Various Jams 4/8/17

At Gilligan's

Songs:

Baby Wanna Dance
A Stranger To Himself
The Life We Lead
Everybody's Talking
For What Its Worth

With Jeff Overly on alto sax
Karl Hudson: Host


Whittier Acoustic Jam

Teri
Jet Airliner
No Expectations
If I Were A Carpenter
Love's Made A Fool Out Of You

With
Belinda James
Mark Randolph
Mike Fredericks
Jay Devore
David Lam: Host


Continuing the long extended jam of the songs at Gilligan's I had help from a dude that looked like Bill Goldberg from the WWE  who was actually recording the songs on a cheap cassette. It'd be interesting to hear how they sound.  While complaints were that this dude was obnoxious and tended to be a pain in a butt later on, I figured he would add something to the songs.  Overall, since I was recovering from working 10 hour shifts the past two weeks and working both Saturday and Sunday I was kinda out of it.  With the dude adding some mad, all over the place lead, it actually worked on Baby Wanna Dance and Stranger To Himself but not so much on The Life We lead.  Another guitar player, (don't know his name but when I do, I'll post his name) then came on to the extended workout of For What Its Worth  I didn't intend to turn it into a 8 minute song but I dig having guitar leads over the song.  Afterward, I managed to chat with Jeff Overly who plays in a band called East Of Omaha and his band has opened up for Johnny Winter and Kenny Wayne Shepard. He plays bass in his band but said he enjoys playing alto sax a bit more.

I did managed to catch a bit of Joe Hutchcroft's band The Fossiltones before wasting thirty minutes trying to get the Arby's Lady to take my order but since she was too busy, ended up going to the Ghetto McDonalds and then wolfing down to Filet O Fish before making it to Whittier.  And getting there just in time for it to start up.

Belinda and Mark were down at Gilligans too, but on the late set I debuted Teri for the first time and it went well, The guitar ate my pick on Love's Made A Fool Of You for my final song so I basically was finger strumming, which didn't help the blisters on my fingers.  Then it took about 10 minutes to get the fucking pick out of the guitar.  Next time I will bring the  electric guitar.   Jet Airliner made its debut too.  Although I was threatening Belinda for passing the song of Come Together on her, I decided maybe next time.  There was a guy that played flute on Teri, don't know his name and he did some percussion on Jet Airliner as well, when his turn came up he sang gospel songs.   I did talk to Mike and Jay afterwards about how the Marion Jam went last night and they said the jam was packed and they only got to do one song.  Which might have defeated the sense of purpose but all the Acousta Kitties were there as well.  Since Carl Mainiers is back from his Arizona vacation they intending to hit Stone City Tomorrow, but for me it will be Rumors and watching the Cedar Rapids Kernels play baseball.  Providing if the stadium isn't too busy.


Popcorn Jam-Rumor's 4/9/17

With
Mike (Bear)  Clair-Guitar
Tommy Bruner-Guitar and Lead Vocals
Bob Gleason-Harmonica
Kenny Webb-Bass
R.Smith-Drums
Terry McDowell-Host

A extended version of Jumpin Jack Flash, with Kenny Webb playing bass guitar.  Funny how he told me he was going to take it easy but instead played a few songs.  If he told me to quit my job and play in his band I would do that.  He's that good.

A large crowd was there since it was a nice day, with no fewer than 8 drummers and John Hernandez with Ken on bass participated.  Jumpin Jack was the only song I played on, but it was extended for about 6 minutes long.  It was a pretty good version I thought.


Notes:

All of the other drummers that showed and played were spot on.  I like the way Rob Haskill can lay down a driving beat. One drummer was missing, that was Herman.

There were great moments from various jams.  The extension jam of For What Its Worth, which is turning out to be a long jam song from previous occasions. It would be great to have a drummer show at these jams just to add a basic beat and see where it leads.  Perhaps the next Whittier Jam I'll bring a snare drum.  Second best moment, was jamming with Tommy and Kenny and the Bear man.  Tommy continues to mine the Rolling Stones Catalog for songs and that's a great thing.  It's even better watching Mr. Webb rock out on the bass guitar.  Certainly there are great bass players around, DJ, Jeremiah, Benton, Russ, Layne, John Hernandez, Kevin Michael, but Kenny Webb adds a special sort of inspiration.  It's guys like Kenny Webb that really make jamming on the weekend something I look forward to.

The best moment was playing Teri for the first time.  It's a long song and a bit hard to do but it came together thanks to a guy playing flute on such song.  I'm slowly beginning to add more of my songs to these jams, after all I have 35 years of originals to choose from.  It's not going to became originals only but rather the ones that I think would work.  And I don't play the song the same way twice, I have to come to accept that there's going to be a messup so I have to find a way to make the people know that the messup was part of the song.  While I'd love to do the whole song solo, having other folks come in and add their own touch has made the songs sound a bit better, even if the dude at Gilligans overdid it a bit on Life We Lead, but I noticed a couple of his lady friends were dancing to the song.  As well as No Expectations, I let Jay do a couple lead on a extended eight bars.   You never know what's going to happen at these jams, sometimes things work, sometimes they don't.   Saturday was just that.  But when something stands out, I do take notice.  And I had a few of them as you can tell.