Members ggm1960 Posted December 17, 2018 Members Share Posted December 17, 2018 My wife and I have our first booking scheduled at a popular wine bar in the area after "auditioning" at their open mic last Tuesday night. Now we really need to buckle down and get some songs added to the list of tunes we've been performing at open mics and jams around town. As much as I'd like to keep things simple I'm torn between wanting to create some backing tracks and using the infrastructure I've long had for band and fill-in gigs with MOTU DP9, interfaces and MBPs. Either way this type of gig will be a new experience for both of us and we're both looking forward to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted December 17, 2018 Moderators Share Posted December 17, 2018 If you got the gig based on an open mic 'audition', I would assume that the 'powers above' liked what they heard and saw. So whatever you did in the audition, keep that up. Maybe sparingly add in a song or two using 'enhancements', but keeping things simple/stripped down on the inaugural gig is probably a good approach.Here's hoping this turns into a regular gig! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shaster Posted December 17, 2018 Members Share Posted December 17, 2018 daddymack beat me to the punch, and I couldn't agree more with his sentiment. Concentrate on doing more of the same. In fact, I would say concentrate on doing more of the same with songs you will be able to pull off. Now is not the time to learn a bunch of complicated tunes that won't go over as well as a simple, yet popular tune. For instance, I do this tune in my solo act. Because I am (finally) doing a good job of the tune, it goes over, but not nearly as well as Moondance. So when I started, I learned Moondance first, years before I tackled Heart To Heart, which has a billion chords, and had to be rearranged for guitar and one vocal.[video=youtube;bS3ggi9dAeE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted December 19, 2018 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2018 If you got the gig based on an open mic 'audition', I would assume that the 'powers above' liked what they heard and saw. So whatever you did in the audition, keep that up. Maybe sparingly add in a song or two using 'enhancements', but keeping things simple/stripped down on the inaugural gig is probably a good approach. Here's hoping this turns into a regular gig! Thanks daddymack, I think we'll have fun with this thing. I won't have time to throw together a bunch of backing tracks now anyway but the "infrastructure" has long been established and is actually stripped down to a very manageable size. Thunderbolt MBP on top of a four space rackcase with an 828x interface we can also use for a preamp. We specifically set out to do hit songs that are very well known yet not worn out by typical cover bands. Our "multi-instrumentalism" gives us an edge and our main limitation will be our vocal ranges. The wife and I both play keys so she'll have the full size Privia PX-3 and I'll have the Krome 61. I've sang and played keys and guitar in numerous bands over the years including fronting a couple of my own and the wife comes from more of a church organist sight reading background. So in addition I'll primarily play my new Taylor T5 guitar while the wife also plays flute, EWI5000, and, most recently, she's been learning mandolin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted January 24, 2019 Author Members Share Posted January 24, 2019 As we get closer to our scheduled gig the challenge continues. We're moving along but not necessarily at a pace that I'm accustomed to and it frustrates me a little I guess because my wife doesn't have the band/gig experience like I do, I really need to get over that because it's actually shaping up fine and should be fun. I put together three sets of 15 songs which is way more than we'll need and added some "low hanging fruit" like Brown Eyed Girl and Knockin On Heavens Door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted January 25, 2019 Moderators Share Posted January 25, 2019 thank you for not covering 'House of the Rising Sun' or 'Proud Mary'*... These, B.E.G and KoHD are among my list of top 10 songs I hope I will never have to play again...also All Along the Watch Tower...and of course Mustang Sally [although, I arranged a very funky version of that many years ago that was tolerable.] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted January 25, 2019 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2019 thank you for not covering 'House of the Rising Sun' or 'Proud Mary'*... OMG nooooooo! There are some real good things about putting this gig together, probably the best of which is, there are no excuses for not showing up to practice! We have a huge enough list of candidates and "works in process" that we should be able to eliminate most of the obvious tunes fairly quickly and only fish them out upon request. We've also got 2 or 3 that are just there if we have a particular guest performer or two show up. As an aside, in what might be considered an unusual twist, my wife has developed some GAS. She just got a Boss VE-500 vocal processor pedal. It looks pretty cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted January 26, 2019 Members Share Posted January 26, 2019 Let's not forget Margaritaville and Folsom Prison Blues. FPB is interesting because it's the stand-in for every country song ever written. Someone asks for country… country = Johnny Cash and Johnny Cash = FPB. Pavlovian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members steve mac Posted January 26, 2019 Members Share Posted January 26, 2019 Folsom Prison Blues. FPB is interesting because it's the stand-in for every country song ever written. Someone asks for country… country = Johnny Cash and Johnny Cash = FPB. Pavlovian. I am bored by FPB but it does go over so well.. therefore it stays in. However I loop the chords and noodle some blues over it and then add some "train riding the rails" percussion by thumping the guitar into the loop, finally when the crowd has realised what is coming, to the tune of FPB I start singing Pinball Wizard (totally stole this from Postmodern Jukebox). Crowd love being fooled and it gives me enthusiasm for an old tune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted January 26, 2019 Author Members Share Posted January 26, 2019 Something interesting I put together: I added Kiss - Beth to the list, it's a song I'd played in the past and is low hanging fruit for me as a singer/piano player but recently I got the bright idea of appending a couple rounds of the Layla piano outro to it. It actually falls together great; kick in with it directly after that final G7. I think it's a fun twist, extends the song a bit and provides a little bit of a vocal break. I'm really looking forward to see how that goes over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bob Dey Posted January 28, 2019 Members Share Posted January 28, 2019 I never even did Knockin' on Heaven's door! I have the words to it in case someone requests it, but I'd rather do Brown eyed girl and Folsum Prison another hundred times each. Yes, these songs have helped me make a lot of bucks throughout the years so I'll keep playing them when needed. Pleasing the people has always been my MO although one can also do less commercial music until they're discovered by a touring band. I have a talented acquaintance that pulled that off last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted January 31, 2019 Author Members Share Posted January 31, 2019 I'd rather do Brown eyed girl and Folsum Prison another hundred times each. BEG actually has some great guitar noodling in it that I used to copy fairly well but now that I'll be singing it I will be too busy for most of that as I don't even have the lyrics memorized. Folsom Prison was one that I was allowed to improvise some wicked county guitar licks into in the past. That one is not on our list but we will be doing Jackson for a great male/female duet! Update: Our gig was a smashing success! We had lots of friends and neighbors show up who packed the place all night. We're looking forward to scheduling our next gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted January 31, 2019 Members Share Posted January 31, 2019 Johnny Cash recorded about 1200 songs. He wrote over 1000. Quick: name five… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted February 2, 2019 Moderators Share Posted February 2, 2019 Tennessee Flat Top, Luther Played the Boogie Woogie, Ring of Fahr, Man in Black, and of course his first hit...Hey, Porter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members steve mac Posted February 2, 2019 Members Share Posted February 2, 2019 I'm pretty sure he didn't write Fulsom, didn't he just copy it and change the words? As an aside I visited there once and got a bargain pair of Levi's from the outlet store 👍🏼 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members steve mac Posted February 2, 2019 Members Share Posted February 2, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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