Staggering on

A bit late but it's been a busy week. Last Thursday I drove 400km to Manitoulin Island to play at a bluegrass festival with a band called Simply Blu (dumb name, not my idea) that I have been with for about 18 months. We have 5 members, 3 of us live close to each other but the others are 3 and 5 hours away so we decide on set lists and the three of us rehearse and then meet up with the other two at the venue for a run through. All are seasoned bluegrass players and excellent musicians and the music comes together quickly and away we go. We played two sets on two days of the three day festival and had a good time with only a few bad moments. It was supposed to be on an outdoor stage but incredibly bad weather for all three days with wind and rain and temps in the 10 to 13 C range meant we played in a small hockey arena that was on the festival site, sound was a bit of an issue but we managed, good FOH sound crew. I also played a set with a band that needed a bass player. I had never met them before the festival but they sent me a set list and I learned the 13 songs and I met them the evening before the gig, we had a one hour rehearsal the next day before our set and it went amazingly well. That band is basically a family band, the leader and his three teen kids are the main part and a banjo player and I filled things out and we all had a good time. The highlight for me was the Thursday night open mic jam, I was the only bass player at the jam and spent a wonderful two and a half hours playing some songs that I knew and a lot that I had heard but never played and a few that were new to me. Luckily I also play guitar so I watched the guitarists for the chords but in bluegrass that is made a bit tricky because they use capos all the time, I had some nice compliments about my playing so I guess what I played was acceptable. Great fun and I learned a lot, I'm primarily a jazz guy so I'm still learning bluegrass. We have two more festivals to play this summer and I'm looking forward to them. I used my old Czech bass with Spiros and a pickup into the PA and it sounded great.

Third year of the musical "Five, the Dionnes" a show about the famous quintuplets born 90 years ago just a few miles from me. The previous shows were in a large old theatre in North Bay and I posted about them, but this year it was a lower budget fundraiser for the Dionne museum in a smaller hall with seating for about 180 and we had a full house. The seven piece band was squeezed into a corner but since most of us have played the show for all three years we managed very well. Most of the actors were returnees but the two new ones were very good singers and this was the best version we have done, lovely harmonies in many songs. The production is performed the way an old time radio drama would have been done with the actors reading from scripts and into individual mics and playing several characters with sound effects and background music and songs scattered throughout the play. The audience loved it and other than a bit of a bobble in one song I managed OK, two of the numbers start with a few bars of a solo bass riff and I nailed those. The photos were taken during the sound check in the afternoon, I used my Shen SB 100 into my Traynor SB112 and DI into the PA. All in all a good night. 😊

One bass player has a very good left hand shape, I'm the other one.🙄

Last week once again I was one of a few adults who fill out the cello and bass sections of my teacher's youth orchestra and it was a wonderful concert in the cathedral in North Bay Ontario. An entertaining mix from Bach to fiddle tunes and a couple of solo pieces as well and the crowd of about 350 loved it. The last number was a version of "Boil the cabbage down", an old fiddle tune, and for this piece about 9 of the youngest members were added and played like pros...from memory! In the second photo you will see a couple of the youngest musicians, they are 72 years younger than I am. 🙄 Loads of fun and I'm looking forward the next concert, probably in about 6 months, this one was a definite high point of the year for me and had some challenging music, I always learn a lot from these concerts.😊 Next up are a couple of jazz gigs, a theatre show next week and three bluegrass festivals in the summer.

Here's a photo of two of the instruments I referred to in my post on May 8. The guitar is a 1967 Gibson J50 ADJ that I bought new in Toronto in late 1967, I still have it and enjoy playing it and it has been gigged extensively over the years as explained in my earlier post. I was 21 when I bought it, I'm really old now. The banjo is a 1975 that I bought new when I joined a trad band in mid '75. It is an Ode tenor built when Baldwin (of piano and organ fame) owned the company, thus the Baldwin Ode name. I use it on some jazz gigs including one last weekend, lovely to play and stays in tune better than most banjoes and sounds great and has been used on hundreds of gigs. The only downside is that it weighs 14.6 pounds(!) due to the heavy cast bell metal tone ring but it sounds so good I just live with it and use a wide strap. Edit: While I really like playing both of these I LOVE playing my DB. 😊

I bought a brand new Gibson J50ADJ acoustic guitar in 1967 and have played it in hundreds of environments and venues from gigs in posh hotels and restaurants to campfires and house parties. In late '67 you could still travel by ocean liners(NOT cruise ships) and I took a ship from Vancouver to Sydney and spent 5 months in SE Australia on a Honda 175 Srambler (!) with my Gibson strapped on the back. I had great fun on the ships both ways playing at parties in the bars and cabins and playing at the various amateur nights. The guitar has survived all that abuse, the only repair was just after I bought it when the bridge developed a crack and had to be replaced. I don't play it much these days but it always feels and sounds good and the narrow fingerboard works well with my small hands. My next oldest is a Baldwin Ode tenor banjo that I bought new in 1975 to play in a nostalgia/trad/20's-50's trio. We played a lot of club gigs and parties for the 8 months the band lasted including two month long house band stints, one in Toronto and the other one halfway across the country in Regina. No repairs and I still play it, in fact I used it just last weekend in the trad set that the swing/trad band I have been in for 7 years includes in most of our shows. It's tricky going from DB for the swing to that little skinny banjo neck but it's fun to play and adds some sparkle to the music and an authentic sound. That banjo was $CAD 1100.00 when I bought, a huge price at the time. I also have a 1988(?) Yamaha RB 750A bass that was bought new and I gigged (jazz, blues, pop)with that until I went upright with EUB and the DB in 2015. EUB (Stagg then Yamaha SB200) in 2015 and the to DB in 2018 after I travelled over to the Basschat DB Bass Bash in 2018 and that started me down the DB path. As you can see I am not one who wants to keep buying and selling and luckily managed to find instruments that work for me and have given me thousands of hours of enjoyment over the years.

Up to a point that is true of course but most Canadians don't want to be referred to as "Americans" simply because we share a continent. I expect it would be much the same if we were talking about "British" music and included music from all of the countries and regions in the UK, or maybe we could talk about "European" and include everyone... maybe not. Probably not worth debating I guess but we Canadians are proud of our contributions to "Americana", whatever that actually is, and to music in general. Interesting discussion though. 😊🇨🇦

Neil Young and the Cowboy Junkies are Canadian, Young has spent a large part of his life in the US but started his musical career in Canada and The Junkies still are based in Canada. Just sayin'.....🇨🇦

Busy couple of days with a rehearsal with my teacher's youth orchestra yesterday where I am one of a few adults who fill out the cello and bass sections, not enough big kids to play full size cello and bass. Lots of fun playing everything from Pachelbel's canon to a medley of fiddle tunes and we are getting ready for a May concert. I left that one a bit early to rush across town to a rehearsal for the swing band I am in, we have a show in early May. Five of the seven members have music degrees of one sort or another so it is a challenging group to play with, we have been together for 6 or 7 years and have played gigs in a lot of different venues. This afternoon I had a three hour rehearsal with a bluegrass band that will be playing at three festivals this summer, it is our first get together since autumn, the band leader spends the winter in Forida. Lots of fun and we managed to remember most of the music and our vocal harmony was pretty good considering the long break. The banjo player is a joy to play with, he is a sensitive musician and doesn't overdo things, quite rare for a bluegrass banjoist! Lots of variety, I played my Shen ply bass arco for the youth orchestra, same bass through an amp for the swing band and an old beater ply Czech bass acoustically with the bluegrass band. For the rest of the week I will be practicing for these bands at home and prepping for my lesson on Friday, happy to be busy.😊

That's a great idea! Mine go into my gig bag in a small fabric bag with a drawstring along with a usb cable and adaptors so I can plug in and charge if necessary. The WL 20 is great, I have used it for practice, rehearsals and gigs for years with no problems.

Hmmmmm, what is the date today? 😊

To make it even better (or worse depending on your point of view) I play tenor banjo in a trad jazz band and in the bluegrass band I play bass but get to listen to our excellent 5 string banjo player...best of both worlds.😄 Edit: I had to remove the ' that somehow slipped into the original post...I am getting old I guess.🙄

Steady now, there are some banjo players on here, I'm one of them.....😊

Same way I feel, I'll be 78 in two months and love gigging with my DB and I've got a show, jazz gigs, some jams and three bluegrass festivals coming up this spring and summer and I'm taking weekly lessons and will be helping out my teacher's youth orchestra's bass section in a concert in May. I'm not sitting around because I know the clock is ticking and consider myself to be extremely lucky to be able to do this now.

Don't be silly, part of the joy of owning a DB is that you can brag/complain/compare about all the money you have spent, it's just part of the bargain when you play the best instrument and the one that is the most fun and most frustrating to play. Just today I spent CD $360 for a new set of strings for my "backup bass" that I have used at precisely three gigs in the four years that I have owned it. I have also had a new bridge fitted with adjusters, bought a better bow and had some set up work done on it and bought two pick ups and this is a beat up 50 year old ply bass.🙄 I hope to use it for some bluegrass festivals this summer and maybe recoup some money but it is fun to play and lets me save my "good bass" for jazz gigs. Crazy according to some but we all have to suffer for our art.😉

I like to play but I live in a very rural area with the nearest large town (50,000) an hour away and so that is where most rehearsals and jazz gigs are although we travel another hour or two for some gigs. At 77 I want to play as much as I can because time is passing quickly, this summer I have a jazz gig or two an hour away and 5-6 days of rehearsal and performances for a stage show at the same distance. I somehow got into a bluegrass band 18 months ago and we have three weekend festivals booked and another possible one. The closest is 2 hours away and the farthest is about 6 hours and the others 4 hours but I will make a weekend of it and have a little holiday while playing at the festivals. I will be playing DB at all of these gigs. My weekly DB lesson is also an hour away. At this point in my life I want to play all I can while I am still able to drive and play and the driving is the price I have to pay for living in my little part of paradise, I've been here for 45 years now and still love it.😊

Gollihur now handles the NUX system, it apparently avoids the impedance problem that some wireless systems have and Mark explains it in the product description.

I hated the wires too so about 5 years ago I bought a Boss WL20 to use with my EUB (Yamaha SLB 200) and DB (Shen SB100) and love it. Very simple to set up and I have used it hundreds of times for practice at home and for rehearsals, jams and gigs and never had a problem. it is easy to charge with a simple usb with no base needed and you can charge each unit separately or plugged in together. I used it with my DB for two gigs last week and for home practice too. I go from the bass pickup (Realist Lifeline) to a Schatten Design volume control unit that I mount on my music stand or mic stand with a bracket I made and from there it goes by cable to an amp or PA and I have never had it run out of power even at long gigs. It has been flawless for jazz, orchestra, bluegrass and I would buy another one if I ever have a problem with this one. I have also used it straight into the amp at some gigs or rehearsals where the amp is close enough to use the controls on the amp. There are similar units available but this one has worked for me and I know another DB player that uses the same system and loves it, highly recommended by me.

Me too, a lot louder. Realist Lifeline on my Shen SB100.

Two gigs with the seven piece swing/trad band. Last Tuesday was a Jazz at the Junction gig at a Legion hall where we have played several times, the place was full and they were right into the music, no dancing though, the place is too small. I was in some sort of weird place mentally(age and/or long Covid fog ?) but as front man I managed to say what I needed to say and played reasonably well if the recording was accurate. I came home frustrated and depressed with the whole night's performance even though the audience liked it. On Sunday we played a charity gig at a large (for our part of the world) church to raise money for roof repairs. Lots of stairs and twisty corridors to navigate for load in and out but great acoustics once the audience of about 300 came in and we played well and I was back in the real world and was happy with my performance. It was a strange set up with the band on several levels with a large immovable altar right in the middle and the band spread out with the Bose PA set up behind us, and since only the bass and keyboard use the PA it was hard to hear the horns on "stage" but it was great for the audience and they loved it. My bass teacher and another DB player were in the audience and that made me a bit nervous but after the concert he was complimentary, I'll find out what he really thinks at my lesson on Friday.

If you do opt for a new bridge I would recommend having adjusters installed. It means you can make changes without a luthier and also makes it possible to use some very good pickups like the Realist Lifeline and others that install at the adjusters. Nothing wrong with having two DB's, I have a Shen SB 100 with a Lifeline for jazz gigs and for any bowing and a beater Czech bass with a Vic's Model B (or similar) pickup for bluegrass and some outdoor work. Confession: I also have an EUB, Yamaha SLB 200 and all three instruments get played regularly. I have huge amount of GAS for a good hybrid or carved DB but at almost 78 I will get by with what I have now....I think.😉

You're lucky, in my part of the world crowds are small and many venues have closed or only have live music one or two nights a week. I do agree that some bands don't make an effort to be entertaining but I think cost is a large part of the reason that there are fewer live shows and also Covid kept people home listening to streamed music and they have become used to that and it's cheap. Some over here will pay huge sums to see a really big star or attend a big name country or pop music festival but the small venues are dying.

That's true but what struck me was the huge number...4 trillion, who would have guessed? To me it is another explanation why people don't go out to listen to live music very much any more.

I think the best thing to do is to get a bass player or luthier to look at and play your bass, even a bassist who is not a pro will be able to tell if it is you or your bass and you can move on from there. The type of music you play and whether you are using a bow or playing pizz are important things to consider as well. It would be well worth your money to get a pro set up and possibly different strings. I am not an expert but I went through the same thing when I started upright and wasted time and energy on a bad bass. I'm sure there must be some teachers and luthiers in your area and I'm sure you will get some suggestions and contacts from others on here. Good luck!