Ed of H gigs; 2017

[David Houck]

Nice picture.

[edwardofhuncote]

Last night's gig was a Strawberry Festival in Rocky Mount, Virginia, but since we're under a flood watch here, (torrential rain... couple days worth) the event had to be moved indoors. Luckily, one of the local churches had a large enough community center to accommodate, and the show went on.

This evenings' gig was supposed to be a music festival at a local marina, but that got panned on account of severe weather too... one of the microbreweries that was to participate as a vendor at the festival got wind of the impending postponement, and decided to have the booked bands each come play two sets in their taproom instead. A very considerate gesture. 

So I'm loading up the Distillate, and the Mesa Walkabout/Scout 15... but going to take a Gibson along for backup, in case they suddenly decide to put us on a patio outside, or it's so crowded inside that I got patrons in my space. 

Pics tomorrow. 

[edwardofhuncote]

Sunken City Brewing Co., our host for last night's alternate venue, is named for the lost city of Monroe, Virginia, which was 'sunken' as a side-effect of a large-scale hydro-electric project that created Smith Mountain Lake. The lake community has exploded in the past 20 years, especially, and gone from being a weekend recreational spot to more of a resort area. It's only a 30-45 minute drive from most of the Roanoke Valley, so we end up booked for quite a few events over there.

After several days of rain, the weather turned off nice by mid-afternoon, but was starting to get chilly by sunset, so I was pretty happy when I found we were going to be inside. Which worked out better anyway, since the band on before us was outside on the patio... this way they could take their time loading out, and we didn't have to rush loading in. Playing indoors also meant things might be a little crowded, but after setting up, there was room for enough that I wasn't worried about someone running into me. (or more accurately, my bass!)

This is my old buddy Stewart on banjo. Stew and I go back almost 30 years... seems we have always played in bands that competed with each other for gigs or trophies, but we've been pals all along... it's a real treat getting to finally play out with him regularly. Stewart is such a key element of Harwell-Grice Band that on the rare occasions he can't make a gig, they don't even try to bring in another banjo player. That's actually my Dad's 1926 Gibson banjo he's got there... we've got his main axe (a 1931 Gibson) in the shop right now for some service and repairs.

One of the nice things about playing Alembics, especially this Distillate... I don't have to twiddle or tweak the amp settings. I'm just using a little bit of chorus, occasionally some compression in the signal path, but otherwise flat settings... I'm not even using the WalkAbout's parametric eq section at all here.

Always have to find someplace for all the gig necessities -you know... coffee, gum, power bars and pain-relievers... and of course Jeannie is always there to keep an eye on things. 

Next weekend - a private party. I heard last night, we've got another old friend of mine subbing in on dobro. 

[David Houck]

You bring your own coffee maker to the gig?  Cool!

[edwardofhuncote]

HGB gigs typically run past my bed-time Dave... 

Nah,  just a travel mug of coffee, but now that you mention it, there is room for one more plug on my power-strip... hmmm. 

[edwardofhuncote]

Harwell-Grice Band had a double-header this weekend... a graduation party on Saturday evening, and a Sunday afternoon 'Dinner-on-the-Grounds' at CrossPointe Baptist Church. This was the first time out for the Custom fretless, and I have to say - it was a great experience. I refuse to believe it's strictly circumstantial, but this bass is the perfect melding of the best attributes of the Persuader and Distillate basses.

One of the guys snapped this picture at soundcheck. I thought it was just early, but judging by the expression in picture 2... clearly I was in a very good sonic space.   

[growlypants]

You do look good!!  (Interesting drum arrangement there, too!)

[rv_bass]

Lookin' good, Greg; how does it sound with the band?

[edwardofhuncote]

You do look good!!  (Interesting drum arrangement there, too!)

Lookin' good, Greg; how does it sound with the band?

Growly- this church I'm told, has a fantastic praise band, and we got to work with their soundguy. Told me he likes keeping the cage up around the drums to make things a little bit easier elsewhere onstage. I chose the red shirt and brown vest because they went well with birdseye maple, mahogany, and cocobolo... 

Rob- the guys loved the sound, especially the fretless touches, but I think they're mostly glad to hear me actually playing it rather than talk about it!    

It really sounded fantastic in there... I only had my Acoustic Image Clarus, and an Avatar SB112 for a stage monitor, but in addition to a pretty huge house PA, they had three 18" subs under the stage. It was MASSIVE sounding.   

[edwardofhuncote]

Harwell-Grice Band were back on the micro-brewery circuit this weekend.

The Hammer and Forge Brewing Co. in Boone's Mill, Virginia is a very tight little stage, especially for a 5-piece, but they keep a steady stream of local bands playing in rotation there.

https://m.facebook.com/pg/hammerforgebrewing/events/?mt_nav=1

I was worried about taking my new Custom in there, but managed to secure enough space in the back corner to have some room to work. (note the faux leopard carpet... Josh calls it my 'flying carpet') I have found if you have to stand in one spot and play bass for a couple hours, softer is better. 

Good crowd in there last night... the HGB guys are kind of a hometown favorite over in Franklin County.

[growlypants]

While I am no longer in a band, (so it's easy for me to sit here and pontificate...) I would NEVER take my gorgeous new bass to a crowded bar.  It may be because my old bandmates were klutzes, but still...  Way to go!  Hope you had fun, the crowd and band enjoyed the sound, and nice rig, too!!

[edwardofhuncote]

...I would NEVER take my gorgeous new bass to a crowded bar.  It may be because my old bandmates were klutzes...

I hear ya' Growly... I'm dreading the day Chain-Links gets that first ding, but that bass was made for me to play. Speaking of klutzes... Josh Grice is like the Tasmanian Devil on Red Bull, so I'm constantly on alert back there. Full disclosure; I had the Persuader on stand-by if things got tough. Not that I think any less of it than the Custom! 

[David Houck]

Nice to see that gorgeous bass out working.

And I imagine it's quite handy to have a FedEx box right next to your bass rig in case you need to ship something between songs.

[edwardofhuncote]

Not really a gig per se, but a big musical event nonetheless. I have just returned from the 82nd Annual Old Fiddler's Convention in Galax, Virginia. Because the host of the Fiddler's Convention prohibits any electrically amplified instruments in the park, I went totally old-school upright bass all week.

So other than the discomfort of being separated from my Alembics for seven days and nights, I saw a lot of cool instruments, visited a lot of old friends, made a couple new friends, thought of some departed friends, played a lot of music, and had a generally fantastic time.

Just sharing a few pictures of a super-fun week...

[edwardofhuncote]

A few more pictures of some things in the musician's campground I found humorous... and some pretty cool and/or rare instruments.