1/9/2013

When we got to Carroll's this Wednesday night something was askew. We were in the large Studio 4 , but there was Alan, the Studio tech's, rig set up in half the stdio so they set us up sideways in the remain portion of the room. Not that there wasn't plenty of space, it was just sideways, maybe out of phase. That may have had something to do with the night's music because Alan and I had to got through a half dozen amplifiers to settle into ones that were even usable; I won't say good. Additionally I got two shocks from the microphones while singing so I know something was not right.

It was too bad the vibe was skewed for the night because it was Donna's birthday and she had been practicing a whole slew of new songs to get in the groove to celebrate it. She was scheduled to go to dinner with Carolyn, from last week's jam, to party with her before they would both come and jam with us, but Carolyn was sick and that didn't happen. Rich was also out of town so we had no piano for the night, I therefore was to take on the bulk of the singing for the night. That would prove to be a bit false.

To begin with, me, Kevin and the drummers were there early We got setup early so I decided I wanted to work on a little of the "We're not going to take it" jam with the band because Donna was to sing it later for real. It was a lot of fun as we played it twice as Donna came in during our second attempt. It's cool stuff to do and we are pretty close in some aspects. The first real song of the night was the New Speedway Boogie which is one of her favorites and I think it had an excellent groove got us going on the right foot.

I thought I would take that opportunity of momentum and bring us to the Look Like Rain, I know, it was a bit early but it seemed right at the time. I was wrong as it was a bit premature and took my momentum and confidence down a notch or two. With respect to guests, my Brother Jay showed up with his college roommate Ken and he had is college-age daughter and niece in tow. His niece was a singer and we set her up with a microphone and a book and threw her in the lion's den. She did an In My Life with Donna, which is pretty good and then sang lead on a Son of a Preacher Man, which was great. You just never know what walks through the doors of Deadstein do you.

During all this, both Alan and I were struggling with out failing amplifiers putting a wet blanket on what should have been a better experience. Worrying about the guitar tone and lack thereof was a preoccupation of mine all night long. I couldn't get it out of my head. For the second set we got new amps from the storage room, but the only I could get to sound okay gave me shocks in the kisser when I touched the microphone with my lips. After the college people left we had a good set and a half with Donna that was kind of marred by the technical issues. Nevertheless, you have to always move forward and make the best of it and if you listen to the recordings, there are some excellent moments showing great promise!

To hear most of what we played, go to the links above. Unfortunately, I ran out of recording space and lost the last 3 songs which were:.