A whole lotta nuthin'

There's no particular reason for this entry today as it relates to my music. Since not much has been happening at all due to busy family life and work transition, today's post is pretty much about nothing... nothing but inspirations as that's all I have time for these days. Some day, in 5, 10, 15, or 20 years, John Newcomer will re-emerge and re-enter the music scene, perhaps conquering more instruments. In retrospect, I've taken up a new instrument every 10 years on average, and while my acoustic guitar doesn't count for this decade (as I already tackled guitar lessons 20+ years ago), I have been poking around with both the mandolin and a tenor banjo, although I might sell the banjo to be replaced by a 5-string plectrum banjo if I get the chance to find a decent deal.

Otherwise, I might finally break out the acoustic guitar at the Rhumbline this upcoming Monday night's open jam. I had a recent inspiration to do "Love Ain't For Keeping" by The Who. As my mother would say, "We'll see." I the meantime, I'm also finding myself inspired to finally dust off the electric guitar and play some Allman Brothers tunes. Ugh! No time!

Pictures available

http://picasaweb.google.com/jnewcomer27/StonewallReception

It's been a while, so if you're actually reading this, first of all thank you for reading this blog, and secondly thank you for your patience. By now you may be wondering what happened. The Stonewall Reception was in July 2006 and here is my first post since. What happened?

1.) My employer was put on the market and sold by its parent company after 36 years of ownership. Luckily, our new parent company has no overlap or redundancy with us in terms of market share, product offerings, or even physical locations. This so far has translated to almost no layoffs in the company. All the same, the transition has been quite time-consuming.

2.) As my employer has a generous tuition reimbursement benefit available, I have taken advantage of it to finally start grad school to obtain my Masters in Business Administration with Technology Management (MBA/TM). I had been considering a Masters degree for quite some time, but my night-time musical career was going so well. I wasn't ready yet to give up playing 2 -3 shows per week and touring to play shows in Chicago and Austin. I also needed a little more time to grow up. But in 2006 the opportunity arose, and I was ready for it.

3.) We bought a house. Enough said.

4.) We had baby #2. Enough said.

So... what happened at the Stonewall Reception? How did it go? It was the most fun I had sounding like crap. We rehearsed well going into it. On the day of show the mandolinist's wife (also a musician) wanted in on the act, as did my wife. They both wanted to sing harmonies in the same songs... without the other one there. No matter how I tried to divide what was available, neither were happy. So I told them that as the leader of my band, my project, my name on the bill, etc., that it would be my call as to who does what, and if they didn't like it, they didn't have to join us on the stage.

Oh, by the way, the mandolinist and his fuming wife are also running late as they have hit an extraordinary amount of traffic coming up the Maine Turnpike due to an accident. My time slot is quickly approaching, and they haven't arrived, so I make the call to have the next band go ahead and start playing if they wanted to (which they did). The mandolinist and his wife arrived before the following-turned-preceding act was done, and up we went onto the stage.

One thing I hadn't taken into account until it was to late was that the whole time we had been rehearsing sitting down, and I had figured that there would be chairs available on the acoustic stage as they were the previous year. I was in for a surprise. Normally this wouldn't bother me one bit, but the reason why it did this time was due to my inexperience playing the acoustic guitar. The angle of the instrument in my hands changes from sitting down to standing up, which threw me off where it counted the most. I missed chords, hit the wrong string at times, and grew more frustrated at how badly I felt I was falling apart. At the end, after making our way through 7 songs, I called it quits for the day despite protests from the mandolinist and violinist to do more.

Despite positive feedback from the audience, I felt like I bombed. The most objective feedback I would have appreciated would be a video recording, but the one video camcorder present that day had malfunctioned. Thinking back (way back), I recall bombing the first time I played drums in front of a live audience, and I really bombed. Same thing happened for the bass (each for the 5-string, the upright, and the fretless). Obviously I'm not discouraged. I just look back on that show as a learning experience with plenty from which to learn.

I have looked to play more shows on the acoustic guitar and keep the Newcomer Revue going forward, but the obstacle I have encountered is the same one encountered with contributing to this blog: scarcity of time. The Stonewall Reception itself came to an end after that show, concluding a 2-year run. My friends who planned and ran the festival on their 25-acre property in Dayton, ME, sold their house not too long afterward and moved to Haverhill, MA after they gave birth to their first baby only a month after the festival. They keep joking about how they're going to revive the Stonewall Reception at their new location, but I don't see that happening where they only have 2 acres to work with and are much closer to their neighbors. C'est la vie.

Had rehearsal number 2

Yes I did, I had rehearsal #2 on Sunday afternoon. And here's what's up:

My left hand middle finger is still hurting (let this be a lesson to anyone reading this), but at least it is hurting less. I almost have full motion w/o pain.

My mandolinist (father of new baby) has done his homework. Good man! This is why I feel I can count on him to participate in a very important role in this project. If he backs out, I'm pretty much done. In the meantime, I'll give myself credit for arranging to have a one-on-one rehearsal with just him before adding in a violinist (whose primary instrument is electric guitar). This way I could work with the mandolinist in a manner where we could give each other our undivided attention. Get him solid enough before adding more variables.

So Sunday June 4 comes, before mandolinist arrives, violinist calls (after I make several unsuccessful attempts to reach him since his land line doesn't work too well, and his cell phone voicemail is full), and says something on the order of, "I forgot we were rehearsing today, and by the way, I left my violin in the studio, so I'm kinda without it." The studio would be a two-hour round trip, and my mandolinist, who just arrived, has only two hours available to rehearse. The violinist continues with, "also, I'm without a ride as my van has no brakes." Oh, great...

So, deciding to maximze use of time, I suggested to the mandolinist to join me on the ride to pick up the violinist (since the violinist will be playing other instruments on some of the songs), bring his mandolin with him so he could run over the songs with me in the car while we picked up our absent-minded violinist (and if he is reading this, sorry, but I had to ;-). This worked out pretty well.

One of the song on "Not For Kids Only" is called "The Teddy Bear's Picnic." It's a cute little tune that has a bit more complexity in the chord progression than the standard I-IV-V that comprises most of the rest of the tunes I've picked. This is also the song which I have selected AMV (Absent-Minded Violinist) to play the upright bass, something he was really looking forward to doing. Then we worked on "Arkansas Traveller", and while AMV will be on his violin for this, he kind of fiddled around on the upright bass while taking in how much the mandolinist and I already have this song well-reheared and tight. Then we worked on "Jenny Jenkins", which the vocals are only a 2-part harmony on the CD, but the AMV wanted in on this, so we worked with him to arrange a third harmonizing part. This proved to be more difficult than originally anticipated as the AMV as a guitarist is also a lead vocalist, so he's never been in a position where he's had to harmonize with someone else's lead vocals (mine). This was quite a learning experience for him and me. The rest of the tunes we breezed through pretty easily, although I still has some homework to do on solo/picking work for "Jenny Jenkins", "A Horse Named Bill", and "Ain't No Bugs On Me" (note to self)

I just called Mr. AMV to remind him to retrieve his violin for the next rehearsal. I might have to send him daily text messages on his cell phone to further keep the bug in his ear. ;-)

More updates

May 22 '06, looking to get other musicians to commit to rehearsal dates. Next available date I have is June 4, festival is July 1.

Progress update

Just to get caught up on progress:

January '06, I committed, tapped musician friends to join.

February '06, mandolinist has baby, enters fatherhood. He'll be out of commission for a few months. Target time to start rehearsal: May '06

March '06, I did a boo boo. I stupidly attempted to troubleshoot why my fan belt in my car was squeaking and what to do to stop it when my middle finger on my left hand got caught in the belt and went through the alternator pulley. OUCH! It hurts to bend finger at all. Can't play guitar.

April '06, finger still hurts, and now my butt hurts from kicking myself so much over hurting my finger. I am an idiot!

May '06, finger is hurting significantly less. I can play guitar again! Yay!

May 20 '06, finally had first rehearsal with mandolinist/new daddy on Saturday night (and finally meet his baby, too!) Rehearsal went well, but we have a lot of work to do still.

I must be crazy to do this, but it's a good thing!

Ok, I've decided to create my first blog to express my musings, rants, as well as practice my typing. As a semi-retired night-time musician with a day job, I have been finding myself itching to play more than I have been. The deal is that I became a daddy to a beautiful baby girl a year and a half ago. I love my daughter, and I love being a daddy (so don't misinterpret otherwise, please), but I used to gig out at least once a week in my pre-daddy days and I miss it. Nowadays I'm doing no gigs except for the very occasional substitute or getting down to the open jam (where I used to be with the house band) about every two months or so.

What do I play? Drums since 1978, and bass guitar since 1997. My experience on drums combined with the 3 years of guitar lessons I had in high school combined to make the transition into bass almost natural, especially without taking any bass lessons. So when asked, "Which do you like better, bass or drums?" I say, "It depends." But the other question less-frequently asked is, "Which would you consider as your primary instrument at this point?" That is a tougher question for me to answer as I would consider them both on equal footing within me with respect to a combination of skill, ability, mobility, creativity, direction, and expression. The only aspect where bass would win is in the fact that there is much less equipment to haul, set up, break down, and pack up.

So here's where it gets interesting.

What do bass and drums have in common?
1.) Both are rhythmic instruments. You would need the bassist and drummer to lock into each other to get a solid groove, without which, the band will sound horrible.
2.) They are both in a "non-leader" position in a band. In other words, you're pretty much at the mercy of whoever IS the leader, usually a guitarist and/or lead vocalist as they have their "creative sound" to which they are limited, but that is where the band direction is established.
3.) As either a bassist or a drummer, there's only so much playing by yourself you can do before getting bored if you're not practicing for an upcoming gig.

Given that I have deliberately entered parenthood, being the best daddy I can be is indeed my first and foremost responsibility. Musically, this has left me wanting a musical outlet without the commitment to someone else's project, schedule, material, etc. Add to it that parenthood takes a lot of energy, which makes weekly visits to the open jam on Monday nights that much harder to pull off (more so than my age).

So, what am I to do? Transition into another instrument. Which one? Did I mention I took guitar lessons in high school? While I still have my electric guitar from those days (a 1983 Gibson Challenger II), I opted to dust off an acoustic/electric Yamaha FGX412c I bought in 1999 and started playing it around the house. My daughter LOVES it. I'll play "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", "Eensy Weensy Spider", etc. As I kept playing it, I got better at it (it's called practice, duh!), but I still have a long way to go before I would consider myself even near 1/10th the level of where I'm at with bass or drums. Yet, I'm pressing onward.

Last year I played at a music festival called the Stonewall Reception in Dayton, ME. I played bass on the acoustic stage with Shane Bediz and Friends, bass on the electric stage with the Funk Yard Dogz, and drums on the electric stage with Ol' Brown Shoe. I became known as the "Warren Haynes" of the Stonewall Reception, as in it seemed like I was playing with everyone as Warren would do at Bonnaroo or Gathering of the Vibes.

This year at the festival, it's different. The Funk Yard Dogz are not in the line up, Ol' Brown Shoe finally have a new permanent drummer (after I respectfully left upon entering parenthood), and it looks like Shane Bediz won't make it this year (unless I can twist his arm). Add to it that the electric stage time slots are already filled.

So here I am, wanting to play the festival, but have nobody to play with.

So here I am, playing more acoustic guitar.

So here I am, listening to "Not For Kids Only" by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman more and more for inspiration as I play more acoustic guitar.

So here I am, knowing that the Stonewall Reception's producer/host, Jason Lees, loves "Not For Kids Only" and has a couple of time slots available on the acoustic stage.

So here I am, suddenly committing myself to the acoustic stage, picking the songs, and singing them, all the while on what would techically be called my tertiary instrument (not even my secondary instrument)! I must be crazy!

Well, I can always back out, but I won't. So I've tapped a couple of friends of mine to join me on their secondary instruments, one on the mandolin, the other on violin.

And I've decided to share the progress in a blogospheric enviroment where 500 million internet users can read about it and not care one little bit. I hope you find this a little entertaining at the very least.