Checker's Acoustic Jam 12/28/18 Having Some Sax On Stage

Songs:

Feel A Whole Lot Better
Dead Flowers
Games People Play

With

Mike Frederick
Steve Black Wolf
Ryan Matthew Paul
Mark Randolph
Belinda Christensen-James
Lorie Parker
Julie Gordon
Skip Richards
Carl Reiners
Buddy Z
David Arnold on Sax
Donna Jo Farley-Percussion
Tom, the percussion player
and a few others

(Photo: Lorie Parker)

The past two weeks have been some of the more fun of the jams that I have done and I am happy that I could do it playing guitar.  While I only bothered Brook Hoover for one guitar session, I felt that he gave me the confidence to play guitar in a live setting, although I don't venture much out of my comfort zone.  I have been dealing with sore hands and wrists from recording with The Townedgers and the Wapsipinicon Dreamers projects and banging on the congas. And for tonight's showcase, I pretty much did that for the first couple hours till Tom wanted to play them.  I would have gladly surrendered them sooner.  I don't have drumsticks at hand so i have to use my hands and fingers.  Tom and Ryan Paul are more adventurous, I am more at home keeping the beat.

(Photo: Lorie Parker L to R, Buddy Archbremmer, Steve Black Wolf, Ryan Matthew Paul, David Arnold, Me, Mark Randolph, Belinda Christensen-James, Skip Richards, covering Fever)

The major story was Julie Gordon coming back to play, three weeks after knee replacement surgery.  And she paced herself throughout the jam.  Kathy Hartman Spina had to bow out but things went fairly well.  Abigail did a few songs and even for a 10 year old she knows them songs, she didn't need a cheat sheet for Jesus Take The Wheel or Spiders Or Snakes.   Steve Black Wolf did Turn The Page, Stand By Me and Knockin On Heaven's Door.  Belinda and Mark did a Blue Bayou and a extended version of Fever, complete with Saxophone solo.  I don't know who the guy's name was, he was gone by the time I popped up to finish the set with the three songs mentioned.   Anyway, I know how Mark Randolph plays on Fever and I know how Belinda sings it, it was becoming commonplace to do this song when they're in town.  Mike Frederick, is one of my brother's best friends (or used to be) but I have seen him at the jams playing banjo from time to time.  But as I continue to get more involved with the acoustical side of things it still is fun jamming with him.

Last week, I did four songs, this time out things were running late, so I decided on Feel A Whole Lot Better as a repeat.  Had I gotten on earlier I would have done a couple originals off Jubilee but I was playing percussion so therefore I didn't figure on playing much on guitar, even with sore joints.  Dead Flowers was a request from Donna to which I dedicated it to her from afar, and Skip Richards added some backing vocals like Keith Richards on a live version.  I do the song in a  D A G D segment.  Some folks do it in A, which I think I tried to do on The Townedgers Country album, but that version was pretty damn fast.  The new version on the Wapsipinicon Dreamers album is much slower and probably truer to the Stones version.

And there's Games People Play, the old 60s hit for Joe South.  I discovered the chords last week and decided to take a crack at that.  Since The W.D. project was just about done, I didn't think a version was needed, but it could work for the jams.  Start out in G, then mosey up to D, down to C then D and then G, the country version.  I can't work it in South's E progression, it sounds weird. The original thought was to have either Lorie or Belinda sing it but since I had the cheat sheet with me, I carried on.  And got everybody to sing along as well.

While I have been more at home doing things on my own, I have come to find having musical support is vital more than solo.  To have Ryan Paul play keyboards on the instrumental passages and backing vocals from Skip or Lorie or Julie really brings out more into the song than just going it alone. Perhaps I should have done this more sooner but I really didn't have the confidence like I do now.  Now I feel I can jump on stage and do a song and play good with it.

It's a learning event for each time I play.  Be it, trying to play a quiet and reserve drum beat at Parlor City or interpret how to play I Feel A Whole Lot Better or Dead Flowers and have the interplay among fellow musicians.   I have learn a lot in these two weeks of playing at Acoustic and blues jams that I have incorporated into the music of The Townedgers as well.  I don't need to smash cymbals or pound on the drums to prove a point but rather keep a swinging beat to get people to dance or to have them sing along to Games People Play....it just blows my mind I'm even doing Games People Play on stage.  Too bad I didn't have this sort of voice or drive when Paraphernalia was around.   This will not figure in me getting into the music industry, I'm too old and too out of step for the flavor of the hour, but as long I'm having fun with music now, it's all that matters.   And to have a great support group of musicians, it makes things that much better.

Even more than half way to 60, I'm having the most fun now.  I don't forsee myself stopping anytime soon.  As long as I have a paying job, this remains a hobby but with the support of the Acousta Kitties and Terry McDowell and many other, this should go on a while.