August 17 – Orientation
This was our first time getting together to learn more about the Take the Stage Band Workshop (more information at http://www.thefreight.org/workshops.html) and to meet the other musicians and singers that we might be paired with. We met at Hilary Perkins’ house and we each brought a dish or two for our pot-luck jam. I was a bit nervous because I am somewhat new to bluegrass, I don’t know a whole lot of bluegrass songs, I didn’t know the words to any songs to sing, and I had not been in too many jams. So, I was nervous about whether or not I could keep up.
I quickly discovered that my worries were overblown. We all huddled up in a big jam circle (I think we had at least 3 or 4 of most instruments). The songs were easy to follow and play along and it was a lot of fun to see if I could handle a solo here and there. Hearing the other players was also good – it gave us all a sense of excitement to anticipate who we might be assembled into a band with. As usual, after almost two hours of playing music – it came to an end too quick for me.
One of the reasons that I have enjoyed my transition from electric to acoustic music is that the folks I have run into in bluegrass are all terrific people. This group of people seemed like folks whom I would enjoy going through this process with.
September 14th – Our first rehearsal with Dave Zimmerman
I was put together in a band with 2 other guitar players (and singers), a mandolin player, a violin player and bass. The band was made up of the following people:
Jacob Offman – vocals and guitar
Kelly Trojan – vocals and guitar
Virgil Stanford – vocals and bass
Scott Peterson – vocals and fiddle
Scott Cook – mandolin
Jack Thrift (me) – vocals, guitar, dobro and banjo
I liked our combination but knew that it would be tricky for us to work out how 3 guitars were going to play together. However, Jacob and Kelly sing very well together and they were a feature of our band.
We met up with Dave Zimmerman for the first time. He talked us through what to expect of the next couple of months leading up to the performance. He also had us play through some tunes that we picked on the spot. I think I had the same thought that everyone else did after our first meeting with Dave. I became aware of how much work we were going to have to put in to pull off 6 or 7 songs in time. When we got together with Dave - maybe it was nerves – maybe we were just having difficulty finding a groove – but it was certain that we needed to focus on the details. Fortunately, that is part of the reason why I signed up for the program – to be critiqued on the details of what I was doing on guitar with the band.
September 21st – The work starts NOW!
For some reason, after just getting started with this workshop, we were all feeling a sense of urgency to select our songs and focus in on them deeply. Each member of the band essentially got to pick a song - so with 6 members, we had 6 tunes. However, selecting the tunes was not as easy as it might seem. Some of our song selections were a natural – the two singers sang “There Is A Reason” by Allison Krauss very well. We knew we wanted to keep it. Jacob also had a deep repertoire of songs that he already knew and could play and sing all of the way through. We also discussed whether or not we should make Jacob and Kelly (the two singer/guitar players) the focus of the band or whether we would let each person who wanted to sing a song take a turn. It turned out that we had a very unique vocalist in our bass player, Virgil Stanford. It also turned out that our fiddle player was a terrific front man with great vocal chops. So, we looked at what we were working with, determined what our strong points were, and determined to highlight them in our song selections.
David Zimmerman provided feedback on which songs we sounded strong on and began to focus in on some of the details in the songs we would keep. For instance, he encouraged the violinist to perform the rhythm “chop” when the mandolin took a solo break. He started to focus the guitars on playing softer and finding ways to capo into other ranges so that we were not all 3 playing the same thing at the same time.
September 28th – How many times do we have to practice these same songs?
Keep in mind that in addition to what we did at the meetings with Dave Zimmerman, our band was getting together occasionally outside of this practice. So, we were getting in some good practice time on each tune. By this meeting with Dave, we had pretty much selected the following songs:
• Steel Rails – Allison Krauss
• There Is A Reason – Allison Krauss (written by Ron Block)
• Blue Night – Bill Monroe
• Big Sciota – Author Unkown (made popular by Russ Barenberg)
• Blue Yodel No. – Jimmie Rodgers
• Jambalaya – Hank Williams
As for me, outside of practice, I was listening to as many samples of each of these tunes as I could find so that I could come up with some ideas to add on the guitar. I had been taking each song and working up a solo or other rythmic guitar parts that fit the song. I was also listening back to the feedback that Dave had provided me on how to backup the group, when to add fills, and the sound that I should attempt to achieve with my soloing.
When we met with Dave this Sunday it was starting to feel like we had played these songs a lot. The idea of playing “Steel Rails” again was getting to be old – and I was starting to lose focus during rehearsal. I had to remind myself to concentrate, listen and try to play together. Not surprisingly, this is what it all comes down to – more valuable lessons learned through experience! (But, do we really have to practice “Steel Rails” again?!)
October 5th – Hardly Strictly and No Practice!
The Hardly Strictly festival was scheduled to take place and therefore our practice was canceled. Yahoo – no “Steel Rails”. Plus the thought of seeing so many of my favorite guitar players in one setting – this was set to be a terrific weekend.
If you have been to Hardly Strictly before – no need to read any further. If you have not, then read a little further...this event is put on by Warren Hellman of Hellman and Friedman. Warren is a financier and a banjo player – an unusual combination – a banjo player with money! The event is free to the public – you should treat yourself and go. It is the highlight of my year since I can’t make it to the other traditional bluegrass festivals. I won’t ramble on about it other than to say, check it out on the web and GO!
October 12th - Jim Nunally (Guitar Hero)
For the un-initiated, Jim Nunally is one of the leading bluegrass guitar players out there. He tours, teaches and writes several articles for various guitar magazines. For me, the opportunity to finally meet him after reading his articles for so many years was exciting. It was also somewhat scary. I am not a terrific singer and have never focused on it much. I have, however, played guitar for approximately 30 years. I certainly consider myself a guitar player – straight up. The thought of having to play in front of this cat was somewhat intimidating.
Jim and Dave stood together in the room and suggested that we just get on with playing our tunes and they would comment at the end of each song. I remember that Jim started to give us more tactical advice for each soloist – that we should kick off the intros to the solos very strong – that the band should watch its volume so that the soloist could be heard clearly – and that the 3 guitar onslaught should try to figure out how to stay out of each other’s way. He also had good things to say about our vocals.
At the end of the rehearsal – when I was packing up my guitar – Jim came up to me and told me that he liked what I was playing and thought that I was a good guitar player. With my best casual poker face, I said “thanks” and told him how much I had enjoyed reading his stuff in magazines and that it was good to finally meet him (I didn’t want to seem too excited about his compliments!). When I got home, I was excited like a little school kid to tell my wife that JIM NUNALLY had said that he liked my playing and that I was a good player. She of course asked me, “Who is he”? ….and so it goes the life of us guitar nerds…
October 19th - Kathy Kallick (the Hammer)
Since our last meeting with Dave Zimmerman, we learned from Hilary that we might have a little more time on the stage. So, we determined to add in another tune called “What Does the Deep Sea Say” by Bill Monroe. I like this tune a lot and was determined to sing backup vocals on it – singing harmony backup was one of my goals for the workshop. I also determined that we weren’t doing ourselves any good by having 3 guitars at once, so I worked up “Steel Rails” on the dobro – I had one in the closet that I rarely picked up but when I listened to the recording, it certainly sounded appropriate.
We met with Kathy who suggested that we run through our set and at the end she would give us feedback. I can tell you that everyone in the band got a kick in the pants from her. The guys (Dave Zimmerman and Jim Nunally) had actually been easy on us as compared to Kathy – at least that was my interpretation of that rehearsal. Kathy had two bits of feedback for me – play dobro on more of the tunes and sing lead vocal on the new tune in a higher range. She had me practice my singing in a corner – where acoustically the sound would bounce back off the walls and to my ears. I think we spent a good part of 10 minutes doing this while the band waited. As I stated before, I never felt confident singing and this was grueling.
It was also some of the best musical advice that I had ever received. Her suggestion to play dobro on other songs made musical sense and I had to get my pride and sense of identity out of the way to put down the guitar and try to add something else to the band. I also had to practice deeply on the instrument to pull off playing something that sounded half decent to my ears.
With respect to singing, the lyrics to the song “What Does the Deep Sea Say” are somewhat feminine in nature and suited Kelly’s voice better. However, I determined to sing backup harmony vocals on the tune. It turns out that singing is a lot like playing an instrument – if you practice it enough – you can improve on it. Because of Kathy’s attention and what I was able to do in this workshop, I have determined to make this my area of focus for 2009, starting with vocal lessons and including learning to sing lead on some tunes when I show up at jam sessions.
October 26th – Last Train Home
Since early on in the workshop, we played with the idea of what to call the band. Each of us threw out ideas. I always liked the Pat Metheny tune “Last Train Home” (jazz) and I liked the sound of that for a band name. So, I put it in the hat and it turned out that the rest of the band liked it too. In fact, it is such a good band name that another band has been using it for several years (which we learned after we did the show at the Freight). So much for originality.
However, now we had a band, we had a set of tunes, each member of the band had specific parts to solo on and places to add fills. We were becoming a band.
We went through our set of songs twice during this rehearsal with Dave. Dave gave us more advice on when to play softer, how to finish the song “What Does the Deep Sea Say”, and generally instructed us in fine tuning our songs. We certainly had the songs down and could get through the entire set without stopping – but now we were adding on the frosting. It felt good to listen and think back to what we sounded like when we first attempted the songs. We all felt like we had put in a lot of work.
November 9 – Sound check at the Freight & Salvage
Sound check at the Freight & Salvage. It sounds kind of professional doesn’t it? Like it is a real gig or something? We all got to the Freight a little early. Most of the folks in Last Train Home were eager to get there and see what it felt like and we were also eager to hear the other bands practice (we had not had an opportunity to hear what they were up to – but we had heard that they were coming along well).
There is something strange about walking into a place like the Freight. It is a place that so many famous people have played. You get a sense that history has happened there – and that you get to connect to that history now. In some ways, it makes you feel like you have arrived. In other ways, it makes you intimidated to think that you have to live up to a certain standard. On the day of our sound check, I was more overcome by the later.
Our sound check started with an overview of the sound system and mics. For the uninitiated, playing your instrument into a microphone takes some understanding. For guitar, if you place the mic directly in front of your sound hole – you end up with a boomy sound with lots of pick noise. So, the trick is to place the mic somewhat forward towards where the end of the neck meets the body of the guitar. We also learned another valuable trick – which might sound obvious, but was not obvious to us at first. If you don’t like where the mic was placed for you on stage or the angle of it toward your instrument, then simply move it to where you like it. If you need to slide over to give yourself some more room so that the bow of the fiddle doesn’t come inches from your face – just move. Anyway, playing at the Freight can seem intimidating and at first and we were reluctant to touch any of their equipment. They showed us how to deal with the stage and their gear and had us off to a good start.
The other bands, Salvaged Mondays and Mad Fish did their sound checks first. We were all impressed and entertainment. I think the most interesting thing about hearing the other bands was discovering the direction and sound that they had achieved. Their sounds were unique, took advantage of what they had to work with, and were completely different from ours.
Keep in mind – this was just a sound check. But, still, it was our turn to give it a shot and I was very nervous. We got up there and got into our first tune real quick. It’s funny how much faster you end up playing a song when the adrenaline is pumping. My mind wondered what it would feel like with a few people in the audience, the lights on and doing the songs for real.
At the end of 3 or 4 songs, we wrapped up our sound check and were set for our performance. We departed with a tremendous sense of anticipation….
November 16 – Take the Stage
I felt surprisingly calm right before show time. We were the last of the 3 bands to go on stage, so I sat and watched the first band do their set.
Moments before we went onto the stage for our set, time seemed to speed up. We stood behind the stage in the “green room” and waited until they called us up. When they called us, I got up on the stage and grabbed my dobro. I barely had a chance to strum it once and walk up to the mic when I noticed that my band was all in place and waiting for me to kick off the first tune. Soooo, here we go……….
I kicked off the opening notes to “Steel Rails”. Everyone came in right when they were supposed to and we sounded good! The fiddle and mandolin took a split break –and pulled off their parts very well…and then there was a burst of applause! Wow – what an enthusiastic audience. However, when I looked up over the crowd, the bright lights were in my eyes! That’s when you know you are doing the real deal – when the audience is clapping and you can’t really see them because of the bright stage lights! Right after I had that thought I remembered that I had my big chance coming up at the next break with a dobro solo. It’s funny how when you practice something over and over, you can slow things down in your mind and think about what you are doing. However, in that moment, my mind was not much of the process. My hands, ears and instinct took over to get me through my solo and the rest of the tune. I even found myself adding fills and doing more with the dobro than I had previously done in rehearsal. That moment, the crowd and the excitement all provided for an encouraging environment where I was simply having fun with it and floating on top of the music.
That’s a great feeling.
The third tune in our set was a fiddle tune called “Big Sciota”. I like this tune a lot and was glad that it was in the set. We kicked it off and got into it fairly quick. We had a tendency to push the tempo of this tune in rehearsals and as the violin was finishing up its solo, I leaned over to Scott Cook (the mandolin player) and said, “Good luck – this one is faster than we have ever played it!” He jumped into it, rode the wave, nailed that beautiful 4 note lick (which I have now stolen from him – thanks Scott), and tossed it over to me. So, here I was, trying to keep up with the pace and get my licks out. I know I ended up missing notes and not playing everything that I had intended to – but the audience didn’t recognize it and sure enough – I got another enthusiastic round of applause.
We moved along into “There Is A Reason”. This is a song that has a medium pace to it and very thoughtful lyrics. Although our tempo felt a little slow – I decided to relax into the groove of the song and play it with us much feeling as I could bring. We practiced this song a lot (since it was one of the first songs we chose). I think our performance that evening was one of the best times we had ever played it. When I listen back to our performance from that night – this one catches my attention the most.
As previously discussed, we determined to add “What Does the Deep Sea Say” near the end of our workshop. I stumbled across the song one day when watching a special on bluegrass on television (imagine that – bluegrass on TV!). The song has very touching lyrics and a catchy melody. It was also the one song that I was going to sing backup harmony vocal on. After Kelly introduced me (every member of our band was introduced at one point or another during the performance), I stepped up to the mic and played the opening chords to the tune. And, then I jumped in with my singing. My first few notes felt a little awkward and out of tune – but then I thought to myself, “relax and find a comfort zone like we did it in rehearsal so many times”. Surprisingly, singing for the first time in front of an audience was not as scary as I had always imagined it would be. At the end, this was probably one of the most worthwhile experiences of doing this workshop – it gave me just enough courage to pursue learning more about singing – which I believe is one of the most valuable skills in a bluegrass ensemble.
Our next song, “Blue Yodel”, was one of my favorites to play. Scott Peterson has a great stage presence and is fun to watch. Because he is having fun, it helps the rest of us to get into it and have fun too. Plus, I played dobro on this one and I was particularly happy with what I had developed for the tune. When I listen back to this one now, it is one of the tunes where the audience was having fun right along with us. Nothing beats a great audience and their feedback.
And then, as if 25 minutes had passed in 5 minutes, we came to our last song, “Jambalaya”. This was a great choice by Jacob and the crowd was into it right away. For me, I had determined in our last practice to play banjo on this tune (just the chords – no soloing), so I borrowed one and learned how to play the two chords for the tune and do some basic banjo finger-picking. That was a lot of fun to do – to try to convince an audience that I was capable of something that I had no background in – to fly by the seat of my pants! I guess I must have enjoyed that experience more than enough – since I ended up purchasing that banjo and am spending more time with it. When we were doing the song, I could hear the audience clapping along and having a good time – what a terrific way to close our set!
It turns out that we played a sold out show that evening to a very responsive audience. It wasn’t “as if” we were playing a gig at the Freight & Salvage, we really DID play a show at the Freight. Although each of us can listen to the recordings of that show and point out what we did wrong, even more so, we heard what we did right. We played as a band – we actually played very well given where we started. We watched our dynamics so that the soloist could be heard. We brought some fun to the show and entertained the crowd. And, we ended up having a blast – one of the best musical experiences we have ever had.
If you have read this far and are still interested in learning more, please check out MP3s of Salvaged Mondays, Mad Fish and Last Train Home at the following website:
http://grassclass.com/Content.aspx?ContentID=91
Afterwards
Directly after taking the stage and completing the workshop, I (and others in my band) felt a sense of sadness. All of the anticipation and work that we were doing had come to an end. We didn’t have that to look forward to anymore – it was done. We emailed each other and everyone in my band was kind enough to get together at my home for a private Christmas party. It was good to see them and play with them again – and we really didn’t miss a beat – we still had the set down 1 month later with no rehearsal. But, over the course of the couple of months of the workshop, I came to know these folks and their families. Every one of them has a unique and interesting story. As for me, whether it be that look of satisfaction that Jacob and I would share when the playing was good, or trying to listen closely to Scott Cook as we synched the melody on Big Sciota, or enjoying Kelly’s heartfelt singing (and her sister’s too), and so on, for that period of time, I became part of something that was bigger than just me – and it still feels like a part of me is missing without them.
Maybe – just maybe – I should sign up again….
