Last week's less-than-stellar Woodshed play ultimately led to an acrimonious parting of the ways between Yours Truly and Buffalo Bob. Whilst I respect and admire our previous association, BB now becomes a part of my musical past as I continue to go forwards. However, I wasn't about to let a personal dispute upset the overall momentum in the music I've cobbled up in the last month and a half. After a quick query to my old Jam Rat colleague Doc Sweetwood, I made ready to join the ranks at Bobby's Place in Valley Park - without missing a beat.
With Sheila at my side, I was really up for the evening despite it being a brand-new situation. My chops are nice and crisp thanks to all the activity since late June; the only worry I had going in was how quick could I find my niche without stepping on anyone else's musical toes. Our evening started in my favorite way, with a good meal. Bobby's is a sportsbar and grill, so I happily re-created the Delmar and Motley's days with a black-and-blue burger, and a HUGE side of loaded fries. Almost got too full to play; "generous portions" is a bit of an understatement where Bobby's menu is concerned!!
After we chowed down it was time for me to start working the room. First stop was with Ron Coffman, who runs the jam. I introduced myself, and stone me if he didn't recognize me from the "Black Sheep Posse / Missouri Chapter" page on Facebook. He asked me what kind of music I was into or wanted to do, and I gave him my standard "pro-fusion blazz" resum`e. Ron laughed and said "That's great - it'll make it a lot easier to slot you in." He ran a few things down to me about how the play worked, and that was that. I was already feeling comfortable as we ended our chat.
Next up was another Facebook buddy I'd yet to meet in person, my man Hank Williams Jr. We've had great fun stirring the pot together on Facebook {Buffalo Bob joining us on many occasions} the last couple years, so it was way cool to finally put a face with our respective names. We made with the jokes and crazy observations immediately, further enhancing my comfort-zone. After a good chat an plenty of laughs, I resumed working the room as Hank made ready for his set later in the evening. I bumped into a couple dudes from The Core who are the hosting band, introduced myself, and got a warm "Welcome aboard!" in response from each.
By now the opening set was completed, and the Aggregations started going up. Ron sought me out after the second one to let me know I was next, so I put on my gameface and answered the call when it came, totally at ease despite it being my debut. My basic unit had Rob Cruzen on guitar, and a chap called Jason {I believe - I'm still as terrible remembering names now as I was back during my original time as a Woodshed Regular} on bass. Rob ran the first tune down to me briefly, and we immediately went at it. I locked as tight as I could with Jason, and kept my ears and eyes on Rob. It was a little difficult for me to hear anything at first, but my ears thankfully started adjusting quickly as we romped along.
After we flourished out the kickoff tune to a nice hand from the crowd, Rob told me we'd be doing one of his originals next, and asked me for an up-tempo blues shuffle-groove. I was only too happy to oblige, and we cooked for a half-dozen minutes or so. I was well-pleased that my mess was exactly what Rob and Jason wanted, and I even tossed in a small amount of my usual mayhem, just to test the waters a bit. With the final coda came Smiles from both Rob and Jason - things were jelling very nicely between us by then, and the Smiles were their way to transmit that message silently to me.
Our final number was a nice stomping blues-rocker that I had great fun taking advantage of, albeit in a much more subdued and careful way. As the literal new kid on the block, I wanted to quietly establish myself on this outing, but still put forth a hint of my usual insanity where and when I could. This last tune allowed me to do just that; loads of fills on the turnarounds, carpet-bombing during the bridge, that sort of thing. Even managed a rather nice overall swing-groove that had enough jazz accents to make my man Ginger Baker smile broadly. The crowd gave us our third nice round of the clap, and I was a soggy, panting heap as I accepted {and returned} the praise from Rob and Jason before quitting the stage.
Making my way back to Sheila and our table, two dudes from The Core - guitarist Dave Bohannan, and drummer Brian Strawn - came perilously close to unleashing the Modesty Monster as they added their effusive praise about my mess. I reciprocated the compliments and soon after was able to collapse at the table with Sheila to catch my breath. In due course, Ron again sought me out to both praise my mess some more, and to let me know what and with whom my next bit would be. Two blows in the same evening? I'm down with that!! In the meantime, Sheila and I enjoyed the hell out of Jessie Womack's lovely acoustic guitar set.
Soon enough, my call came. This time around I was placed with my man Hank on guitar, longtime jam-Bud Stu Massey on bass, and Clayton Ptak on second axe. Hank said we'd kick off with a Credence tune, and we got right down to business. I had a blast laying down more than a few strafing runs, visiting Stu and Clayton, and in general just being my usual looney self as we cooked. The only glitch of the entire night came at the very end of the tune, when one of Hank's strings let go all of a sudden {shades of Doc Jim at Back Street a few weeks back}. Stu and Clayton gave him the business about "playing the song to death," and I stopped just short of suggesting that he make a proper job of it by smashing his guitar a-la Pete Townshend! Hank took it all good-naturedly, but the both of us were a bit bummed that his night was over early; the instant chemistry we achieved deserves to be built on, and hopefully will be in the near future.
Clayton, Stu, and I carried on, tearing into an up-tempo blues rocker. I gleefully went totally off the leash at last, but got a startling surprise about 3/4's of the way in - when I was spotlighted for a solo-bit. Before I could hesitate for a second, I put forth some ad-hoc slop that sounded halfway decent even to my hyper-critical ears. I even perfectly meshed the transition between my star-turn and Stu's which came right after mine. After putting loads of quiet ruff-bombing under Clayton's tasty guitar solo-finale, the unit flourished out the song in fine fashion. As with my previous set, clap and praise followed me off the stage and back to Sheila and the table once more. The balance of the evening was pleasant afterglow - the first time was out of the way with nary a hitch {save Hank's axe}; I made several new friends to broaden the network a bit more; Sheila got her next bit of field experience to digest and understand; and my latest musical chapter got off to a fairly roaring start, all things considered.
In short, a wonderful evening, chock-full of potential and ramifications. The next several weeks and months ought to be very interesting indeed. For now though, I'm just happy the transition from old to new jam-situation was so relatively seamless. Hopefully this last fact will be an omen for the future - as always, time will tell. Please stay tuned, Fellow Babies; the Next Generation Jam has begun.
More shortly.
{Editorial correction - "Jason" the bass player's proper name is Tom Hardy!! My bad...........}
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