Musicians check in here. If you play, tell us about it!

[DaveP]

Hey Dave. The life of modern day bands. I left a band and the guy running it said to me they had gone through 19 members in a year LOL.

I guess I was lucky throughout my long career as a weekend musician. I was in several bands and there were times when I was the one to hang it up for a while. Macon, GA was always a place where you could always find good musicians.

Capricorn records kept a lot of the really dedicated groups busy and there were lots of wannabe musicians living in our town who were hanging out looking for bands to join and hoping for a career. Allman Brothers, Wet Willie, Otis Redding, Chuck Levelle, Little Richard and a long list of other bands based themselves in Macon for extended periods recording and playing bar gigs.

I always had a good day job I didn't want to lose! Playing weekends was sufficient for me to be happy.

 

[Pipeous]

I miss being in a band at times. This weekend was a challenge. As much fun as it was I am glad it's only once a year. They already want me back for next year but wow. I will need a different approach to living their hours LOL

I am a night person and having bells rung every morning at 730am was a bit tough. I slept maybe 10 hrs all weekend and performed 5 times plus all the other stuff. wiped me out.

 

[BreSha6869]

I miss being in a band at times. This weekend was a challenge. As much fun as it was I am glad it's only once a year. They already want me back for next year but wow. I will need a different approach to living their hours LOL

I am a night person and having bells rung every morning at 730am was a bit tough. I slept maybe 10 hrs all weekend and performed 5 times plus all the other stuff. wiped me out.

I am totally happy with gigging 3-4 times a month in my cover band and only on Sat or Sun. I gave up on driving around the country with 3 other stinky guys in a van trying to be a rock star over 25 years ago.

My gigs are almost always 10pm-2am, which kinda sucks, but I still love it. Not for the $$$ ($100-150 per gig each), just because I love playing.

 

[jmur]

Last time I was in a band was the 70's. Even by then, too many posers and control freaks. Sixties bands were MUCH more fun, it was a blast then.
Unfortunately, age creeps up, and I'm 65 now, so I doubt I'd be able to keep up with Tiny Tim at this point!

 

[Pipeous]

Anyone nowadays thinking about being a gigging musician and getting rich is delusional lol. I am just happy I can live somewhat comfortable doing what I love to do. I am 53 myself and had quit playing serious early 80's. Even then I saw rates dwindling. Playing these farmers markets and such is more grass roots and I have friends pop by and jump in so we basically jam. I love when I get to play a market with my friend Dave and he joins me with that squeezebox of his.

I am doing a dinner party this week for a group of farmers. I met them at the winter market I did. Many of the workers have done time for petty crimes and this farm offers them a chance to work and get back to real life. Everyone I met so far have been really cool. Heck I have a criminal record from over 30 yrs ago so I understand. amazing what hurdles getting caught rolling a doobie and a $25 fine has cost me. Now you can grow your own legally.

I am booked from 2-5 days a week now until late october. I have saved almost $1000 in rolled up change this year so far... that is going to pay for the new octave mandolin... on that I am meeting with the builder on friday to discuss neck profiles. he is coming here so I can show him my instruments... he is also bringing me another mandolin he had built to try out. I might be in debt further when he leaves LOL

 

[DaveP]

It seems that musician pay in a local band hasn't increased much since I was in a weekend warrior band in the late 70's into the 80's. We averaged $500 a night split among 5 members for 9pm-1am gigs, but we almost never played public clubs. Most of our gigs were private organizations like Moose, Elks, and the local Air Force Base Officer's and NCO clubs. We always made $1000 for New Year's Eve. New Years Eve eventually rose to $3000. That was good money!

Out of those we picked up lots of other gigs for private parties, usually from local movers and shakers who didn't mind paying $500/night. Sometimes, those parties would have 300-500 people present, so we gave out business cards to those who were interested and picked up party gigs from rich party goers. There were usually CEOs and business owners in those groups who could pay the band as a business expense.

We all had good day jobs. The band gigs were done out of the love of playing.

 

[DaveP]

If you haven't read this book, it's a winner. I'm reading it for the second time after reading it through about 5 years ago. It's an in depth chronicle of the beginnings of the Allman Brothers band all the way from growing up in Daytone Beach to the height of their careers. Barnes and Noble has it in stock locally as well as several others written by various people who traveled with them in their heyday.

Skydog: The Duane Allman Story

 

[James Hart]

my brief stint as a professional musician was in the early 90s... no day gig other than cover band + original band + teaching + studio. It was fun for a moment but it did damage to my patience level for musician drama and lead to me packing it in altogether for a couple years starting around 1995. I've had a few real fun 'bands' since getting back into it in 98-99, but mostly I still have no patience for musicians in general. Too many still think they have a shot at being super stars... or they are just looking for a place to party away from the wife and kids.

I'll have to check out that book next time I'm looking for a light read.

 

[Pipeous]

And that James, is why I play solo LOL... biggest drama I see is when some kid drops their ice cream or maybe a couple dogs get too close and have a bark off. I truly can't wait for Halloween again. The kids just go crazy seeing me in my Spiderman outfit. Most fun for me of the year

I was only in one successful band and I am still in touch with most of them. Their kids are performing now haha. Those were some great musicians and no egos. Seems the biggest egos come from mediocre players. I try to not have an ego because I know what my strong points and my limits are. I know there are better musicians out there than me, I just work hard and love to play. I try to read who's passing by and play something that fits.

I got up early today to do some recording but just got a text from my friend that sends me lyrics. His mom just passed away so I am heading over to his place instead for a couple hours. I will lay some tracks this afternoon/evening... no hockey to watch anyway

 

[James Hart]

And that James, is why I play solo LOL...

My kingdom for a voice! If I could carry a tune vocally, I'd be doing some solo bass shows. Too avant-garde for the Jersey Shore to consider trying to do some solo bass without at least singing some covers with it.

Sorry about your friend's loss.

 

[DaveP]

My kingdom for a voice! If I could carry a tune vocally, I'd be doing some solo bass shows. Too avant-garde for the Jersey Shore to consider trying to do some solo bass without at least singing some covers with it.

Sorry about your friend's loss.

I've been told my voice is good, but I prefer to play lead riffs and enjoy myself that way. In the band I mentioned from the late 70s to the mid 80s I sang backup along with several others on most songs. It was hard enough doing fill licks and keeping the harmony parts straight. I sang 5 or 6 lead vocals every night and enjoyed those.

I have a CD from a demo disc we did in Paul Hornsby's Grapevine Studios in Macon back in the 80s. I sing lead in 5 or 6 songs and backup on the rest. Paul's still doing that sort of recording thing, but he doesn't do RAP, so he limits himself to what he enjoys in his later years.

I'll have to post some cuts off the demo disc that Paul made for us. It was originally dubbed to Cassette tape back on 1983, but my wife got him to look up the 10" reel in his library and dub it off to compact disc a few years ago for my birthday. It's a good thing she did because he told her he was worried that it would snap before he got it all copied. He warmed it at low heat in an oven before putting it on the machine. I have the original master reel and the CD he made. I copied the tracks onto the SD card in my pickup and it sounds really good in my Ram Pickup's 6 speaker system.

Paul was a studio musician in Muscle Shoals studios for years and also played keyboards with Greg and Duane Allman in their early band "Hour Glass". He learned studio engineering from the guys at Muscle Shoals studios and turned it into a career at Capricorn studios in Macon. After Capricorn closed down and Phil and Alan Walden moved their business to Nashville, they gave Paul most of the old Analog equipment as a going away present. He bought a building and set up his own studio in Macon with that gear as his starter hardware. Phil and Alan bought heavily into the digital studio equipment for their new studio in Nashville.

 

[DaveP]

If you have Netflix, look up "Muscle Shoals" and "Stax". They are both video histories of the two studios. There's lots of video about their experiences in the recording industry and some good video of Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and the other stars who recorded there. Duane Allman was a studio musician in Muscle Shoals back then while Greg was doing his thing in California.

Once you find those two you will find lots of famous band video histories in the "since you watched" column.

Lots of the material in the Muscle Shoals video is also covered in the Duane Allman book I mentioned above. I was surprised at how they both told those stories pretty much the same way..

 

[Pipeous]

I have Musle SHoals cued up hehe. That will be tonight's entertainment.

James while I don't normally use it, my harmonizer has auto tune. I had to sing while quite sick and tried it a while back at 20 percent. it helped with the missed notes and wasn't a noticeable change like the robotic sound the over use gets... maybe try one out

Dave, love to hear ya sing bros. And I stopped going to bandhub. The longer you are there the more commercial adds pop up... even with add blocker to stop it from playing you still get those annoying 30 second waits. I was working on a song and had that 5 friggin times as I was laying a couple mandolin tracks down and the intricate parts I did seperate takes (I had to learn each part to a song I had never heard before)...

if you guys got the online usb thing figured, I setup an account at melosity. it's an online recording studio. I could dump some stuff I have recorded and if anyone wants to come have at it, it'd be fun to see what we could create amongst us.

heck maybe we can create our own music from scratch and see if it will get some listens? we have quite an array of instruments here

 

[James Hart]

If you have Netflix, look up "Muscle Shoals" and "Stax"

I'm familiar with both... I try to catch all the authentic musician related documentaries that come out.

I actually own both the box sets released out of those studios, my folk's are big music fans that graduated High School in 1964... all the stuff on those box sets is what I've been hearing since in the womb

 

[DaveP]

I'm familiar with both... I try to catch all the authentic musician related documentaries that come out.

I actually own both the box sets released out of those studios, my folk's are big music fans that graduated High School in 1964... all the stuff on those box sets is what I've been hearing since in the womb

I've been working my way through those documentaries. The Eagles were a great watch, as well as the Stones documentary I finished up last night.

 

[Pipeous]

I didn't watch the Shoals video yet, but I have it. We got into a movie about mma and side tracked...

I have seen the Eagles documentary 3 times. Probably my fav band

 

[DaveP]

I didn't watch the Shoals video yet, but I have it. We got into a movie about mma and side tracked...

I have seen the Eagles documentary 3 times. Probably my fav band

We played just about everything the Eagles did as their hits moved up the charts. It's just great music that allows room for a little jamming. I'm a Joe Walsh fan, also. It's a nice style to complement a basic blues-rock style that I developed early on.

My music career started out in the mid 60's. I was a huge Beatles and Stones fan for years. Beach Boys and Ventures first fueled my desire to play guitar. Then, it was on to Hendrix, followed by the Allmans.

I remember hearing the Stones play Satisfaction. I was hooked on the Fuzz Box sound immediately.

 

[Skold]

I've been doing gigs for 14 years, an played guitar for 15 & the fuzz box has been my favorite guitar pedal through all the years.
Man it's good to see people posting about music rather than complaining about regulations. Good to see a thread on musicians, I am really enjoying hearing about everyone's experiences. I am picking up a new guitar on Friday

 

[DaveP]

I've been doing gigs for 14 years, an played guitar for 15 & the fuzz box has been my favorite guitar pedal through all the years.
Man it's good to see people posting about music rather than complaining about regulations. Good to see a thread on musicians, I am really enjoying hearing about everyone's experiences. I am picking up a new guitar on Friday

Welcome to the Musicians thread Skold!

 

[Skold]

Thank you, glad to be here