The old me never would have allowed a re-cap to take so long, but the new me See's things differently. I have always thought of this exercise as a chance to see what went wrong and why, because i do believe you need to fail to succeed. Succeed in life that is... don't think i think i am going to succeed in music in the way that people view success in music... it's too fucked of a web to get snared in at this hour, and i believe i have been over it before...
It's also a better music career building philosophy to pump pump pump and shill the good in what you did and pass over the errors you made, but that's not my style. A long time ago when my life was met with a fork in the road a good man reminded me to focus on the negative, which i did and then chose a new path that landed me in a far better place. You see i taught myself music, preforming and band leadership through a series of trial and error, so one needs to focus on the negative, to understand it, so hopefully you can correct it.
So what went wrong? There were 2 major things: 1) banjo could not be tuned easily and had no pickup so it could not be distributed properly. I now have a proper pickup (Schatten), so the banjo works like my guitar would... and 2) I brought a fine person up on stage to sing some numbers, who worked all day then went home to feed her son, and then came back to the show and we botched the shit out of the song that had a few different changes in it. Somehow the spirit of "come on lets do this people" got mistranslated and people that didn't know the chords just kept playing anyway until as Super Steve said "this train is off the tracks". It pains me to see a good colleague up on stage in front of a mic sort of frozen wondering what part of the song we are in. Here is a pro tip... if you are on stage playing a song and you don't know what is coming you always have an excellent option... PLAY NOTHING! Not many people will notice that you weren't playing... i tested that theory one time when i was playing with Roger Dean Young and the Tin Cup... we were doing a song i didn't really know and the key of the song was changed from the version that i didn't really know, so i just turned down my volume and pretended to play... i remember Shawn Brodie saying "i can't hear super"... i said "cause I'm not playing, not sure what notes to hit". When the song was over people applauded and i felt like a dog but after the show a bunch of people said they liked my playing and loved the show. Now you don't necessarily have to do a handstand through the song, which i also did another time... it came out of embarrassment that i didn't know what to play... just turn down and let the song be played by those who can carry it.
I blame myself for this error, i could see it coming... i trained people playing the SRSS to rely on 3 chord songs, and even though i sent out an email, it was never my style to enforce a standard of learning but rely on spontaneity within simple frameworks. I rolled the dice and the singer got burned... well we all got burned, make no doubt about it... but i specifically invited her to come and do a few specific numbers and then failed to ensure that the knowledge and skill and mindset of all those on stage could handle the job at hand.
Some fool once told me my ability to inspire those around me make me an ideal leader, but they forgot to add that my attention to detail can nullify everything.
OK- it was just one song, but i had to scrap another because the same thing would have happened and then there is the person who came out specifically to do those numbers foiled... a big pill for me to swallow... but i am washing it down.
Otherwise it was a pretty fine show and we had some great highs for sure... The best thing it did for me on that level was to ruin the sense of invincibility i had when i finished up the SRSS last year.. we had some pretty hot shows at the end, so it has been good feeling that we went out on top. But thanks to that train wreck i orchestrated i have the hunger to ponder what i might do next.
The show started with "Wishing machine", well liked by many and easy song:
I thought we did pretty good. A good start, nice and laid back, solid.
I was then eager to pull out the banjo for some reason, and went with a 2 chord song called "average guy" from the debut 21TR CD "The Ocean is Life". When you go with 2 chord songs people get to soar on their instruments... nice piano on this one:
Next i went into a brand new song called "when the $'s gone".. a song i might just release as a single this fall. I have given it one recording here at home, and then this... I'm getting better at delivering. The band did a king hell job sticking to this one. Nobody had ever head this before... i had written out some sheets, and we got through it in serviceable fashion.
Then onto Bay City Kitty, a song that first saw the light of day on the cassette release "Jackass has hay breath" and was revisited on the 12TR CD "Never Wanted to be Anyone". The song has been played on national radio and people often request it, and it went well after i remembered to play it in the right key. There was a bit of a train wreck in the beginning that i have edited out for our viewing pleasure.
After this is where we had our train wreck of catastrophic proportions... keep in mind of course there were no rehearsals and we hadn't played all together before, and i hadn't played with any of the people in half a year... not a lot of people would even attempt that... to get back on track we hit "Never Wanted to be Anyone":
Genny escaped the stage after that having salvaged face somewhat... smart woman... i do hate it when avalanches caused by my neglect bury people... probably why i need to go solo for a while... i need to walk on my own wings and learn the ropes there, and then selectively add what i need, when i need.
But never mind that cause we then ripped "The recurring hurrah" a remade Knockin' Dog number that added punch to the latest and greatest 21tr CD "One Little Dream", and Jason Jones was gracious to let Kat Toren take a stab on piano. I can stand behind this kind of performance any day:
With Shawn Killaly on drums you can never go wrong with a song of that nature... I love playing with Shawn!
With the earlier fiasco in mind i requested to do a song as a trio... a new song about Mt. Tabor, my new hood... i really couldn't even play the song that well as you can tell by my failed falsetto chorus.. I can play the song a lot better now and i have fixed some of the problems... I'm glad i tried it as a trio rather than a 7 piece... i look at it as a record of an even of people playing music in a room, I am also a fan of playing incomplete songs live... maybe not best to post them on the Internet, but again... I'm looking to develop not "succeed":
We also hit Saskatchewan and a few other numbers and then finished off with a number i stole from a songify version of a preachers prayer at a race car track, trying to come up with ways to thank the people for coming out and making it happen.
Boogiedy Boogiedy Amen!
In the end not too bad for a show that was totally winged.
Thanks to Chris Johnson for keeping the show going and giving me the opportunity to come back and learn some more.
