You know how you look at the weather forecast and it will say something like ‘rain ten percent’. Most of the time we take that to mean a ten percent chance it will rain. Well in the south of the United States, with summer quickly approaching and lots of tropical moisture making it’s way up from the panhandle of Florida, that ten percent means something a little different. At least that is the conclusion I have come to. In this case it does not mean there is a ten percent chance it will rain. If there is a chance, then it’s going to rain. No that means that it will rain ten percent of the day. It’s up to you to figure out which ten percent of the day.
This weekend it turned out to be that the ten percent of the day would be towards the end of the Blues Jam. This was disappointing for sure. But none of us wanted to get our instruments wet. And while there have been improvements made to the music electronics
over the years, we are, most of us old enough to have heard the true stories of musicians, guitarists in particular, electrocuted to death by their instruments. So nope. Once that temperature dropped real fast and I could smell the moisture, I knew the storm was coming. And so did Jack and Kevin. At the point we saw lightning, that was it. Nope. Don’t think so. We had bills settled and the stage cleared in 20 minutes.
Just because we had to cut things short doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth it to go. It definitely was. I got to learn some things as always. And, I got to have some cool conversation with a couple of people I haven’t really had a chance to talk to before. Which was great. I don’t always get to do that so I don’t know that much about some of the people I play with.
As always I came away from the Jam wanting to do and learn more. I’ve already got one song picked out to work on. And even another guitarist excited about it. Jeff suggested that it will be good to get a harp player on it. So we’ll have to see if we can make that happen. I want to find another song or two as well. I’ll do some digging. Which, I guess is a bit how I approach choosing songs to learn. But that is a whole other topic for another post.
We had a little trouble getting started with ‘Big Boss Man’ because I was playing it Jimmy Reed style and one or two of the other people on stage were used to playing it Elvis style which I guess is more rockabilly. I’ll have to look it up because I don’t know if I’ve heard that version. Oh, and to add to the possible confusion, the Grateful Dead also covered it. That’s the big challenge with some of these songs. There are so many different versions to reference. But this one, I came to from the earlier, Jimmy Reed version. I like the way his version of the song flows. It especially fits well with the amusement I get from some of the lyrics of the song. I’m a bit short and I love being able to sing the line ‘you ain’t so big, you just tall, that’s all’.
We had some new people at the Jam. We did our best to make them feel welcome. And I watched as once again, one of the extremely talented guitar players that comes out made the extra effort to help out someone who was willing to come out and take the chance and play with us for the first time. Not sure how things will go with that one. He looked like he had a rough time.
As much fun as playing live with a group is for me, I know it is not for everyone. That’s a difficult thing for me to comprehend. I have so much fun doing it and get so much out of it, playing live, that I want everyone to have as much fun as I am having. But, just like running marathons is not my idea of a good time, playing music live or with a group, is not for everyone. It is a different experience from just playing music on your own. It requires skills that not everyone has developed, or will develop. And it requires a certain level of comfort with yourself to be willing to get up there.
I’m not sure when the next jam is yet. We would normally be heading back to Moochies on the third Sunday but this month that is Father’s Day so that is likely to require a schedule adjustment. I just haven’t heard what it’s going to be. No matter. I have stuff to work on and things to learn so I’ll be practicing just as much as if it were going to be tomorrow. And as always, I can’t wait to get to do it again.
While we’re waiting to hear on that next Blues Jam, here are some pictures I took or had someone take, I’m really bad at selfies, while we were getting ready to go. I do have video from the night. I’ll get some of that edited and posted soon too. Not all if it is my best performance but there are some moments worth sharing.