Carroll's 55th Street

11/6/2023

Two Drummers and One Guitar on Monday

This week Coffee was back with Drew but Andy was the late callout, leaving me alone for the guitar duties. The night started in a jam in G with the drummers eager to go. Knowing Kevin was into the jam at the moment, I took the opportunity to steer it into a Viola Lee Blue type of song before he knew what hit him. We all survived the experience, better for it, and vaulted ourselves into a Bertha to say "hello" to the evening ahead. It's got us onto a big strong foot for sure. The Halfstep kept up moving along a half step at the time, but once we hit the Hey Pocky Way, the next song, we were off to the races at many half steps at a time. We took that jam for a nice ride. The Django stuff I've been working on got my hand moving better than usual.

For some reason Mitch loves What a Wonderful World, and we tried it again for him and this we after a rough start sustained for the rest of the song and had a real good feel to it. Could have been one of our best, as sad as that is. One guitarist and not rehearsing Help On the Way for a while now, when Drew threw it in the ring I knew it was a big mistake, but it bit it hook, line and sinker and took it for a ride. I was amazed how nice and well executed it was all things considering. It was one of my better leads on the Help On the Way and the entry into Slipknot was about as well played as I could do it. I think having my comfy Red Stratocaster helps in tough situations like that. By the time we got to the Franklins it was a relief to use it for all it was worth. I've been trying to extend our jams when I sense we are playing well to take the opportunities when they preset themselves. We have generally been playing well, so there are may opportunities to extend jams, as such the songs are long. The Music Never Stopped almost seem plebeian after that bombastic and sophisticated Help Slip. The Shakedown, like the Help, is a tough one to try being the only guitarist, but we had the support of the two drummers so we gave it a go and it went well. The transition into the Samson wasn't as sweet. In the end, most of the songs of th night were good, I came home feeling really good about the music. The ending of the night with the Birdsong and Deal all felt great, making you want to come back for after, after being fully satiated. That's saying something.

Freak Out!