to shock people, that I can play just about anything, as long as I know how the song goes.  But nevertheless, for a first time run through I have to say that Dreams sounded pretty damn good.

(photo: Julie Gordon. picture of Belinda Christensen-James with The  AcoustaKitties Sanity Room 8-26-16)

By then it was time for a change of pace and Belinda took her spot in front of the stage and we slowed things down with Blue Bayou.  You can't beat the shit out of the drums for this number, it's a quiet little ballad, and Belinda has a nice voice for this song.  She's a very good singer, although I don't think she plays in a working band but she does make her way around the jam and karaoke circuit.   I remembered her from May, when Terry paired me up with her, thinking that who was available at the time were too rock and roll and metal for her songs, probably not Mike who was more rock, and certainly not Trevor.  Trevor is a good drummer but he plays 10 times louder than I do and really wails on the power crashes,  I think he made Karl and Peter deaf for the rest of the night.  She's a good singer and it really didn't take much for me to agree on it.

The major difference was that Dan Johnson was playing bass and not Tim Duffy, to which on that night in May was Duffy's last performance and I got to share that on stage with him. And Dan is a walking metronome, all I had to do was keep within his bass riffs.   But I do think the highlight was an extended version of Fever, the Peggy Lee version. And Belinda did nailed it.  It sounded like Peggy Lee was behind the mic.  Tommy Bruner really did a wonderful lead guitar, Dan, again first rate on the bass riffs and all I had to do was keep it simple, with a few rolls thrown in for fun.   I really didn't need to become Crabby Speedbeats this time out and for that matter I enjoyed this a lot better than I did last week.

I was surprised to see my co worker Jenna B pop in with a friend of her and it was nice to see them. Next week the guys from Kick It will be hosting the jam but I got other plans in store. I think in the end I was kinda proud of the way that I played today, even with the first time of playing Dreams and That Smell, it worked for a change.  But then again I had some of the best players in town on stage doing those songs.  And a good large crowd for support too.

Even if Trevor was giving everybody a headache with his drumming.  (He must be in a metal or punk band).