So, yesterday afternoon, I played at the Bonanza Mexican Cantina in Virginia City, it was for the St. Patty's Day/Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival that they hold every year.  The place was packed when I got there, around 2pm.  There was a band playing, "Whiskey Low", kinda Classic Rock & Roll.  Ok, I don't have time to water this down so I'll just call it as I see it.  They were not very good, just mediocre.  I played after them, starting at 3, going till 7.  Then after me, another kinda Classic Rock & Roll band - same, very mediocre.  I got there about an hour before starting time, so I heard the band for that hour.  For the most part it was ho hum, a few people clapped and whistled, but for the most part, most people were just doing their own thing.  They get done, I start playing.  First song was Amarillo By Morning, making sure to not try to follow the loud Rock & Roll with more loud.  By about the third song, people were singing along, hootin' and hollerin', a few were dancing, the energy level had gone up a few notches.  So, for the four hours I played, it was a fun time, again, people singing along, hootin' and hollerin', a few dancing.  The highlight, of course is when I bring out the fiddle, the folks don't hesitate to let everybody know how much they enjoy hearing a decent, hoedown sounding fiddle.  The band scheduled after me came on, and just as with the first band, most people went back to doing their own thing, with the small handful clapping after some of the songs - energy level back down to almost zero. The reason I bring this up is, for the most part, management, ownership, booking agents - they either don't notice it, or they intentionally ignore it.  I always saw it as part of my job to set the tone in a place.  There are times when there are just a few people in, at which time I stay on the acoustic, sing laid back songs - same goes for when most people in the place are eating, I keep it down.  When it's a bar thing, where people are ready to cut loose, I start with the upbeat songs, plug in my tracks (hopefully you read my entry where I explained the whole backing track thing that I do).  By the way, today when the owner was paying me, he says, in his full Mexican accent, "Everybody like(s) you".  It is nice when an owner appreciates what I do, and is not afraid to tell me.  The two female bartenders, who seem to have somewhat of a problem with me (because of gossip), I know they hear the compliments from the people, but they have never once relayed any of it to me.  It's not that I feel insulted by it, but I notice it, and I'm aware of what's behind it.  Anyway, while this particular owner had told me many times how much he appreciates what I do for him, for the most part, as I said, managers and owners never show any kind of appreciation for what I do for them. 

   To add to the point I'm making here, I'm going to rewind back to the days at Pecos River Cafe - the Country dance hall I played in from 84 -88.I was the house band, played four nights a week, and they would have various other bands on the other three nights.  On our nights, it was party time, hootin', hollerin', dancing, singing along, the energy level through the roof.  The age group was 21 - 30 year olds for the most part, so they had the energy for all of it.  Well, on occasion, I would stop in after playing another place, get done in time to stop in at Pecos before I head home.  It was mostly Warren Johnson And The Gator Creek Band - and it was usually a Saturday night that I would stop in.  The place was like a funeral parlor, people sitting at their tables looking like they just lost their last friend.  While we had people lining up all the way down the stairs into the parking lot to get in on our nights, on those nights I stopped in, there were empty tables from about halfway to the back of the room.  The dance floor would have a few people, but mostly people were just sitting.  I also did stop by on a Saturday night when Nick Masters' band was playing.  On this particular night, after he had been there a month or so, there was not ONE customer.  It was the bartender, one waitress, and the doorman.  The good thing that happened back then was that the people were not afraid to tell management when the band, the music, was bad, and they would not go in.  This wasn't just at Pecos, this was any venue that had live music.  It would be so great for that to be the case today, but sadly, it's not.  People seem to go to a restaurant/bar, regardless of what is in there.  They may just sit, but they're still in there.  

   I also remember a couple of young guys, one of whom had played with me in my very first band at Pecos when it was at its original location - in the Aiea Shopping Center; it was not a good time.  He had left to go to California, then came back to Hawaii with a friend - a keyboard player from California.  They were both around 22, 23 years old, cocky, arrogant, self righteous - oh, and very mediocre.  It happened that my steel player at the time was going on vacation, so I hired them (after they kept after me) to play in my band for two weeks.  Boy, what a disaster that was.  They were both SO angry that Pecos had such a party atmosphere.  The couple of times we'd had conversations about it, their tone was full of resentment, even outright hatred - for the fact that I was the one setting the tone.  A couple of times, the keyboad guy - Tim - would come out with, "YEAH, THAT'S JUST PECOS".  My guess is they could never have that kind of atmosphere in places they played.  They would regularly throw this fiddle player - Tigar Bell - in my face.  Being that I played fiddle, they were bound and determined to make sure they established his superior fiddle playing over mine.  I've never had a problem with players who were better than me, but apparently, they did, and Tigar Bell wasn't the only one they felt the need to keep slinging at me every chance they got.

   So, here I am, at almost 70 years old, still being able to get people having a good time wherever I play.  I'm not saying "I'm packing 'em in", because unless there's a special event, no place I've played in the past 20 years or so has been packed, but the ones who are in these places - they have a good time, and some are not afraid to let me, AND the management know it.  My tip bucket also speaks for itself.  It's a bit sad that so many venue owners and managers have such fragile egos, and who take part in all the isms - nepotism, buddyism, druggyism, homeboyism, not to mention their silly prejudices and fragile egos.  I've been in Reno for about eight months now, and it's still a struggle to get into most of the music venues here - as it has been everywhere I've been in the past 30 years or so.  Lucky for me, there are 3 or 4 places so far where the owners and/or managers care about their customers, their till, their business, so especially during the summer, I have a full schedule, and I'm appreciated in the places I play.

   Anyway, my main point was that I'm not sure if most people see the difference between when I play, and when other solos or bands play.  I guess it's a little annoying that most of them don't - at least they don't show it if they do.

   This Thursday I start in a new place - a tiki bar called "Pele Utu".  We'll see how that goes. 

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Video:

Wahine Ilikea
 

I Can't Have Come This Far For Nothing

   Last week, I visited with a venue owner.  It's a Hawaiian themed place, a Tiki Bar.  It's somewhat small, seats 30, maybe 40 people.  The owner seemed nice enough, didn't jerk me around the way so many of them do.

   The first thing that came to mind was that I would brush up on my Slack Key.  The second thought, was, "Nobody does that, what musician in the world prepares for what they're about to do?"  That's a rhetorical, and the silent answer it, "Nobody".  Nobody gives a crap about what they do, the only thing in their mind is, "Everybody better tell me how wonderful I am", and, the paycheck; oh, and probably the free booze.

   I've prepared more times than I can count, when booking something that was different from what I had been doing.  When I was getting ready to play at the Gunbarrel Tavern in Lake Tahoe, I not only pulled out my classical guitar, and played for hours and hours, but I put out hundreds of dollars to by two electric/acoustics.  One steel string, and one Classical.  I had been doing mostly Country before that, and I was used to it.  I had also been using my tracks, so I had been playing my Telecaster (Electric Guitar), for the past 20 years.  Before that, I hadn't played much acoustic at any point in my 30 some years that I'd been playing at that time.  So, it was completely new to me.  As it turned out, I loved it, and I play acoustic a lot of the time at the places I've been playing over the past three years - that's after five years at Gunbarrel.

   In my 45 years of doing this professionally, I've been in many different types of playing situations.  The first ten years was nothing but Country dance halls.  I had learned Country Music from some old timers, they taught me the essence of it, the soul of it, the tradition of it, ettiquette, Sears And Roebuck intros, "Standards", and more; and it all stuck with me.  I've always looked to learn new things, about playing, about being on a stage, about certain songs, about certain artists and bands.  I even learn from the dumbest of the dumb.  I don't play lead guitar the same today as I did a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, and so on.  I'm not stuck doing one thing, one scale.  In fact, I promised me early on that I would never approach the guitar in terms of scales, and I've kept that promise.  I do lots of different things, I like to play in different styles.  I like simple.  Simple does not mean easy - "Simple" and "Easy" are two completely different things.  I find so much inside of simplicity, and I have never been bored with my playing.  This goes for all the instruments I play.  And, I don't cross train.  I approach each instrument for what it is, and I love what each instrument does as itself.

   Another area of music that I've come a long way is in recording.  I was a nuisance when I was in studios back in the 80s and 90s.  I asked stuff, I tried stuff - some of what I tried ended up horrid, other stuff was ok.  By the late 80s I'd bought my first digital machine.  It was a Roland VS-880, an 8 track digital stand alone recording deck.  It took me a couple of weeks before I could even record my first note.  I'd actually wanted a tape based system, but nobody carried them.  I had a horrible sounding tube microphone.  I'm not sure of the brand, but I think Groove Tubes had a hand in it, it had "Groove Tubes" on one side of the mic, and I can't remember the brand on the other side.  I paid about $600 for it.  Well, I'd taken it to Peru with me, while I lived there for 3-1/2 years, and on the way back, one of the baggage people stole the mic out of my suitcase, so that was the end of that.  I ended up buying an Audio Technica 4031, which was a thousand times better than the Groove Tube one.  After using my VS-880 for a few years, I went to a Roland VS1880 - 16 tracks now.  I did hundreds of recordings between the two over the years.  Mostly making backing tracks for myself - to use in my live shows.  I also did nine CDs, some of my own originals, some of other writers' songs, and one CD of songs recorded by famous artists and bands.  I started to add the full band sound in part of my live shows - where I could play my lead guitar parts, fiddle, lap steel, harmonica, and ukulele.  Soon after, it was computer based recording.  I stumbled across a program called "Adobe Audition", which I've been using for maybe 20 years.  Hundreds more recordings.  When making backing tracks, I play all real instruments, one at a time, of course.  I had to learn how to mic each of them - and they're all different.  I do use a drum machine - especially on the older recordings, only because I didn't have room in my RV for a whole acoustic set with mic stands and the whole works.  I programmed the machine to play the way I play.  There are old live recordings of me playing drums, if you listen, you can hear that.  Over the past couple of years, when I make backing tracks, I add the lead parts - guitar, pedal steel, fiddle, ukulele, lap steel, harmonica, and I make videos out of them.  I now have about 120 music videos at my YouTube channel.

   So, being that I don't have time to water this down, I'll just say what needs to be said.  I promise you, my ego is not part of any of this - never has been.  You're welcome to go to my YouTube channel and listen for yourself, and I almost always include a video with my blog entries.  Of the 350+ songs that I do, of the 120 or so videos, playing all the instruments, I have to make the songs sound as much like the originals as possible.  I don't believe in changing them just for the sake of changing them.  The songs, the videos come out very professional, clean, present, recorded and mixed very well.  And, I have to play all those instruments in a way that will compare with the original guys who played them.  I guess most people don't notice any of this, mostly because I don't have the million dollar a year hype that the "Major" artists and bands do.  And please, listen for yourself, even compare the original recordings to mine, and PLEASE, use a good pair of headphones, good speakers, even a decent pair of earbuds - where you can actually hear the recording quality, the mix, and all the instruments.  Be honest, listen with your own ears.  Keep in mind, I didn't learn how to play all those instruments, and didn't learn how to record at a professional level overnight, it took years of trial and error, years of practice on the instruments.  Also keep in mind I'm not stuck doing only one kind of music.  There's traditional Country, Classic Light Rock, 60s and 70s Folk, and authentic traditional Hawaiian music - including traditional sounding lap steel, ukulele, and real Slack Key Guitar.  Just the other night, I laid down all the basic tracks for 4 Slack Key instrumentals.  I'll get to the Slack Key parts maybe early next week, along with the lap steel, and possibly ukulele - to make videos.  As for Slack Key, there are not many people in the world who can do that anymore.  All the greats have passed, and there may be a small handful who are dabbling in it, but I guess it's not as cool as all that "Reggae" stuff they've been doing over the past 45 years or so, so nobody cares to do it.  On Country and some of the other stuff, you might pay attention to the bass, the drums, and the rhythm guitars.  Notice that the bass isn't all over the place - as so many players do - thinking they're doing something.  Sure, I could do all that monotonous, walking in and out of every chord change, and into chord I'm already in, it doesn't take super talent to do that, in fact, what it does take is a frustrated lead guitar player who is bored with keeping the bottom end solid.  Take note that on the drum parts, I'm not banging all over the toms and the cymbals, I'm much more concerned with locking into that sweet spot, keeping the beat, and not cluttering up the song.  Same goes for the lead instruments - I leave plenty of space for the songs to breathe, and I hate clutter.  Oh, and I'm never there to wow the audience.  Take note of the finesse of the acoustic rhythm guitar parts - no banging, so pseudo jazz chords, no mindless jumping around, just a good solid backdrop.  As for the vocals, it comes to mind what one of the waitresses at Gunbarrel said to me a couple of times, "You're the only guy who doesn't sound like he's playing the same song all night".  Then, I guess what happens when I sing is that I kind of instinctively try to capture the essence of the song, and of the original artist - without mimicking, without any fake southern accent - as most or all of the modern "Country" acts are doing.

   One last thought.  Earlier tonight I went to a club - huge - 3 or 4 different rooms.  While talking to the manager, he at one point said, "We're cutting back on bringing in bands, because, well, they're all the same, people lose interest, the DJs seem to be more enjoyable, so we're doing bands only about once every three or four weeks".  Ok, so here's my commentary on that.  I've heard the bands in this town - they're the same as in every other town - they're horrible.  They play the same "Funk" beat that they all seem to think is so ultra cool.  The guitar players do one thing (One scale) on every song, over every chord production.  The bass player and drummer are busy and monotonous - and their drums either sound like cardboard boxes, or plastic buckets.  The singers are either croaking or screaming.  They sound like four or five people all in different rooms, playing four or five different songs all at the same time.  Oh, and the girl singers - either sounding like a bzillion other girl singers, or like cheap imitations of Janis Joplin.  A person close to me described these bar bands as sounding "Like a washing machine".  So, I don't blame these managers and owners if they don't want live music in their place, or if they're cutting back on it.  Why pay a band $800 or $1000 to bore the customers out of their skull?

   So, have I learned to do all this stuff for nothing?  Have I come all this way to be fighting with shitty musicians, and ego driven venue managers and owners, just to work?  On "Ego driven managers", I have been locked out of more venues that I can begin to count, because the owner or manager got their feeling hurt because in their fragile little minds, I "Showed up their homeboys", or, because they were frustrated musicians who could never connect with their listeners.  That's not my statement, that's theirs.  I never go up onto a stage to show up anybody, or for them to tell me how wonderful I am, I go up there to give people something

  And here I still am, playing footsie with managers and owners just to work, and it gets really sickening and tiring, and disgusting.  I do well in places where the management cares about their customers, and about their till.  The ego driven guys - I've never been able to get near those places.  I guess I wouldn't want it any other way - being that if I can't get hired on my merit, then I wouldn't want to work for such people anyway.

   All for now. 

 

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                                                        Shenandoah