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Old 11-11-2004, 04:53 PM
DJanzen DJanzen is offline
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Default "A little bit country..."

Somehow, I found myself (through a friend) committed to play backup for a guy named JD Allen (a bit of a past-his-prime country/gospel singer/songwriter) this coming Saturday afternoon at a local bookstore appearance where he's trying to get a little exposure and sell a few CDs. Sort of jump-start a stalled career. Here's the thing:

- I'm to play 12-string rhythm (cool... I can do that)
- His main arranger/guitarist will be playing the gig... but I will not get a chance to meet him or practice with him before the appearance
- I've only played through a few of JD's songs twice with him, after which he tells me that Joe (the arranger guy) usually plays these tunes in another key... so be ready for that...
- Country? I don't usually play country, and don't really have a 'feel' for the whole country sound
- No charts. Everything by ear. (Cool if you know the tunes...)

Sounds like I'm dreading this, right? Not really... Actually I think it will be a great learning experience, and hopefully a lot of fun. It's all fairly laid back, mellow stuff (nothing like what you heard on the CMAs), so I'll just pick and grin.

He loves my 655... and I think that he likes the idea of a little guitar eye-candy in the background. Should be interesting...

DJanzen
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Old 11-11-2004, 06:26 PM
tac5 tac5 is offline
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I've been there before. I remember one time a songwriter friend of mine needed a backup guitarist for a small showcase performance in a small club. I knew the genre of his music but the songs he was presenting were original tunes and he had no tape to give me to practice with. This was really short notice. What I did was let him do most of the first verse with minimal contribution from my part. As I got a feel of the tune and the melody I added more as the song progressed. It worked out OK and I liked the challenge. I've done this quite a few times over the years.
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  #3  
Old 11-15-2004, 10:02 AM
DJanzen DJanzen is offline
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Just to update this thread...

The bookstore appearance gig happened, and I was a bit surprised as to how smoothly it went. Again, never having met, let alone played with his main guitarist before, and not knowing any of his songs well... once we all got playing, things just sort of fell into place. I suppose that the relative simplicity of the chord progressions (and the talent of the 'previously unknown to me' main guitar player who seemed to be able to direct the rest of us on the fly) had a lot to do with this. A couple of the songs were all fingerstyle, which with 4 guitars (3 6s and my 12)... simple-ish as they were in structure, really sounded great.

I can't say that I was nervous at all, probably due to being just one of 4 guitarists.. and the fact that there was a 'crowd' of only about 20 - 25 people at any given time (and many were friends).

All in all, it has really whetted my appetite to play out more often. Now i understand why so many of you are stage hounds!

DJanzen
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