Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Community => Gigs => Topic started by: edwardofhuncote on January 28, 2022, 06:54:19 AM
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And a whole New Year begins...
Nuthin' to see yet, but the dates are starting to come in and get confirmed for Harwell-Grice Band, beginning in March. Looking forward to another year with my guys. In 30-plus years of playin', I can't remember being so content with a gig.
There's talk/email at least leaving open the possibility that New River Bound may try to reform and play some dates this year too. That'd be great if it happened... we played twice last Summer, and the chemistry was instantaneous.
Meanwhile, (between steroid injections and a lot of frustration) I am woodsheddin' pretty hard trying to be a better guitar player. Or maybe trying to figure out who I am with that instrument, is a better way to put it. I would try for a gig playing guitar, 'cause I know that's the fastest way for me to get better... unfortunately the only other picker in my circle who'd have been up for it... didn't make it to 2022. I'll just keep workin' at it. Neighbors probably wish I'd quit, or the juice would go off. ::)
Anyway, I feel kinda' silly putting my weekend warrior nonsense up here, but well... that's about all I got. 2022, hold your ears, here I come.
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Hey Greg, i too have some gigs coming in, though i had my first one of the year cancelled last weekend. On Wednesday i joined a jazz big band a have been in a few times in the past but had to leave due to touring and long commutes for work. Anyway it was a nightmare as i began to grasp how far my guitar chops have diminished since i have been concentrating on bass playing. Anyway they are a good bunch and know i will get up to speed again. Then this afternoon i got a call from a band looking for a guitarist for a couple of gigs. The gig is not till the end of April so i have some time to regain my confidence.
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Well, here's an interesting one that just got confirmed... a return engagement to play for the Southwest Virginia Ballet. A few years ago, they ran a show called "Ties" (as in, railroad ties...) and we played some of the original soundtracks for it. During the first run of the show, we got to perform it with the show, live.
They've asked us back to run it again this year, at at Roanoke City's amphitheater in Elmwood Park. https://www.svballet.org/dance-company/ties/
Last time we played for them was 2016 at the Jefferson Center. That was a big night. Pretty big deal again. (I'll probably be on upright bass for this one...)
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Harwell-Grice Band is back; tomorrow night in Franklin Co. is our season-opener...
This is an annual affair we are invited to play each year, that (like a lot of other annual affairs) had been put on hiatus the past couple years. Hunting is a popular pastime in this part of Virginia, and each Spring they have a wild-game cook-off. And the job... well, lucky for us, the local music is welcomed by the hometown crowd, and indeed a good many of our regular fans and friends will be there. I hear dinner is included with the gig again this year. It'll be nice to see everyone again after the Winter, and really good to play some music with the guys. I will probably hit the Waffle House on the way home though... somebody else can have my dinner ticket.
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Woah... BIG turnout last night. We didn't play very long, just a half-hour before people were seated for dinner, and another set after. We had a great time reconnecting with each other musically, and our friends in Franklin County. (and beyond) HGB is off to a good start in 2022.
I played the old '67 Starfire for Set 1, and the Hyak Scroll-body fretless to finish out Set 2. This is my old Mesa WalkAbout Scout 15, and the pedalboard with an outboard lowpass filter I use sometimes for non-Alembic basses. For a 'set it and forget it' effect, it works pretty well, especially with these two.
They had about everything you could imagine there, and a few things you wouldn't have thought of. All jokes aside, these folks know how to fix things up after a hunt. Waffle House, by contrast, is still only doin' carry out... made my Hash Browns 'smothered and peppered'.
Next week, we're at, Hammer & Forge Brewing Co. in Boones Mill, Virginia but I picked up a side gig tonight with some other folks!
*couple pics of us onstage came from somewhere...
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Looks like a good start to the year! :)
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I have to admit that in thirty years of gigging I’ve shared the stage with drunks, women who want to dance with the band and audience members who are musicians and ask to sit in. However, I’ve never shared it with critters. Looks like while it made for a tight set up at least you knew what to expect from those with whom you shared the stage. :)
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We're at Hammer & Forge Brewing Co. in Boones Mill, Virginia tomorrow night. If you're coming, slow down to 45 mph (about 72 kph for my buds o'er the sea) 'cause Boones Mill is famous for just two things... Moonshine and being a Speedtrap. FWIW, I run the Town's Water Treatment Plant, but I don't wear the badge off the job.
I've loaded up the Persuader 5-string and Ol' 621 with my F-1X and Crown XLS rack-rig, and the neighbor's kid helped me heft that Mesa Diesel 15 into the car ... I'm going to see how much that plate-glass front window at H&F can take.
Pictures Saturday. Maybe video. It's always so loud in there, usually anything I get is just a dinful racket... we'll see how it goes.
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Had a good time with the boys Friday night... decent crowd turnout too, for our return to the tiny stage at Hammer & Forge. (really tight in this corner, especially for five of us after all our stuff is in place) Played the Persuader 5-string for Set 1, and Dave's old Series I for Set 2. Happy to say the big heavy gig-rig here is back in the sketchy-looking Band Truck for another year. I was tired but happy at load-out.
Oh yeah, for the second set, everybody brought out their new tunes for a trial run. I had a J.J. Cale/J.C. Mayer-inspired "Call Me The Breeze", Gabe brought one he got from an older Alison Krauss & Union Station album, "The Road Is A Lover", and Josh had a winner with one called "Lay Me To Rest", from guitarist Kenny Smith. A couple more times through and these will be ready for primetime.
We're off for a couple weeks, but I am subbing next week in a Stanley Bros. tribute band, on upright bass of course. (I'm subbing for my Dad... cotton-candy-ass is whining about his shoulder hurts or something...)
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A gig and Awful House afterwards.
That's what I Like About the South.
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I'm loading up for the first rehearsal for the Southwest Virginia Ballet production of "Ties". Really hoping that it goes better than Jazzy's rehearsal did yesterday!
#buildingisonfire #runforyourlife #evacuatewithbassguitar.
(more concerned about practice running past my bedtime!)
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Had another rehearsal with the Southwest Virginia Ballet yesterday, and the first full length runthrough of the entire program. This was especially helpful for us, to get the visual cues for the portions where the score will be performed live. Extremely important to hit those marks on time. And a gear update; they don't care what I use, so I have opted to play my Custom fretless 5-string for the show, which happens to open right around its 5th birthday. https://www.svballet.org/dance-company/ties/
*since no one will see me, here's the sides of C14588 no one ever sees but me!
In local news- Harwell-Grice Band is at home at the Farmer's Market stage in Rocky Mount for the annual Strawberry Festival next Friday. Ice cream, berries, shortcake, music, and the work-weeks' end. Then Saturday night we're up the street at Buddy's Barbecue. https://buddysbbqva.com
*Not to be confused with the BBQ joint of the same name in Tennessee. Nope, this is a North Carolina style, but to make it a little more attractive to the local folks, the sauce is moonshine-infused. I ain't kiddin'... read the menu!
Seriously, Buddy's is a fun gig, and so is the Strawberry Festival. It's great to play at home. Really, great to play anywhere.
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Bad news. It sounds like the Franklin County Strawberry Festival is a bust for this evening... there's a line of severe weather headed our way and bound to hit just about the time everyone would be getting staged. In the past, we've moved the show indoors, but this time they decided to bump it up to next Friday... annnd... half of us are committed elsewhere next Friday. Well, shucky-ducky. :-\
Honestly, I could probably use another night off. My rockstar medical team put another round of magic sauce into my spine yesterday afternoon. Hands still feel puffy and hot. I could play, but would rather not. ::)
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Sorry to hear about the cancellation. Hard to believe that there are parts of the country that are having strawberry festivals when here in Minnesota none of the trees have leaves yet and other than grass - everything is still shades of brown.
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Last night was about as sad and sloppy of a gig as I have played in a while. But you know... it was still good to play!
I didn't bother trying to take any pictures or capture any of the fun, just... environmentally, (you have to picture this) we're staged on a covered wooden patio, wrapped around in tarps and plastic to keep out the driving rain and wind. Every few minutes, somebody has to use a push broom to coax the water pooling up in the tarps over the side to prevent a collapse. I had rainy-day options for what bass to play. But I had just put a new set of TI Jazz Rounds on Ol' 621, my F-1X and Boogie Box were already onstage when I got there, and Josh was makin' deals with people to help keep us high-n-dry. So I stuck a big trash bag in my side pocket, and played my classic Alembic, loud and proud, both sets. Probably not the worst scenario that old bass has been in. By the time we got paid and loaded out, it had quit raining outside.
Maybe better weather next week for the SWVa. Ballet. I sure hope so.
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Soundcheck and last rehearsal at Elmwood Park Amphitheater... more rain. Stagehands and the show grip-folks are scrambling around, getting stuff ready.
No amp... no room for one. There'll be seven of us on this tiny rolling stage. Me and C14588 are totally DI tomorrow.
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Looks like a nice venue, have fun! :)
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It is an extremely nice venue. I've played here many times, but this is my first time on the new amphitheater stage. We got through the early matinee show this afternoon without any glitches, and the Ties Band was invited to hang out with the Dancers at their Studio across town for afternoon lunch break. We're back on at 7 pm. My bass sounds MASSIVE in the house. The rest of the soundtrack for Ties (other than the portions we play) is Edgar Meyer, Yo Yo Ma, and Mark O'Connor's Appalachian Waltz, a tough act to follow anytime.
Maybe some pictures later tonight or tomorrow. They are absolutely, positively about No Video though. Which I'm okay with, personally.
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That's a really small stage.
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That "stage" is just for Greg and his basses. Apparently, he likes to mic them or sing from a variety of standing and sitting positions ;D
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Wow! Quite a nice venue, sir!! Good luck, enjoy the show, and, if I was in the audience, I'd do a double take on that magnificent bass you have there!!!
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Thanks guys. It went over very well, and the Southwest Virginia Ballet's Artistic Director is working on having us back for another live performance of Ties this-coming Fall.
That little stage had 7 of us on it. I went direct... they put me in the wedges enough to hear myself, but I'm not used to that, so it wasn't comfortable. Sounded fine. I was really thankful to Alembic for those white holly sidelines!
Can't really post much else... like I said, they were adamant about no video or photos other than their internal people for promotional stuff, and I totally get why. You have to see Ties live to really appreciate what is going on... seeing a snippet or two on YouTube would be doing such a huge disservice to the rest of the cast, and the whole storyline, I can't even describe how much you'd miss. There's one scene so dark and emotional right before we go on, that I literally can't watch it and still play. It's that intense. Pedro Szalay wrote a humdinger of a story, and didn't want it cut into pieces posted all over the internet, and he thought enough about our music to include us in his soundtrack almost 15 years ago, so... I gotta' respect that. Getting to go play in nice places, now with the third generation to perform this show... blows our mind.
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😎
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Harwell-Grice Band had a nice time playing for The Penthouse atop Center In The Square in downtown Roanoke last night. It would have been nice to be outdoors on the deck for this one, but the weather here has been awful this week with violent thunderstorms and heavy downpours. Our hostess Caroline (a major Deadhead btw...) has this fantastic venue here in town and promoted it well, so we had a good turnout too. https://m.facebook.com/penthouseroanoke/?__tn__=C-R We gave her an extra-long set adding some of our better Dead tunes to finish out the night. It's possible someone caught us warming up Eyes Of The World just goofing around at soundcheck. (dontcha' hate it when the cellphones come out at times like that?!)
Anyway, The Penthouse has a nice glass room where we played high-n-dry last night. Former HGB bassist and bandmember emeritus P.J. George joined us on fiddle. Nice to have P.J. play with us when he has time. I am very much enjoying the reset of 89P-5559 with the TI Jazz Rounds this year. There's just no way to make that bass sound bad. It just gets better every night. Or maybe I just appreciate it more.
*the building I have superimposed a little rose on here... that's the rooftop of the 1893 Building... it houses Fret Mill Music Co. where I used to work. The street in the foreground is Wall Street, and that's the City Market Building. Just a little bit of Roanoke City trivia, in case you ever visit.
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2022 is halfway through, and Harwell-Grice Band returns to our hometown stompin ground tonight. The story of how we ended up there tonight is post-worthy... maybe... in a never-say-die weekend warrior's gig diary.
So we had booked a little pre-Independence Day party tonight at a rather trendy club down on the lake, (Smith Mountain Lake, if you're from here, is The Lake... I reckon everybody has one; that's ours) Anyway, they closed the road to it for bridge work or something. How ya' like that?! The only way in/out of the place, and they shut down the road, this weekend. That must be one heluva bridge. Hey, maybe we dodged a full-on band tragedy.
Well, there's more than one joint in this County to drink and dance and light sparklers, so they found another venue over in Rocky Mount. I didn't get the whole story straight when Josh called, because he was either really excited or aggravated, or hopped-up on energy drinks and wasn't annunciating well, but either the ceiling fell, or the floor collapsed, possibly some combination of both had rendered the place un-gig-able. Me, I like to look at the road not taken sometimes. Like, the ceiling falls after soundcheck, but before downbeat. In my mind, that definitely sucks more. Maybe more than a sketchy bridge on the lake.
So at the happy end of it, the fine folks over at Chaos Mountain Brewing Co. always big supporters of our little troupe, opened up their place for us to raise a ruckus tonight. Josh and Gabe got the word out to everybody else, and the party is [ON]. My Persuader 5-string and Ol' 621 are next to the door on ready-alert.
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Enjoy!
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Another one in the journal. There's just nothing like an Alembic bass through an Alembic preamp and a big enough rig to make your britches leg shake. Yessir... Ol' 621 gets it done. Nothing calamitous to report. Just another night with the guys. Gabe was absent, special guests were in. Callaway, Virginia party-ied like it was July 2nd. Cause, you know, alcohol and fireworks, they go so well together. ::)
I had a weird moment after soundcheck, and it suddenly hit me... it's 2022. Me and Ernie here, we first met and stepped onstage together 30 years ago this Summer in a short-lived band called Clockwork. Later, I got occupied with another project that turned into a full-time gig, and he did too, and we both hit the road with different bands but often crossed paths. I also introduced Stewart (on banjo here) to Ernie and their guitarist at that time, along with the guy who would be my replacement on bass. They went on to play for several years under another name. (Second Helpin') Here we are, three decades later... still at it. Josh and Gabe... they were just little kids when all that stuff was goin' down. ;D
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:)
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Looks like fun, great you guys worked it out! :)
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I'd been wondering how I would deal with this day when it inevitably came. I have subbed out all my gigs for the rest of this year. This deal with my hands going to sleep, it ain't going away, and the treatment that was working just isn't anymore. So I'm back on the merry-go-'round again. Go see the imaging people; so I can go see the neurology people; so I can go see the pain management people who sent me down there in the first place. Round and 'round. Based on the answers I gave on the last questionnaire, The Almighty Insurance Co. decided it was time we try something else. I kind of agree with them, but the timetable sucks! It'll be this Fall/Winter before anything gets actually done, and I see anyone.
1. Can you dress yourself?
2. Are you able to do household tasks?
3. Are you able to work?
4. On a scale of 1-10, what is your pain level?
5. On a scale of 1-10, what degree of relief did you get from...?
There's about five pages of this line of questioning. They don't ask, and don't care if you can play music, regardless of how much of your life it is.
So I hung it up with the guys, at least until I can play again, and halfway feel what I'm doing. It wasn't fair to them, and I was tired of feeling like this. So I'm done performing for a while. I'll sure miss it. The band is on this weekend. I'm currently being replaced by the two guys I replaced in Harwell-Grice Band, so that's good I guess. Maybe one of them will settle back into the gig. If that was it, well... I've had a great time.
:)
[ON HOLD]
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Gregory my best healing thoughts are with you. (Physical and mental)
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Sorry to read all that Greg, I wish you a successful result and recovery after all the test, questionnaires and the trying something else route. 👍🏾
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Best of luck finally getting this dealt with. Sucks to not be able to play but time to keep your eye on the ball so you heal up. You are young enough to have plenty of years left to play music once you are better, it isn't fun playing if your body is physically stressed. Build back better...
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Hang in there, Greg! It’s good you are working with them to explore other options. Best to address it now for the long term. I hope for you a speedy, full, and long lasting recovery! :)
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Definitely investigate all your options and get second and third opinions so you are absolutely sure what’s going on and the options you have available. As the others have indicated, your still a youngin’ , so while recovery will take some time, you’ve got a really good chance of full recovery. And while the numbness affects your ability to play and enjoy music, I bet it also impacts a whole lot of other areas of your life that will be of higher quality once this gets taken care of. Hang in there.
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Sorry to hear you are having to put playing music aside once again. Hoping for the best outcomes moving forward.
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I am trying little exercises, to keep the music in my head. A lot of very targeted listening.
Josh stopped by after the gig Saturday night to drop off my rig from the Sketchy-Looking Band Truck. That was a hard moment of reality. For both of us.
I'm not filled with that determination to come back yet. Just want to get on to what's next right now. This waiting around is hard. Guess I'm learning to be patient.
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... Just want to get on to what's next right now ... learning to be patient.
Sounds good.
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Hate to hear that Greg. I know you went through surgery once. Hope you get better.