Facts on San Antonio's Bluegrass(ish) Jams

[GRW3]

After a period of uncertainty (though most of us were certain that we would rather hang out and play music than watch TV) we haver returned to a regular schedule for the San Antonio Jams.

Slow Intermediate
1st, 3rd and 5th Tuesdays
Grady's Bar-B-Que
Jackson-Keller and San Pedro
6:00 to 8:00 pm

Intermediate
2nd and 4th Tuesdays
Grady's Bar-B-Que
Nakoma and US 281
6:00 to 8:00 pm

I say Bluegrassish because we do not have Bluegrass Police monitoring our effort. It's mosty three chords and a cloud of dust type music. (Not a limitation but a benchmark.) Bluegrass, Old Time, 'real' country, Texas Country, Fiddle music, etc. etc. No electric instruments unless the group agrees elsewise. (we have exceptions for dulcimers and our occassional bass player) The San Pedro session provides a mike for singers who can't project.


FYI, we're very sensitive to all parties. Why one night the leader even said "Ya'll play a little quieter so we can hear the BANJOs!" (Really... It's true... You can't make this up...)

[Jon Hall]

George

Does Dr. Richard (Dick) Campbell play at your jam? He's a great singer and plays a Martin guitar. He and I go back 40+ years.

[GRW3]

Originally Posted by Jon Hall

George

Does Dr. Richard (Dick) Campbell play at your jam? He's a great singer and plays a Martin guitar. He and I go back 40+ years.

I'm maybe the world's worst at names... There is a guitar player who goes by 'Dick' but he just got a Martin D1XK to replace a Washburn so I doubt if it's the same guy. I do know of a circle of Doctors who get together. It's a very private thing for very hot pickers so he might be a part of that.

[BJones]

Have these started yet? I'd like to drop by and listen (to see if I'd be able to fit in). I'm a newbie to mandolin, a long-time hack at guitar...but never have flatpicked or played bluegrass, and a beginning bass player (sorry...electric) - so I'm not a great fit, but I'm interested.

[GRW3]

Originally Posted by BJones

Have these started yet? I'd like to drop by and listen (to see if I'd be able to fit in). I'm a newbie to mandolin, a long-time hack at guitar...but never have flatpicked or played bluegrass, and a beginning bass player (sorry...electric) - so I'm not a great fit, but I'm interested.

Sounds like you would fit OK. We have a lot of beginner players, jammers, both. Not the bass though. The one bass we have is a very experienced bass player that who can keep us in time.

[B. T. Walker]

Due to some scheduling difficulties, I have trouble making these jams, but I thoroughly enjoy both when I get the chance to ttend. BJones, George is right when he says you'd fit right in, especially at the San Pedro jam. I'm glad they're back to playin'.

[BJones]

Originally Posted by B. T. Walker

Due to some scheduling difficulties, I have trouble making these jams, but I thoroughly enjoy both when I get the chance to ttend. BJones, George is right when he says you'd fit right in, especially at the San Pedro jam. I'm glad they're back to playin'.

This Tuesday will be tough, but I'm going to try to drop by. I'll bring my guitar - I think I'm too new for the mandolin. Too bad, the following Tuesday's the intermediate group....that's spring break for me.

I hope it's not bad form to have a nice instrument and be a bad player.

[GRW3]

Nothing wrong with coming to the intermediate jam and sitting in the outer circle and just strumming along. Listening to the songs and observing the chord changes will help you get the feel of playing in a group.

[BJones]

Originally Posted by GRW3

Nothing wrong with coming to the intermediate jam and sitting in the outer circle and just strumming along. Listening to the songs and observing the chord changes will help you get the feel of playing in a group.

That was my thought. I will definitely being staying under the radar...if I get to go. I just found out our church is starting our week-long Lenten mission this week, and I would have to miss one night for this. I may go to the first hour of the jam and then scram.

[Doug Edwards]

George, are these pretty regular with decent participation? I'd hate to drive and hour and be the only one there.

[GRW3]

Originally Posted by Doug Edwards

George, are these pretty regular with decent participation? I'd hate to drive and hour and be the only one there.

A slow evening would be ten... The San Pedro session tends to be a little larger than the Nakoma but not a lot. Of course really bad weather can have an effect although it looks like it might not rain in San Antonio again (which, at best, is never more than two weeks away from the next drought).

I'll try to remember to take the camera tomorrow night and get some pictures of the San Pedro / Jackson-Keller location.

[GRW3]

Getting ready to go and my guitar case came apart. The distraction made me forget the camera.

[GRW3]

OK I took the camera tonight. This is the 2nd and 4th Tuesday Jam

This is the smaller of the two Grady's. I think the acoustics are a little better. The crowd was a little smaller than normal due to Spring Break. The pictures are a little blurry because I did not use a flash. This restaurant has posts so there is usually one in the circle.

[BJones]

Any songs I might try to look up before going to the beginner/intermediate circle this coming Tuesday?

[GRW3]

Pretty much it's standard fare but here are some tunes and songs we do reasonably often.

Katy Daley
Nine Pound Hammer
Worried Man Blues
Soldier's Joy
Old Joe Clark
Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Jesse James
The Old Homeplace
Long Black Veil
Little Maggie
I've Just Seen the Rock of Ages

That's just some that came to mind. We do more songs than tunes. Song keys are singers choice but it's best if stays in one of the more common key forms.

[Tobin]

Hey guys... I'm new here. I've only been playing the mandolin about 3-1/2 months, so I'm still pretty green (although I practice about 1-1/2 hours each and every day). I'm desperately looking for folks to play music with, and this sounds like a very cool thing!

I don't know if I'll be able to make it to the next slow/intermediate jam (which looks like it's tomorrow, St. Patty's day), but will definitely try to make the next one after that. Can you give me a few more details on how this works? Do you guys rent a private room at Grady's? I'm guessing you just eat supper while you play? Or play then eat? Is there a set agenda of songs to play, or do you just take turns picking songs? Sorry for the dumb questions; I've never done a thing like this before.

In the meantime, Doug Edwards, I live up near your neck of the woods. I'm just a short piece down the road from you, outside of the town of Bandera.

[GRW3]

Some get there before six and eat. Some take a break and eat. Some wait until the end and eat. We play in the main dining room. Grady's doesn't charge us.

The process is a song circle, with the song selection moving along the circle. One of the most effective things for begineers is to hang back and strum/chord along with the group. If you don't already play guitar you might want to get somebody to show you the common forms of the major chords. It's usually easier to follow the chord progression from a guitar than a mando or banjo. This will help you follow a lot of songs.

Here is an important thing for beginners to know. Songs are often sung in keys other that what you might find printed. This is normal. Doesn't matter if Bill sang it in B, you have to sing in a key you can handle.

Tunes, on the other hand, are typically played in standard keys (except when they are not). Soldier's Joy is almost always D, Old Joe Clark mostly in A, etc. etc.

The bad news about a mandolin is that since we don't typically use capos we have to know a lot more chords. The good news is that since the fingering is pretty symetrical we can get a lot of mileage out of a handful of forms.

[Tobin]

If you don't already play guitar you might want to get somebody to show you the common forms of the major chords. It's usually easier to follow the chord progression from a guitar than a mando or banjo. This will help you follow a lot of songs.

Actually, I played guitar for 23 years, here and there, prior to taking up the mandolin. So that will be a piece of cake to follow the guitar's chord progressions.

Thanks for the info! I hope to see you folks there on the 31st.

[BJones]

This is a good group of folks! Tonight was my first time and I really enjoyed it. I arrived at the mid-point break, and was made to feel welcome - but not fawned over. I took a few pictures (the slideshow link is below). I'll definitely do this again.

http://cmd.shutterfly.com/commands/p...jones&album=59

[GRW3]

Nice shots... It was a pretty typical night for San Pedro. I wasn't the only mando player besides BJones. Altair was there with his carbon fiber New Mad A but I think he had to leave before you started taking pics. That funny looking guitar hanging on a stand in front of me is the carbon fiber CA Cargo. I was really glad I had it last night. I didn't warm up right and I got muscle spasm in the ball of left hand so I played the guitar on and off to give it a break.

[BJones]

By the way, at the end of the slideshow is an offer to buy pictures. Please ignore that. I'm using a free Shutterfly account to store my pictures online. Apparently they make money by selling copies (actual prints) of the pictures stored on the site. If you (or anyone else) want any of the pictures, I'll gladly email the ones you want - or give you the website address so you can download them yourself. I just take pictures for fun.

[lonewolf]

Hi,
Glad that you enjoyed the San Antonio, San Pedro ave. jam. I hope we see you again. I have enjoyed doing what I can to keep the jam going. I usually play guitar or dobro at the jam, although I play mandolin and a few other instruments too. You said that you could send us an address to download the photos you took at the jam. They were great, and i'd like to have a complete set for my own files, so I would appreciate a way to get the images. Thanks in advance for your help.
Gene Warner

[BJones]

Gene,

I'll PM you that in a bit. I'm beginning to see why Shutterfly is so generous with their storage. It's all about selling pictures and photographic product. I've got to set people up as 'members' to sign in. Then they can get pictures, have marketing emails sent to them, etc. I'm going to move those pictures to my old Flickr account. Then I can just give you the website and you can take what you want. Email is too cumbersome because of the file sizes. Sorry for the delay. I'll get it done this evening.

Bill

[BJones]

Alright...turned into a bigger hassle than I thought, but it's all good, now. Try going to this website to get to the Bluegrass-ish Jam pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billandkarenjones/

You should be able to download any you want.

In fact, if you would comment (on the site) as to who is in which pictures that would be kind of cool. Thanks.

Bill

[BJones]

And here's a new version of the slideshow, now playing from the Flickr account....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billand...02467231/show/

I wanted to edit the original post with the slideshow (because I will be taking that site down), but too much time has passed.