Checker's Acousta Jam 3/29/17

Songs:

Baby Wanna Dance
No Expectations
For What It's Worth
Werewolves Of London (Greg Mein: lead vocal)
Dead Flowers

With:

Mike Frederick
Jay Devore
Skip Richards
Donna Jo Eisner
Greg Mein
Lorie Parker
Cathy Hartman Spina
Julie Jules Gordon
Tom on Congas
Belinda Christensen-James
Mark Randolph

And about five others.

Three months into this acoustic phase, and things really have taken off.  While the crowd was somewhat smaller, by the time I took the stage, about 10 more jammers showed up and even Belinda and Mark made a special trip into the rain to come down to support the cause.

For those who expected a Paraphernalia reunion, that didn't happen.  But Skip Richards was there with bass in hand and as always did a fine job, so did Jay Devore, who's been a bit more instrumental into being a part of the acoustic jams and part of the band when I get on stage.  While I did only five songs, we had more jammers and things expanded when Greg Mein joined up on keyboards.  Greg is not a stranger to the jams, I have played alongside him at some Rumor jams as well.  A pretty good keyboardist and guitar player.  Tom (don't know his last name) usually plays the congas on nights I'm not there, he did the bulk of the playing, including all of the songs that I did.  Like the last Checker's jam I have been expanding the songs to include keyboard and guitar solos, to which Jay and Greg added some nice leads as well as some of the guys out on the crowd.  I didn't intend to expand No Expectations but since Greg popped up on stage playing keys I thought he would helped.  We also really expanded For What Its Worth to about five minutes  long.  No Expectations and Werewolves Of London were done for the first time, the latter, Greg did vocals, Donna Jo popped up on percussion. I like the loose knit jams of the songs all the way to Dead Flowers.  And on Werewolves Of London, the crowd alive, plenty of dancing on the floor and in the video you can hear me shout Alabama since Sweet Home Alabama is close to Werewolves in chord progression.  

By adding more songs, it has helped me stay away from getting too complacent and rely on the same two or three songs over and over.  For What Its Worth has been a favorite for those who jammed too, even as Jay added mandolin to it.  And Dead Flowers is Dead Flowers, easy to play, easy to sing along if I know the words.   I think this is the first time I haven't sang If I Were A Carpenter, I didn't need to.  But by adding new songs, I make things unpredictable and I enjoy doing songs that nobody plays.  It's tiring to go to bars and seeing bands play the same thing over and over.  I guess that will not bring any job offers to play in other bands, but then again I work nights and have to plan for time off just to play.  I'm sure my place of employment wasn't too happy about me taking the night off since we are short handed but I wanted to be there last week and couldn't make it.  Therefore I made the promise to show up.    And the reason why Belinda and Mark showed up, I admire them for making the trip from Vinton in the pouring rain just to hang out for the two hours they were there. The jam was so fun that we didn't quit till 10:45.   While Tom did a fine job playing hand drums, Belinda and Mark wanted me to keep the beat to Fever, one of the trademark songs that we do.  This song goes back to last year when Belinda popped in a Rumors and Terry McDowell asked me if I wanted to help her, to which I did.  And we had a good bunch of players in Tommy Bruner and Dan Johnson and maybe Tim Duffy played keyboards.  I know he did play bass on another session.  This has started a nice friendship between me and Belinda and Mark too.  We're all late to the party in terms of playing together but in our time together they have been an inspiration for me to play acoustic guitar and singing.  As well as Cathy, Julie and Lorie, the Acousta Kitties, they make it fun. And it would be nice to have them play on a Sunday, but with Rumors having one jam and Cooters another, it probably wouldn't work.  But Checkers has their own folks and jammers and I'd be the first to sign up for A Sunday Checker's Acoustic Jam.  The clientele and musicians at Checkers' are one of a kind.