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YOU'LL DO FINE


Hbom

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I got a call from a friend asking if I could/would fill in for him in 1 show in the Jerry Jeff Walker tribute trio where he plays backup guitar.

I said NO! I haven' played out in too many years and my left hand doesn't always work well. And. And. And.

"Not a prob." He said. "It's just cowboy chords. You'll do fine." "And you have a couple of weeks to practice. We have 3 rehearsals between now & then. You'll do fine."

So I dug out my David Bromberg albums and searched YouTube for JJ's songs and went to work.

1st rehearsal- cancelled.

2nd rehearsal- I show up, drummer and my buddy are there, singer calls and cancel's.
They give me a copy of their DVD and tell me to be prepared to play everything in G.
"You'll do fine."

3rd rehearsal. We don't need no f'n rehearsal. You'll do fine.

So Sunday comes. I tucked my hair up under my borrowed 10 gallon hat, grabbed my twangiest Telecaster, and headed to the American Legion.

Everything was provided. All I needed was the Tele and a cord. Uh huh.
Ever played with a Fender G-Dec 30?
Me neither. Supposedly all I needed to do was use his pre-sets. Uh huh.

The 1st set was horrible!!! I couldn't hear, keep time, or make the chord changes. What a mess. J.J. (yeah that's what he goes by) just kept looking back at me. Glaring.

Talked a bit between 1 & 2.
"Relax buddy. It's just a bunch of drunks. They know the songs. All you got to do is strum."

So I strummed.

2nd set went a little better.

By the 3rd it wasn't half bad. The crowd was going pretty good by then and, as I had been told, all I had to do was strum.

20 minutes into 3rd set JJ gets off his stool and yells in my ear. "Play or sing something. I gotta go to the can."

Talk about dumbfounded! NO CLUE what I was doing. He'd already used up Bojangles and Stoney. 2 JJW songs I used to do. So I cheated. I picked up his acoustic, sat on his stool, drug out my most gravelly voice, and did my best rendition of Someday I'll Get Out Of These Bars.

Best I can say is that they didn't throw beer bottles at me.

All in all it was fun. JJ even said he thought I did fine. "But don't EVER play my guitar again without asking!"

:D
:) 

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>That takes elephant balls.  Good on you!

+1

I give you credit because that sounds like you are describing one of my nightmare scenario's! Not talking about the style of music in particular - just the idea of filling in with zero rehearsal time. I have a hard enough time making my way through a gig that I have had plenty of rehearsal for! :-)

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7 hours ago, Hbom said:

....JJ gets off his stool and yells in my ear. "Play or sing something. I gotta go to the can."....

Straight into 'Jazz Odyssey'.

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Yeah, I think you did fine. B)

So, why did you play his guitar without asking?🤔

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10 hours ago, gorch said:

Yeah, I think you did fine. B)

So, why did you play his guitar without asking?🤔

No excuse. Just a blunder by a basement hack caught in the headlights of stage fright.

 

 

 

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@Jeff R told me a story a few years ago about how he was sitting in on a set with Amanda Shaw's band.
IIRC, there was no prep, no rehearsal, no song list. Just go up there and play.

I'd sooner attempt an aria from Aida.

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30 minutes ago, kizanski said:

@Jeff R told me a story a few years ago about how he was sitting in on a set with Amanda Shaw's band.
IIRC, there was no prep, no rehearsal, no song list. Just go up there and play.

I'd sooner attempt an aria from Aida.

Assumed that the singer(s) had rehearsals.

 

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3 minutes ago, gorch said:

Assumed that the singer(s) had rehearsals.

I meant that @Jeff R didn't have any rehearsal, song list, etc.  The rest of the band was her band.

Also I have not practiced any operatic arias, or any other kind for that matter.

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1 hour ago, kizanski said:

I meant that @Jeff R didn't have any rehearsal, song list, etc.  The rest of the band was her band.

Also I have not practiced any operatic arias, or any other kind for that matter.

The upside is people would still think it's better than Yoko.  

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9 hours ago, scottcald said:

Hey, "He's no Yoko" is high praise in my book.  

That's right up there with, "He's no Hitler."

"He's no Robert Durst."

"She's no Aileen Wuornos."

etc

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That gig with Amanda Shaw was more than a few years ago, she was still a young teen back then, calling me "Mr. Jeff" haha. The back story was the entity for whom I worked at the time hired her to play a social event. I got the call at the last minute from Amanda's Dad, her manager, saying that they were unfortunately going to have to cancel because their guitarist was sick. I told him if they were open to a decent player sitting in who'd do the gig for free, the show would go on without a hitch. He said sure, they were game. Then I told him it was me. Caught him off guard and he was leery but I promised I would embarrass his daughter or her act. They showed up for the gig, a 90 minute original set, outdoor show. Me and the bass player sat on the tailgate of a pickup truck after we set stuff up, and we ran through the entire set list verbally, took about 10 minutes. I made a small crib note set list with each song's key to tape to the floor under me. Easy breezy, no problems. I will add, however, I was playing with a young teenage girl, a family set, at an all ages family event at a public park being put on by my employer and attended by my bosses and co-workers, so no drinks, I was stone cold sober which was basically unheard of in that era of my life. It was weird playing with no liquid courage, but it was nice to be 100 percent in the concentration department. I'm sure it helped me help them better.

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