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JPL
May-15-2006, 3:31pm
I’m tentatively calling it “The Steinbeck Brothers”, which just has a nice Great Depression feel to it.

Eclectic acoustic roots music...I’m handing out copies of “Blue County Heart” by Jorma Kaukonen, “OCMS” by the Old Crow Medicine Show, and “Crossing Muddy Waters” by John Hiatt just to get the general vibe across to prospective members. Some Uncle Dave Macon would be great, too. Rowdy proto-bluegrass and jug band stuff.

Trying to get my old frontman George to do lead vox / acoustic guitar (and maybe buy a cheap six-string banjo). There’s a local country blues player with a National resophonic, and we’ve been talking about getting something going for about ten years. I know two guys with upright basses...we’ll see if either of them wants to play for glory and tips. And I’m still dead set on finding a good guy to play washboard and spoons. And me on the shiny new resophonic mandolin I’m buying with my birthday money.

One gig a month...coffee shops and farmer’s markets. Get paid in lattes or tomatoes.

Someday....

Jonathan Reinhardt
May-15-2006, 4:35pm
break a leg!
sounds like a fun project.
my band takes this road with success - we are well loved in our region and beyond.
different material - same 'genre'.
don't forget to include some real screamers - folks seem to love 'em.
get a jawharp.

rasa
Jonathan Reinhardt

John Flynn
May-15-2006, 5:38pm
I really envy you on that. I have started two similar bands. Both were fun for about nine months each and then they broke up badly. I'm not trying to be a downer, it's just a fact. I wish you better luck. I only mention the breakups to put in perpective that despite the bad endings, I still would not have traded a moment of being in either of those groups and someday I will try to put together another one, despite what can happen. It was the best time I have ever had with music.

Michael H Geimer
May-15-2006, 6:12pm
When I started my band (acoustic roots for coffee houses), we only worried about (1) top level issue. Staying together.

To accompish this goal every other issue was deemed lesser. So, you can show up late, not at all, need to leave early, not know your parts, forget your instrument, etc. etc. All is forgiven so long as you still love the band, and still want to keep playing each week.

After two years of this, we have a performance list of over 60 songs, and we sound pretty good ... almost as if we practice.

This is not a recipe for 'success' in the commercial sense, but then you won't achieve *any* goal if you can't stay together. We perform every other week, get free breakfast, meager tips, and have a great time playing. The venue is changing ownership this month, and the new Boss hopes we'll stay on ... so we must be doing something right.

I say, keep it mellow and relaxed ... just keep playing. Everything else is secondary ... your band name, your photos, your song list, your demo, your logo, your web site ... THEY DON'T REALLY MATTER.

Even with a relaxed attitude, I've still ended up 'stressing' people out with my perfectionism plenty of times over these years. Good luck!

- Benig

JPL
May-16-2006, 8:22am
I spent about eight years playing sax in a soul/R&B band --- bars, wedding receptions, and eventually corporate parties and such --- and it seemed to me that the key to keeping a band together was getting paid. There will be times when you love the band, and times when you don't love the band, but fifty bucks is fifty bucks, y'know? Although I would've done it all for free.

Maybe that's why, when I pitched this idea to some old buddies a while back, I got very little love. I said up front that this would be all about relatively unpopular music played for very little money. Oh, well...I'm going to buy that new resonator mando in a couple of months, start learning some tunes, and just bide my time.

ira
May-16-2006, 8:40am
good thread. i've been lucky in having a good partner a cople of times, but hard to form a band- particularly as almost all the musicians i know just play guitar. keep the ideas going. i would love to have a 4-6 piece play almost anything acoustic type of band.

JPL
May-16-2006, 10:01am
Too many guitarists is a problem for the sort of band I have in mind. I've latched on to the six-string banjo as an alternative --- easy learning curve for guitarists, plus there are some cheap ones out there like the Dean Bacnkwoods that seem acceptable. Judicious use of the capo would help the banjitar keep its place in the mix and not step on the guitar too much. Plus you'd get that banjo sound without turning into bluegrass.

This National player I have in mind is a good slide / fingerpicking guy, while the lead vocalist is more of a boom-chuck man, so hopefully things would work out even without the banjitar.

I've been thinking about using a big zydeco rubboard instead of the regular washboard, just because I like the sound. Had a guy lined up to play it, but he moved.

I'd take a harmonica player, provided he could play the country stuff a la Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in addition to the blues. And I know a keyboardist who never get to play his piano accordion, but I think he'd want too much money...

Jim Yates
May-16-2006, 5:32pm
http://www.islandmusicfest.com/images/PP15washboard-hank.jpg

You need a guy like this in your band!

JPL
May-18-2006, 8:39am
He appears high and/or lonesome. He'll do.

farmerjones
May-18-2006, 3:43pm
There's around a dozen of us. And if one of us knows somebody that's having a birthday or a hangin, or a benifit, or a anything, he'll call around and circle the wagons. Who ever can make it, comes. At the venue we take turns calling tunes just like a circle jam. Folks love us. Sometimes pay us. We don't want to jinx it by calling it a band, so we call it a "bunch." We always seem to have a bass, mandolin, fiddle, and a couple guitars. I've never heard anybody else, anywhere else doing this. Makes sense to us. Why don't you hear more about "bunches" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif?

DryBones
May-18-2006, 11:27pm
Sounds like a good name for a band "The Bunch" or "The Bunch of Us" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

ira
May-19-2006, 8:32am
farmerjones-=i love the concept! a bunch of my buddies and i do the same thing at events for folks in our circle, but again, unfortunately mostly just guitar players.
help bass and other instrumentalists in the metrowest boston area- come join me in my quest for fun!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif
anyway, i love the concept of what you're doing and am somewhat jealous! there i admit it!!!!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif