What to do when a genre is over-represented?

[bigredbass]

I've always thought of music like I think about food:  Much as I love BBQ brisket, I'd get sick of it eating it over and over and over.  Some days I want Chinese.  TexMex tomorrow.  Beans and cornbread over the weekend.  As much as I've done it in this or that band, I always liked the bands that played some of everything, it just kept me fresher and more on my toes.  That's why I deeply liked gigging in Texas as opposed to Nashville, where everything is compacted into this twisted little box, hoping to attract 'major label interest' before you die of constipation.  I always wondered if the 'major label' was Fruit of the Loom or Haines . . . . .

As much as I can appreciate how the Dead embraced pushing technology in their instruments and road recording and PA, I'd go stir-crazy if I had to play that dragging,  noodling, wandering stuff every day, I'd become a plumber.  I suppose I should play Neil's 'Southern Man', wear sack cloth and ashes,  and practice self-flaggelation for saying that here, but I just never 'got' the Dead, and I never will.

There.  I feel better.  Sorry . . . . .

Joey

[811952]

Nail file on the callouses and a bit of nose oil are like a secret weapon. Also, identifying and maintaining that magic length of the fingernails on the right hand is another finger saver. I keep them long enough to support the meat behind them (really helps prevent blisters deep under the callous when you're one of us who play harder than we ought), but not so long as to hear them on the string unless I specifically want to.


I don't recall that I've ever boiled a set of strings (not to say I haven't, but at the moment don't recall doing so). My son tells me that simply loosening them and flopping them around a bit is as good for making them somewhat bright again.


Back to the OP, mid-month I'm booked out of town again with a 10-piece band (horns and such) that is primarily billed as kind of a power-swing outfit, but we'll also play a ton of Motown, funk, some classic rock and jazz. I can't imagine the band would ever work anywhere but nursing homes if they kept it to a single genre no matter how good they sound.


My regular band has begun flowing from Strawberry Fields Forever into I'm Not In Love. We already throw a bit of Tequila into Jessica and run Mister Blue Sky into Message In A Bottle. It's fun to figure out how some of these things can work together.


John

[glocke]

I've always thought of music like I think about food:  Much as I love BBQ brisket, I'd get sick of it eating it over and over and over.  Some days I want Chinese.  TexMex tomorrow.  Beans and cornbread over the weekend.  As much as I've done it in this or that band, I always liked the bands that played some of everything, it just kept me fresher and more on my toes.  That's why I deeply liked gigging in Texas as opposed to Nashville, where everything is compacted into this twisted little box, hoping to attract 'major label interest' before you die of constipation.  I always wondered if the 'major label' was Fruit of the Loom or Haines . . . . .

As much as I can appreciate how the Dead embraced pushing technology in their instruments and road recording and PA, I'd go stir-crazy if I had to play that dragging,  noodling, wandering stuff every day, I'd become a plumber.  I suppose I should play Neil's 'Southern Man', wear sack cloth and ashes,  and practice self-flaggelation for saying that here, but I just never 'got' the Dead, and I never will.

There.  I feel better.  Sorry . . . . .

Joey

lol..don't be sorry. 

I've tried getting them to play non-dead stuff.  Even using the argument that even in their later years the band would play covers of other peoples stuff but it doesn't happen.  Closest that we came to that was playing werewolves of london one Halloween and the guitar player even had trouble playing that....

As far as the noodling/wandering stuff goes...it doesn't have to be, but most GD cover bands simply do not know how to improvise very well. 

It's actually all very frustrating for me. 

[peoplechipper]

Joey-I don't get the Dead either, so you at least have someone to join you in Alembic purgatory; my guitar player is in an ACDC cover band even though he claims to hate the music, he does it for the money and because he likes the guys but doesn't even try to be like Angus Young anymore; actually, Angus should try to play like Harry at this point...anyway, there's quite a number of ACDC bands around here, so I can see the problem getting good gigs; he usually has to get outta town to get a good gig.
Maybe you need to start your own jam band or something(which will be a pay cut) but at least you're doing what you want to...I dunno, I'd have to seriously upgrade my playing just to join a cover band...Tony.

[edwardofhuncote]

I'm certainly no voice of experience on Grateful Dead music, having only recently been in a situation where I needed to learn some for a gig, but I've very much enjoyed it, particularly trying to figure out what Phil Lesh played. The band in the subject here isn't really a Dead cover band by any stretch either, they're more what I'd describe as New-grass revisited... rock covers with bluegrass instrumentation often with a drummer and always LOUD as dad-gummit. (don't bother Googling it... ) They're also 15-20 years younger than me... whatever that's worth. 

Anyway, I had this buddy in High School, (still friends actually, though separated by a continent these days) suddenly, and completely went Deadhead on me the Summer of 1986. It was all he talked about, consequently, it was also all we listened to on the daily carpool, and I just didn't get it at all - not even a little bit. Didn't hate it, but didn't really care for it either. At least it wasn't hair/glam metal. 

All that said, I *do* get how a gig market easily gets over-saturated... around here in Appalachia, you can't swing a dead cat (does anyone really do that?!) without hitting another bluegrass band doing a jamm-y thing rather than well-rehearsed sets. And I'm just as guilty for throwing something together in a hurry just to go play... but we at least try to keep things modular enough that the presentation is somewhat professional. I'm also lucky enough to play music with people who are light years ahead of me, each capable of holding their own on any stage.

Funny how things go... at 47, I think I'd actually enjoy playing bass in a Dead cover band, ironically there aren't any around. There aren't any Fleetwood Mac cover bands either, so I guess the thing to do is keep playing what's available.

[ed_zeppelin]

The best book I ever read on this topic was "Making Money Making Music: No Matter Where You Live" by James Dearing. It completely changed my attitude about music and most importantly, my attitude about myself as a professional working musician.


I was lucky enough to read it when it first came out in 1982. I was able to put his methods to work right away and i can honestly tell you that in the three and a half decades since, I've made a ton more money and had a lot more fun than I would have otherwise. It's immeasurable to me. Like a switch in my head that flicked on somewhere in there that's marked "before" and "after."


Take this thread topic. What are we actually saying? Dissatisfaction. Either with the music, other musicians, lack of opportunities and more than anything else: dissatisfaction with ourselves for not being rich, famous and groped by adoring throngs in adorable thongs (if you catch my drift).


Briefly, it's a means of evaluating your skills and marketing them. In other words, creating the gigs you want, as a business. At the time I read the book, I actually believed that was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to do. That I'd be "selling out" somehow, and I had too many doubts about my own abilities to even consider (the downside of hiding in the bass section of orchestras too long, I think).


He guided me through it, and somewhere in there I felt a sense of freedom and exhilaration at being able to answer "yes" to one particular question (you'll know it when you see it, believe me) that has never faltered in the slightest. I've never done any work since, because I PLAY bass.


The reason I'm being purposely vague about his methods is because A: you might not want to read it (or follow the internet troll tradition of arguing about it anyway) and B: because your mileage will vary. Count on it. Before I read the book I thought the opportunities were bleak and confined to genres, but ever since I've been aware of the staggering number of outlets for musical expression, with the only bounds being those we put on ourselves.

[bigredbass]

I never worried about that 'sell out' part much;  if it was good and interesting, I really didn't care what the gig was:  I often found that things that work in Genre A could very easily dropped into Genre B next time with very interesting results.  I learned about a lot of musics that I ordinarily wouldn't have listened to, so it was fine.

My problem now is that I can't swing a cat (I'm pretty sure Metro Nashville has a law against it), or take a gig without listening to and facing a lot of drunks and druggies, whether they're in front of me, or playing with me.  My patience for that crap is long, long, longtime gone, and I honestly don't trust myself to not get pushed into violence.

So I don't gig any more.  Life is too short any more, and I'm at peace with 'hanging up my guns', because IF I were to gig again, P. Beretta would be in the gig bag and there I'd be . . . . .

Interesting there's somewhere you can't swing a cat (obviously not illegal elsewhere . . . . boy do I wish I was back in Texas) without hitting an AkDak cover band.  Does SOMEBODY have to wear that little short suit schoolboy outfit?  Does the club pay more if you do?

Joey

[edwin]

So I don't gig any more.  Life is too short any more, and I'm at peace with 'hanging up my guns', because IF I were to gig again, P. Beretta would be in the gig bag and there I'd be . . . . .


Joey

Clearly you need to do what I did. Go to law school at 50, then you can defend yourself and then defend yourself!

Seriously, though, it's not really selling out to branch out and take opportunities or make opportunities for yourself. There's always either a) something to be learned or b) money to be made and a lot of time both.

If the band is getting you down more than getting you off, time to switch bands or at least take a break and do something else. It's amazing how playing with some other people can really make a previously tired gig a lot more fun. I've been enjoying the heck out of my Monday night acid jazz gigs, even if there's no one in the audience just because the music is so fun and going back to my regular gig is made even better because of it. But boy, do I need to practice.....

[811952]

"I've been enjoying the heck out of my Monday night acid jazz gigs, even if there's no one in the audience just because the music is so fun and going back to my regular gig is made even better because of it. But boy, do I need to practice....."
[/size]
[/size]All of this, in spades.
[/size]
[/size]John

[peoplechipper]

Harry has never really tried to be Angus; sometimes he wears shorts but that's mostly for comfort...hell, sometimes he's in tails with a cowboy hat with horns! his only Angus trait is an SG, but even then it's a SG junior because p90's are the coolest guitar pickups ever!
I should try to find that book, maybe Harry could use it's advice and maybe it'll inspire me to get outta the pawnshop...