Allen Toussaint wrote it and then Glen Campbell sang it. The song ‘Southern Nights’ for me has always held the feeling of Spring and Summer evenings enjoying the outdoors and relaxing. What better way to do that than to be hanging out listening to and playing good music. And so, the Charlotte Blues Jam moved outdoors.
Sunday night’s jam out at Halligan’s was a little different. The weather was nice so they decided we would be playing on the stage out back. This was a new adventure for me. I hadn’t really played outside with a band. And what a cool experience. Though to be
honest, I didn’t completely get that until the next day. I was at the day job, thinking about the kid I saw next door on the trampoline while we were playing, and the guy working on his motorcycle. I remember thinking at the time, about them, ‘what a cool way to spend an evening’. I totally missed the point. Because the way I was spending my evening was just as cool, maybe more so because I was getting to play, not just listen.
Playing outdoors turns out to be a little different than indoors. For one, there are the bugs. The flies and nats, that seemed to disappear once we got the music going. And the wasp that flew through. Personally, I don’t get along with those beasties very well so I’ll be having a chat with my Doc about some emergency first aid if we’re going to be doing this more regularly. Bugs aside, the sound was different. Inside, the sound bounces off the walls and ceiling some so you get a different effect. Outside, the sound has little to nothing to bounce off of so you’re just singing and playing off into the where-ever.
Because of being outside they brought a different sound system to use and with this one we had monitors for the vocals. This was helpful, and would have been more helpful if I 
had paid attention and used them. I wasn’t always standing in the sweet spot to hear myself, for one. And then when I was, I wasn’t registering that I was hearing what was coming through the microphone. It’s been a long time since I played where we had monitors and, at that time, I wasn’t singing. So, come to think of it, as much as just playing outside was a new experience, so was using monitors.
A quick aside for anyone reading this that isn’t familiar with what I’m talking about when I say monitors. Monitors are the speakers you usually see down at the front of the stage that are pointing at the band. A lot of the big name acts these days use what are called ‘in ear monitors’, think ear buds. For smaller bands, or pickup bands or something like a jam, the in ear monitors aren’t really practical. So, they go old school and use the stage monitors. They are there so the band can hear themselves and each other. Now back to the main topic.
In addition to the new stage and the monitors, oh, and the fabulous new guitar, I have a new camera. I got a new camera to use for getting video so I didn’t have to keep using my phone. And so I could, hopefully, get a little better sound. We ended up using it for pretty much the entire night so I’m going to have to do some slicing and splicing and editing before I have video ready to post. It may take me a day or two. Finding just the right start and stop point for each song, and how much in between stuff to keep and all that will take me a couple of tries. But I’ll try to get things posted as soon as I can. In the mean time, I’ve included a few pictures from the night.
The next Charlotte Blues Jam is in just a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to get to do it again. We’re supposed to be back at Moochies. Which means, I’ve got a couple of weeks to see what I can find to work on and learn next. That’s a process that is as much of an adventure as actually playing at the jams. I’ve also heard about, and been strongly encouraged to come out to, another jam event by a different group of people. It’s on a Thursday which is a kicking day (Taekwondo class) for me, and probably why I haven’t considered it before. As much encouragement as I was getting though, I may have to consider swapping a kicking day for an additional strumming day once a month. Oh my. Did I just…? Hmm…