Staggering on

Decent crowd last night for a Restoration Jazz Band gig at a rented hall. This time we had a guest vocalist and she was fabulous, only had three rehearsals with her but she's a real find, she has done lots of musical theatre stuff but had never sung with a band and the audience loved it. Odd set up, we will move the drummer in next time, he couldn't hear us very well and at times we couldn't hear him, he's usually between me and the keys. A few flubs on my part but several compliments on the sound of my Shen SB100. As usual I used a Schatten Design pre amp mounted on my music stand, it has a volume control and I use the Bose to EQ my sound. First gig using my NUX wireless from bass to pre amp and very happy with it, after several years my Boss wireless started making strange noises so I replaced it with the NUX. All in all a good gig.😊

As a double bassist you become the coolest guy on stage by default, it's the bass. I must admit I have actually twirled the bass on its endpin at a gig about three times in the last nine years, I save it for very special moments.😊

Same thing in Ontario, there is a festival somewhere almost every weekend in the summer and then nothing except a few jams and the odd touring band concert from September to June. You nailed it with "subculture", I have only played festivals for the last two years and at first I was surprised when I saw hundreds of trailers and motorhomes at various festivals and then noticed that everyone knows everyone else and they migrate around on weekends almost as a group. Lots of jams for those who play and enthusiastic audiences for jams and shows. The thing that struck me most was how incredibly friendly everyone is, and unlike some other types of music, no ego issues. All the musicians, including the touring pros, will chat with you and discuss music, instruments and anything else. Great fun and I'm looking forward to next summer.

Over here most bluegrass festivals happen in small towns and rural areas away from the big cities and are run by local committees who are familiar with the bands available. In some cases I expect they may use agents for the big name touring bands. Our BL is president of the Bluegrass Music Association of Canada so he knows a lot of people involved in festivals and has played at many of them and this is an advantage for us. Canada is a huge place so we play mostly in central or northern Ontario. We have band members who live hours apart and get the set list ahead of time and then we do a few run throughs at the festival before we play our sets. Only three of us live close enough to have regular rehearsals and one of us (BL) heads to Florida for most of the winter, luckily we have enough experience to pull it all together when we need to. At this point we are booked at a big festival in Tottenham (Ontario) in June and will probably play at River Valley and Owen Sound. Sorry for the rambling post, but we are not the typical bluegrass band.

The real rehearsal was yesterday at 4:00 in the afternoon when three of our five piece bluegrass band met to go over some of our material and try a few new songs for festivals we are booked at next summer. With mandolin, guitar and me on DB we worked out some good arrangements of some traditional bluegrass songs and a few bluegrass arrangements of some non bluegrass ones as well, lots of fun and some nice three part vocals. The day started with a jazz jam at 10:00 in the morning with a guitar player and drummer that I have played with in several bands over the years. We are old guys (I'm 78) and the only one still gigging in the bluegrass band and a 7 piece swing/jazz band so we just call out a song and find a chart and have some fun. The guitarist has made some backing tracks with chords so we can jam along with that or just play without the tracks...great fun and always something to learn and work on with no pressure and no egos, we have no plans to play anywhere except in the drummer's basement. In between these two sessions I had my weekly hour long DB lesson and after two years my bowing is getting a lot better. I work on all sorts of music from Bach to jazz and my teacher is more than happy to help me figure out the best ways to play some of the jazz charts for the seven piece band and also work on some Simandl. This week he asked me to help out the bass section of his youth orchestra for their Christmas concert and gave me the music. Most of the 30+ students in the orchestra are too small to play cello and bass so he adds a few adults to fill out the sections, this will be the fourth concert I have played with them and it is fun and challenging for me, really looking forward to the orchestra rehearsals. It's an hour drive to the city where all this takes place and it was a long day but very satisfying and I always come home pumped and ready to start practicing. Next rehearsal is Monday night with the swing band, we have a gig next Friday. I consider myself very lucky to have so much music in my life. 😊

Best purchase was a set of Spirocore Mittel strings for the '70's Czech ply bass I use for bluegrass. It is MUCH louder and clearer with the Spiros and I can hold my own in acoustic jams which was impossible with the Obligatos that were on it and it sounds even better when it is amplified. I played it at four festivals this summer and it stays in tune in all kinds of weather conditions and is a joy to play.

Same thing happens if I try to log in using Chrome but it works OK with Safari (Bing). It's been like this for a few days. I am practically computer illiterate so I have no idea what's going on.

In our swing/jazz/Dixie seven piece (sometimes eight if we have a singer) band we usually play 3x45. Almost all of our music is from charts and the horn players (4) don't get many breaks and we don't waste time between songs so they get a chance to rest their lips at the breaks. The bluegrass band mainly plays at festivals and that usually means anywhere from one to three sets of 45 minutes. We might play an afternoon and evening set on one day or the sets could be spread out over a couple of days, most bluegrass festivals work that way and only the big name bands play longer sets. Over here in Canada back in the '70's when I had full time gigs it was 4x40 sets a night (9,10,11,12) six nights a week but by the '80's it had dropped to weekends only and 2 or 3 sets. Now it is the odd weekend and one nighters or a festival.🙁

Me too but in my case it's my DB and my Yamaha SLB 200 EUB...you never know what might happen with a big fragile wooden box. I also have a spare DB pickup in my gig bag. I'm a belt and suspenders/braces kind of guy.😁

I had them on my Czech ply bass that I use for bluegrass and they felt good to play and sounded OK but not very loud, they are recommended on many sites as a good string for bluegrass. I switched to Spiro medium, a very different type of string but also used for bluegrass, and got a real boost in volume and better sound and have stayed with them. They work well in acoustic situations and better than the Obligatos with a pickup, might not be the same for all basses of course.

That's what I was thinking, just about to post it but a bit late as usual.

A week late but here are a couple of photos from August 10 and 11 when Simply Blu played our last festival of the season, great venue and the best sound system we have used this year. Some well known touring bands and supporting bands and some great music and workshops including one for bass players which I attended and picked up a few tips and licks. We played three sets over two days and our last one on Sunday morning included a last minute gospel medley that began with a walking boogie bass line solo while I sang the chorus of Will The Circle Be Unbroken. I started playing the song that way as joke in rehearsal but the rest of the band loved it so we did it that way for the first chorus and then settled into the usual rhythm for the rest of the medley and the crowd loved it. Not all bluegrass fans would be happy with this version but this festival features everything from ultra traditional bands to some "newgrass" sounds and was a great way to end our festival season. I used my trusty '70's Czech laminate with a Canadian made Schatten Design pickup into a Canadian Traynor SB112 combo with DI to the house system, sounded great. That amp is quite popular in North America for DB. 😊

I enjoyed the video and was surprised when I saw the banner at the front of the stage. My grandfather Bartlett was from Yeovil and came to Canada in the early 1900's and I expect I am related to the Bartlett of the construction company on the banner. An uncle of mine did a lot work on our family history and met a number of Bartletts from Devon and I heard about some of them when I was in Yeovil a few years ago. Sorry to derail the main topic but it was interesting to see my family name on the banner. My son who doesn't have any children will be the last of my grandfather's side of the family in Canada to be surnamed Bartlett.

Do it. You will probably have a chance to play music that is not what you usually play and that is a good thing and although it can be a challenge and you will come out of the experience as a better player. Once you play one show word gets around about your ability and you move up the call list. I have found that is important to 1) show up on time 2) understand that the MD is the boss so do what he says 3) understand that you are not the show now, you are a supporting part of it 4) be prepared for a lot of "hurry up and wait time" at rehearsals 5) practice and really know your music. The best ones I have played have had a couple of band rehearsals before working with the cast so music problems are solved ahead of time. You will meet musicians that you don't know and that can lead to all sorts of good things, sit back and enjoy it.

Good band! I have seen that mic used for bands like this but the one we used was a different model, ideal for groups that often rehearse acoustically in a circle or semi circle. As I have said before, bluegrass is great fun to play and sing and not as easy as it sounds. 😊