End Of Month Thoughts From The Townedger

If anything The Rumors Jam has been a wonderful but frustrating event for me. Once Tim Duffy moved to Georgia and left it in the lap of Terry, it has become somewhat of a exercise in futility.  It tends to be frustrating at times to watch my fellow bandmates and friends get paired up with other drummers or in the case when Julie and Ryan come to play, the big man decides he wants to play behind them.  Nothing wrong with that but as I have come to find out, it gets to be a disappointment.  To which the big man responded with  Although I find some of your comments are judgmental and misguided I still took the time to like your page"

Okay, fair enough.and thanks for your support, it does mean a lot to me.  I may not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it and still support your music and your band.  That's what us fellow musicians do.   It's not for me to question who gets to play what or whom to play with on stage, and certainly the big man has a right to pick and choose.  

But at the same time, there's some fair criticism to be made  from this side of the fence.  In which we support the jams by coming out of town to the other side of Cedar Rapids to partake in the Rumors Jams on a Sunday afternoon.  It's not a misguided comment when there was times I wanted to play guitar and did bring it to a couple Rumors events only to have it used as a prop.  It's also not misguided when I want to play a Comfortably Numb or Midnight Rambler only to have the host play those songs himself most if not all of the time.  Being host of the jam, he can stay on stage for at least an hour, then to take a 15 to 20 minute break and then carve up the time between the drummers who showed up, the more drummers the less songs.  There's rarely times that I play more than three songs.  But that's the rules.

I enjoy chatting with the big guy on drums, techniques and so forth.  He knows his drums.  And he's a good guy. There are times that there might be a disagreement in how to play or what to play and the usual reaction is "whatever dude".   We do our best to support the jams, the artists as well as keep in shape by playing alongside other musicians.  But for the matter, the host is getting paid to host jams, we're not but we are donating our time and effort to keep the music flowing in a era that rock and roll bars are becoming a thing of the past and those who do managed to find gigs and keep playing are not prone to give them up, if some hobbyist drummer comes in and manages to develop a style of his own.  If the complaint is that I play too loud and too rough, I can always donate some of my least used cymbals or bring my own snare to compensate and not having the big man worry about damage done to his set. 

That said, I invest my time by showing up to Rumors to play songs, have wear and tear on the cars to get us there and back and promote the jams by sharing the events.  The big guy is a hustler, looking for gigs to keep playing and make money, he's also a competitor who wants to be the best and do the best rocking songs that appeal to him. It's easier just to pawn Can't Get Enough or Sweet Home Alabama to the lesser inclined and keep doing Comfortably Numb.  It's his gig, his rule and at times he can be fair and I will admit he has been fair in the past and even managed to get me to play a couple final songs when I got there late in the past.  But there's also times that I don't get the songs nor the lineup that I like and having my band mates paired up with somebody else.  That the way it goes but it's not so much a misguided comment.  It tends to be a fact of life from what I seen. 

I'm not going to boycott the Rumors Jam, I'll still support it if and when I can and if and when I'm in town.  If the big man wants me to play drums, I will be happy to, but I welcome a chance to play guitar and do a couple songs on my own with a backing band, the big man is invited to play drums and in fact I want him to.  I love to have Terry play drums to Let's Work Together or Everybody's Talking or What I Like About You.  

And so it goes.  But if there's more fun playing guitar and singing songs rather than playing a tired version of Wonderful Tonight or not being able to back up Julie or Ryan or Belinda and Mark, then it's better to go down to Stone City or Cooters or Just Jules and try my luck there.  The big man won't lose sleep and the Rumor's Jam will go on.  And there will still be drummers waiting in the wings to do those three or four songs when their name comes up.  Everybody will be fine. 

It's still rock and roll anyway.