Four Person Splunge - Comings and Goings

Participants this time included Jason, Sal, Nick, and myself. Jared was a casualty of a scheduling issue and Steph is gone for good, as I'd mentioned in a previous entry.

I'd expected morale to be down a bit with Steph's departure, but Sal's return seemed to more than offset that, and on the whole, things were rather tighter than they've been for most sessions. Vocals obviously lost a lot of zing without that other voice. My own vocal quality was up and down, since I've been battling congestion again recently, though by the end of the session I seemed to be clear enough.

Musical highlights were the exuberant opening "Hotel Yorba" and a blistering version of "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" with solos from both Nick and Sal. You could tell Sal was really glad to be back.

We had a couple of firsts as well. We finally did our first group jam, which turned out well enough. And Sal requested that I perform one of my own songs at the very end of the session, which I did, though very nervously, since I was caught entirely by surprise. The guys seemed to like it, though, and we'll probably try it as a group at one of the upcoming sessions.

We talked over what we're going to do in terms of a lead singer. The main point of agreement seemed to be that we'd like to find a female singer if possible to give us a better range of options, since Nick and I can cover the male vocals well enough when we need them. An interesting point of conflict came out of this discussion. Basically, I'm the only one in the band who'd like to eventually play out, and even I'm not in a hurry to do it, which means that any prospective singer shouldn't be someone who is in a hurry to get in front of an audience, and limits our options severely. I'll be trying to get Nick to pick up more lead vocals, but it looks as though I'm back to carrying the bulk of the load again for the foreseeable future, and we won't be doing much with harmony.

The main reason most of the group is opposed to playing out is because they don't feel ready, and I'm fine with that. I wouldn't try to force anyone onto a stage if they don't want to be there. In time, either they'll feel ready, I'll give up on the idea, or I'll decide I have the time a more serious band requires and will have to leave this group. Since it'll be a while before I see myself having that kind of time, I'll enjoy what we've got for now and revisit the situation if my circumstances change.

Steph

Our musical project has lost our lead singer. Steph sent us an e-mail late Sunday night letting us know that she'd gotten a new job in Michigan and would have to quit as a result. She still has family in this area and expressed interest in touching base with us whenever she is in town. She might be able to guest with us at some point, but she's done as a regular.

Damn. And damn again. I finally find a lead singer who has a great voice, is willing to go just about anywhere musically, isn't a pain in the backside personally, and wasn't already in someone else's band, and she has to leave the group for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with music or even the personality conflicts that are so typical of rock bands.

So it's back to search mode for a new lead singer. Bob is good, but unwilling to be a regular. Nick has potential, but isn't ready to handle that many songs on a regular basis. Which leaves me carrying most of the lead vocals again. One thing I've learned from my experience with this group is exactly how much singing lead I want to do, which is roughly a third of the total number of songs. Even half was still too much, and now I'm back up to 85% or so. I'd rather focus on playing bass and singing harmony for the most part, only occasionally taking the spotlight.

We were very lucky in finding Steph, in that she had just the right combination of skills and attitude for what we're doing. I'm enjoying playing music again too much to give up, but this is a tough loss for us as a group. Maybe it's best that we lost her now, though, before we'd built more of what we're doing around her.

Jodi

Somewhere in the late eighties or early nineties, I was part of a band called Mirage. I've often joked about it as the Fleetwood Mac tribute band I was in because we not only did a lot of Fleetwood Mac material (which suited us especially well), we also covered a lot of other groups (Tom Petty, Eagles, CSNY, etc.) with that similar west coast sound from the same time period. It was one of the better bands I've been in, largely on the strength of the group vocals. As happens with most musical groups eventually, issues emerged between us and the band broke up. I remained friendly with Tom and Jodi (the Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of the group), and played with Tom again in other projects afterward, but hadn't stayed in touch with Jodi, in spite of the fact that we always got along well and she had (and has) a fine voice. I suppose the main reason was that I strongly associated her with that particular kind of music, and when Mirage broke up, I was more than ready to do something different.

Now that I'm playing music again, through the wonders of the internet I searched for some old bandmates, and lo and behold, there was Jodi. Better yet, she was still performing, and scheduled to play with her current band at a place I'd planned to check out anyway. And so tonight I went to see her.

I wasn't sure what sort of reception I'd get. We'd been friends, but it had been fifteen years or so since we'd seen each other. I'm pleased to be able to say I couldn't have asked for a warmer reception. I approached her just as she was turning around from the bar and asked her if her band knew any Britney Spears songs, since that was about as far away from what her band plays as I could think of at that moment. She said no very quickly, but managed to maintain that professional veneer you have to have to deal with some of the lunatics that make ridiculous requests of band members. Then I just smiled and said "Hi, Jodi", and gave her a moment to look at me, since of course my appearance has changed since she'd last seen me. She laughed as she registered who I was and hugged me, saying she'd just been thinking of me, as she'd come across Mirage's drummer on Facebook recently. She was still up on what our other former bandmates had been doing and filled me in.

We didn't have long to talk before she had to go to perform. When you sing in a band with someone, you become extremely familiar with that person's voice, but it had been so long that I'd at least partially forgotten just how good she could be, or maybe she's gotten better over the years. She really stunned me with the quality of her performance on a couple of songs, and even brought out an old personal favorite that their band doesn't usually play.

We were able to talk a little more between sets, but she had other people to talk to and limited time to do it. She said she was really happy to see me. She'd been thinking about how good the old band had been and missing the harmonies we used to do. A reunion isn't viable, since Tom is largely busy with other musical projects, and it wouldn't really be Mirage without him. I definitely wouldn't mind singing with Jodi again sometime, though. She promised to get in touch, and I'm hoping we can make something happen in some form. At the very least, I'll get out to see her band again sometime soon.

Five Person Splunge - Now With Alcohol

Mouseketeer roll call: Jason, Nick, Steph, Jared, and yours truly. Everybody present went out to see other bands in various combinations this weekend, some combinations more alcohol-soaked than others, with some unfortunate impact on the Sunday session. I wasn't personally among the heavier drinkers (one cup of beer from a pitcher on Friday night), but had problems of my own due to serious allergy issues this past week seriously messing with my voice. So, on the downside, we weren't at our best sounding on the whole. On the plus side, the excursions seemed to bring some combinations of people closer together personally, which should be a Good Thing in the long haul.

We got through almost the entire song list, even with slowing down to work out details on most of the songs. The songs we didn't get to were, once again, songs that one guitar player or another hadn't yet worked out well enough to function, and I even played guitar again on a couple to enable us to play them so Jason or Steph could work on one part or another. I've got to take some of the blame for our difficulty in getting songs down as a group, because I learn fairly quickly, but the others don't have my experience, and I suspect that at least part of the problem is that I've thrown too much at them too fast. We've cut back on adding new songs, only adding "My Boyfriend's Back" for this session. Virtually every song is steadily getting better, yet virtually every song retains a few rough edges, which I'm finding frustrating.

One thing that I know slowed us down is that the other two guitar players had been relying on Sal for lead guitar parts and some guitar cues, and since he hasn't been able to make the last couple of sessions, other members have had to pick up lead guitar parts or new cues for transitions, causing us to step back on things we'd previously had down. There's really no reason for me to be impatient, as nobody is chomping at the bit to get in front of an audience. I'm getting a little bored of going over the same songs repeatedly and still not getting them quite right, though.

Local Cabal Campaign - Second Session

I wasn't as well prepared as I would have liked, and we were missing our voodoo priestess player for personal reasons, but all in all, it wasn't a bad session.

We introduced a new character this time, Nate's attempt at playing an enlightened 15 year old boy. I don't know how well this is going to work with the existing cast in practice, but it should be a worthy experiment that might show how dark (or not) the other characters really are. As usual with new character introductions, a fair part of the session was spent in adding him in a way that made some degree of narrative sense. This was a Very Good Thing, since the time it took covered my relative lack of preparation.

We also covered more territory in the mystery of Lauren's murder (the ghost character), with Jonah the vampire cop getting some screen time that way. Lauren's investigation of her own murder should be the centerpiece of at least this initial phase of the campaign, especially since it's very easy to tie Jonah into it as a resource. We were able to end the session with a cool scene involving Lauren visiting her comatose husband and dealing with a young psychic woman who seemed to be checking on him for reasons unknown at this time.

Next up, I expect we'll spend a little time re-starting the voodoo priestess' search for a lost magical flute, go a little further with Lauren's investigation, and throw a few surprises in Jonah's direction that don't have to do with Lauren's murder.

Four Person Splunge - A Step Forward

The line-up for this session was Jason, Nick, Steph, and myself. Sal and Jared were both unavailable for the session, but the stripped down sound had distinct advantages. Down to one guitar, we were able to really hear everything Nick was doing on guitar, as well as the group vocals. This was a lot like the last session in that we only worked on about half of the songs and went after some things in detail.

"Dani California" stood out as a highlight. It worked well enough last time with me singing lead, but got even better with Steph singing lead and freeing me to take off on bass more than usual in Flea-like style. My own bandmates seemed surprised, since I usually have to be relatively conservative on bass to handle the amount of singing I do with this group.

"Poor Poor Pitiful Me" finally sounded the way it's supposed to, since we changed over to the Linda Ronstadt version, had Steph sing lead, and moved it up a step to better suit her range. I don't know why the original Warren Zevon version has historically been such a rhythmic problem for this group, but it was.

"Black Horse & A Cherry Tree" remains a work in progress, since Nick hadn't picked up the guitar part yet (Sal's been doing it) and I had to play guitar for that one. That was actually fine with me, since the occasional excuse to play guitar as part of a group is useful experience. I'm still not nearly as fluid doing that as playing solo. I think this song is going to be fantastic once we get the vocal parts down and have at least one of the guitar players move over to playing additional percussion for it.

A number of songs are slowly tightening up to where they need to be; it's just a matter of really focusing on the details. We're going to add designated time for jamming next session, which should tighten us up collectively as well if we make that a regular practice. We had a long discussion (about two hours) over dinner afterward, and made plans to go out to see some of the local cover bands together to get an idea of what others are already doing. I'm really looking forward to it.

The Tudors

I started watching "The Tudors" based on heavy recommendations from the people I work with. Very good stuff. I've watched the entire first season and all but the last episode of the second so far.

High marks across the board for acting, writing, etc. The series has come under some criticism for being historically inaccurate, which I think misses the point. I'm far from an expert on the history part of it, and even I caught the occasional historical glitch, but it's good drama.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is fascinating to watch as King Henry, reconstructing reality to suit his desires on the fly. And Natalie Dormer is great as Anne Boleyn, scheming her way up the ladder at court, only to find herself seeing threats around every corner when she gets there. I miss Sam Neill's Cardinal Wolsey from season one; he was my favorite character for that season.

Highly recommended unless the historical inaccuracies especially bother you.

Four Person Splunge - A Step Back

The last couple of sessions have been so encouraging, so it makes sense that sooner or later, there would be one that wasn't. Participants included Jason, Nick, Jared, and myself.

Sal let us know in advance that he wouldn't be making it for several good reasons, but we still had two other guitar players involved since Jared was returning, so no big deal. Then we got a call at the last minute that Steph had an emergency and wouldn't be making it. That took some of the wind out of our sails, because she's now singing about half the lead vocals, and when she's not singing lead, she's often singing a significant backing part or playing percussion.

And so we soldiered on with the guitar/guitar/bass/drums line-up we had, with me handling most of the lead vocals and Nick contributing where he could. On the plus side, we got a lot of work done on the foundations of some of the songs. We must've spent a good two hours working on three songs at the beginning, making sure we had good tempo, an ending, and various other things we needed to coordinate exactly the way we wanted them. We then moved on and got through a surprising amount of the usual list, with me singing lead on several of the songs Steph has been doing (ones I used to do) and Jared taking most of Sal's lead guitar parts where he could. We even worked on an entirely new song for us, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California", which sounded surprisingly good in light of the fact that we'd planned to have Steph sing lead on it, so I had to sing that as well as playing Flea's bass parts. Not easy. I'd say it wasn't as much fun as the last two or three sessions have been, but it was certainly productive.

On the negative side, we're still spending far too much time on basics, working out little rhythmic problems in the guitar parts that should be getting fixed in the course of individual practice rather than in a group setting. We'll continue to work these things out as they emerge, but the recurring nature of the problem concerns me. I realized that coordinating three guitar players and having at least one miss most of the sessions would cause problems at times, but I didn't think it would be this difficult this often.

Balance Issues

It's been a tricky month or so. Bad Stuff, including computer problems and my job reverting to some extent to the Bad Old Days, and Good Stuff, including a new car and getting very excited about how the music project has developed over the last couple of sessions.

The interesting thing has been watching what has pushed my buttons and thrown off my balance during that time frame, and it seems Good Stuff is just as bad as Bad Stuff that way. I've learned a few things, at some cost, and time will tell if I can keep my equilibrium a little better going forward.

Another Six Person Splunge with Bob as Guest

Another six person music project session with a slightly different grouping involving Jason, Sal, Nick, Steph, myself, plus Bob, the lead singer from one of my old bands, TAAZ. No Jared this time, but he's scheduled to be back for the next session in two weeks.

I've resurrected a fair portion of my old PA system, which means that the vocals could finally be heard over everything else and the overall sound quality improved immensely. Between having a decent PA system and Bob sitting in with us, the vocals were up to what I'd consider public performance standard most of the time. We have some work to do vocally, but not as much as I'd thought. Bob was a valuable set of ears as well as a voice (singing lead on "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Wonderful Tonight", and a third song that escapes me at the moment), making several useful suggestions on vocal arrangements, not to mention functioning as sound man for most of the day. "Lola" and "Take It Easy" had vastly improved three part harmony, even with just the regulars singing. We even had one song ("Black Horse and a Cherry Tree") involving four voices at the same time. I'm a sucker for good harmony, and we had it this session.

We still seem to have some bothersome rhythmic coordination problems. Some songs would sound fantastic for a verse and a chorus, only to lose the feel somewhere in the next verse. Some of this is lack of familiarity with each other, since this was only the second session for about half the group, and some of it is one person or another not knowing the song well enough. These things can be fixed with practice and everybody seemed to realize that. I was very encouraged by a number of bright spots across the board from every participant, especially since a lot of those moments were players growing into a role within the group. It'll be interesting to see how Jared will fit in when he rejoins us for the next session, since we'll be adding one of his choices, "Dani California".

We're going to slow the pace next time, and put a more concerted effort into sorting out the parts of songs that we're having trouble with. I'm looking forward to what we might sound like on some of these songs with the bugs truly worked out of them.