Photos From The Wess Side Jam 7/30/17

Kevin Simnacher really went to town on taking some choice photos of Sunday's Jam.  Every photo comes courtesy from him and he's damn good at capturing the moments. Such As

1)

Kenneth John Webb and Ryan Matthew Paul blowing some harp on the manic version of Crossroads. For that rare time, the manic beats had to force Ken to play single bass notes rather than the funky stuff he's famous for.  All shows that he can play punk rock as well.

Julie Gordon with Pat Geisland and Tim Wiley on Wicked Game.

The Dreams Of Arcadia Duo of Julie and Ryan with Ken on bass. Julie and Ryan are perfect for their music adventures.  I sometimes add percussion when ever needed or when I crash their gig. Which is once in a while.

I'm sure with Tim Wiley and our history together he tends to put me into overdrive which the songs go a bit faster than usual, we might have our differences but I always said that I will always make it a point to jam with him if the situation arises.

Crossroads again.  I know Kevin was pining for a close up and somewhere in a video he got me smiling away.  And I became the raging crazy drummer of yesterday playing the song ultra fast.  I should consider not drinking so much sugary drinks on a empty stomach. While I enjoyed rocking out this hard, I would later pay dearly with a aching back and a couple of muscle spams.  My body reminding me that I'm no longer a 26 year old crazy drummer.  But a 56 year old losing his hair and his mind in the process. I'm destined to go down the great decline in body, but in spirit I remain true to rock and roll. Without music, life is not the same.  I'm sure you'll agree dear reader.

Paying Ronnie James Dio a tribute, I'm with co worker Kathy Runnels, we usually sit together during jams and chat about work.  There's that look again that I'm getting ready to do my thing on stage.

Let's see. Adam Dinschel with Terry McDowell.  Adam and I along with Barth Walter would do a impromptu version of Use Me but couldn't find nobody to sing it.  He was talking about the song with the funky beat breaks but I'm not sure if he's referencing the Bill Withers version, or Lenny Kravitz with Hootie And The Blowfish or John Scofield. But with Barth holding the actual rhythm down we managed to have a bit of fun improvising on the spot.  Adam is a hell of a guitar player.

And then there's Kenny Webb.  The man really can cook on bass, and I usually follow him, the sole exception was Crossroads to which all of a sudden it became something different than the Cream version.   I still say it sounded like Keith Moon kicking Ginger Baker off the drum stool and take it up a notch.   While I enjoy playing alongside different bass players, Kenneth lives for the groove, he's so modest too, but in reality he remains my favorite jam buddy on the 4 or 5 string. Very disciplined too, he has to be when I tend to get into my sloppy garage rock mode.  Usually he will reel me back into how the song is played. Great guy, super bass player!

(With: Kenneth John Webb, Ryan Matthew Paul and Tim Wiley)

Finally, with a full drum set, I can really express more of myself on drums and Terry managed to load his set up with no less than 8 cymbals, half of those were splashes.  It was fun to do the splash accents on Use Me but for the overdrive that was Crossroads, I tend to ride the crashes more often than not, more a nod to the departed Keith Moon than anybody else.   My main influences remain Dave Mattacks, Jerry Shirley, Al Jackson, Earl Palmer and Sandy Nelson.  Of course the main shout out is to Lonnie Washburn for being the local hometown dude who got me into playing drums, and still doing this to this day.  For the ones in town still playing tireless gigs, Terry McDowell remains the best overall and how he manages to keep doing that without falling apart (like myself) is the mystery of life.  Troy Mitchell and Mike Serbousek are the other ones that stand out too but I also enjoy Mike Lint and Trevor Worcel as the up and coming kids to playing drums.  There are no shortage of great drummers out there, each and every one has their own style and playing.  As people can tell, I got my playing learning from records and the hard way of self teachings. I wouldn't know paddle diddle from diddly daddy but the main thing is to get people dancing on the floor.  I rarely go over the top with crazy playing.  If not careful I may end up having that stroke or heart attack on stage but that would be a nice way to leave this world wouldn't it?

In knowing Ryan Paul, he's a bit of gypsy, a minstrel wondering from town to town as mentioned earlier is a perfect partner to Julie Gordon, they do blend in together. Both of them sure a pure love of music, in fact music is her boyfriend, and music is his girlfriend.  The way they hang in there playing to a handful of people at wineries I admire them for their efforts. But Ryan has helped me in a way to rediscover how to do songs in different keys, we never did Ball And Chain before but managed to pull that off for the first time last week. And now doing Sundown in E chord which I may have to use his arrangement for the next project.  We may not agree on politics but we all share a love of music on stage to which personal political differences are put aside in favor of rocking the house. A super nice guy.

To which, since I have been very busy documenting the highlights of the jams that I partaken in this month there will not be the End Of Month Thoughts From The Townedger.  But next month I have to post the lyrics to the songs off the new Logic And Lies album  as well the jams that I will be at.  Special thanks to Kevin Simnacher for taking the photos and he really didn't have to do that.  But I need some promo pictures of myself and I knew he'd be filming.   This is him on guitar with Joe Hutchcroft from the Fossiltones.