Checkers Acoustic Jam 5/31/17 If You Get Them To Sing Along You Are Doing Your Job

Checker's Acoustic Jam (Hosts: Ryan Matthew Paul/Julie Gordon)

Songs

Gold Dust Woman (Julie Gordon: Lead Vocals)
Midnight Rider
Ring Of Fire
For What Its Worth

With:

Julie Gordon: Backing Vocals/percussion
Belinda James-Backing vocals
Skip Richards: Bass
Michael Clair-Guitar
Ryan Matthew Paul might have played keyboards on For What Its Worth
Somebody playing Trumpet on Ring Of Fire
Somebody else playing cello
And the whole Checker's Crowd Singing Along



And so the journey of life continues, through jams and through good friends and musicians.  I have never expected to have this sort of luck and good vibes. Where did this all come from?  It's a blur and I have no answer.  My favorite female vocalist sings on Gold Dust Woman and I'm dating her?  What can I say about her that hasn't already been said before.  She makes me smile in ways that I have never smiled before.  She did that time and time again tonight, even pointing her finger at me while singing What I Like About You.

And a good musician will do that. In my time of knowing Julie we have somehow interconnected with our souls on the songs that we do sing together.  Since she was hosting the jam and had to sing most of the time, I really wanted to use her sparingly, but I know I want her to sing Gold Dust Woman.  I'd love to play along with her on Wicked Game too.  I know when I get together with Russ or Dewayne there's a sense of magic when we play on stage, the feeling of knowing one another in how the song will go, it all goes back to the days of Paraphernalia/Tyrus, I can read Russ just like a book when it comes to playing drums, guitar...still a work in progress.  Certain jammers will do that, Kenny Webb, Dan Johnson, Brook Hoover have a way to get me to interact with them. Even Rick Clay on Dreams I'll Never See Again, even Ernest on The Twist, or Mike Serbousek on Johnny B Goode.  A common bond that get drive the song into something fun, something memorable.  Certain people make songs stand out on their own.  Belinda cranks into Fever, she turns it into her own, just like tonight when we had a Trumpet and cello player helping out on that song.  It has been a specialty of hers since I've known her.

But in the trials and tribulations of life and jamming, Julie has become someone who had driven me into playing some of the best music of my life with her presence and everlasting smile. In reality Gold Dust Woman really has taken on a whole new level of meaning, even while trying to sing and eventually abandoning that idea, I'd never thought that Julie would be my main lead singer on that song.  But I'm glad that she does sing and is  a big part of this life.  She has stolen my heart.

It was what I call a long lunch break but in the two hours I was there, Tim Wiley stopped by to say he's hosting some sort of jam at Rumors from 5 to 7 on Wednesday before wondering off into the night.  I think he may have hosted it tonight from what he said.  Only problem is, there's something we call work, and I basically have to pull teeth to get part of the night off to do the acoustic jam.

I don't know if Julie and Matthew had retired the Dreams Of Arcadia name (he went by Ry-Dawg) but they held court for the majority of first hour, then Mark and Belinda took over and they did an original rap song written by Mark's son, who's a good guy.  Belinda has known to have a bit of alternative rock to her vocals, as I finally figured out how to play It's Been A While and not messed that up, Blue Bayou another story.  Carl Mainers popped up to do his song including Your Cheating Heart (complete with Oh Carl catcalls but not as potent as it was last week when Cathy Hart and Lorie Parker hosted).

I decided this time out just to do the songs I was most familiar with, I.E. most uptempo, although I did Midnight Rider in tribute to the late Gregg Allman. But I was not prepared for the request of Ring Of Fire to which the whole Checkers's crowd starting singing along with the chorus.  I was floored, I've never had that sort of reaction to any of the songs, although people did sing to I Fought The Law, but the overall reaction was not as great to Ring Of Fire.  Yeah I smiled at winked at Julie and even laughed to the point that I messed up the words but nobody cared.  Everybody was having a good time,, and even to the closer of For What Its Worth, people still cheered and sang along.  It's been said that if you get them to sing along you are doing your job and amazingly that came true.  Even for a short four song set, it may have been the best showing that I have done overall and that is saying a lot.

But I didn't do it alone, I had help.  Belinda, Mark, Andrew, Carl, Skip, Ryan, The Crowd.  But upon watching Gold Dust Woman (this version), most of all  it was Julie that made it work.  And in the process she stolen my heart too.