Monster Bassist Duffy

I've been wondering how an Open Mic feature set of Burnt Sugar might sound with minimal to no drums and only core players on stage.   I got my chance to hear a really cool rock/blues/folk/country/reggae band tonight as the feature at Open Mic ~ no drum kit ~ so I checked it out.

Bassist Tim Duffy of the
Jefferson County Green Band
(and guest player with 
Burnt Sugar Blues)

Cafe Paradiso's Wednesday night Open Mic featured the Jefferson County Green Band, who promoted an "unplugged" set although each of them had at least one mic or amp, sometimes two.   They did not, however, have a drummer.   Bassist Tim Duffy held down rhythm in fine form.   Most of their songs were new, some from their latest album Great Spirit (including the title cut) and some from their next album (as yet unnamed).   Duffy spends most of his time brokering hotels while living in Cedar Rapids, 95 miles away, so he heard JCGB's newest songs for the first time at 5 pm . . . four hours before taking the stage with the band.   This man is a master!   Tim Duffy monsters the bass!

Lead singer Steve McClain sounded buoyant and the 45-minute set was full of easy, happy vibes.   Fatherhood looks good on Steve ~ radiant, actually.   His wife, Michaela, sang two songs with the band ~ one was a really beautiful calypso version of Islands in the Stream (sung in 1983 by Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton) . . . calypso because they "had to spice it up."   Mmm, scrumptious.

The Green Band will be at the Neil Young tribute at Red Rock tavern tonight, Thursday night.

So . . . I'm excited about doing a feature set for Open Mic sans drum kit.   We have some songs that would be perfect.   :)

*** Update: Friday 12:02 am ~ I changed Tim's career info above to hotel brokering.   He handed off hotel management last summer.

Giglet

We're planning to take part in Open Mic again with one song from the sixties, Shakin' All Over, and our namesake song, Burnt Sugar Blues, which we played at the February party.   We'll be undrummed again with Mike, Russ, and me.

I thought "giglet" would perfectly describe such a short performance.

So I looked it up and found that "giglet" means "a giddy, playful girl".   It's obvious we need a new definition for the word.   The Urban Dictionary says it's "large quantities of something; opposite of a niblet".   That's cute, too.

Jazz musicians started using the word "gig" in the 1920s for paid performances.   Well, I guess the audience pays attention, and Fairfield audiences are famous for paying exquisitely conscientious attention.

Having stated for my own edification the wherefors and whereases, I therefore now declare with all due pomp and one true circumstance:

Yes, we got us a giglet!

Our First Open Mic

We (Russ, Mike, me) did our first Open Mic last night:  "undrummed" was our theme for two songs.   Here's the audio file.



Things We Said Today is an early Beatles tune.   Mike played the intro twice because the mic was off when I was supposed to start singing.   I wrote Would You Catch Me in December and Mike and Russ made chords for it in February.   After our set, Keith DeBoer, the MC, introduced my son Shane for the next act.   Shane wrote the first tune, and the second is Stand By Me.



Topping off the night as the featured act was Global Cooling led by chanter Chandra Das, who filled in on a few hours' notice for Jonas Magram who'd had an accident and couldn't make the show (he's doing okay).   Global Cooling's bass player didn't make it, so Russ joined in to fill out the bottom end.

Update:   Jonas supplied the "news report" of his injury ~

Undrummed

We're doing a new sound for our first appearance at Open Mic this Wednesday, April 4.   "Undrummed" is softer and more relaxed, and a whole different sound than what we did in February.     Only the core songwriters will be on stage ~ Russ, Mike, and me ~ so we can get on and off the stage in the 10 minutes allotted per group.   That leaves a lot of space between the notes in these three songs.

We'd love to share these with you at Open Mic in Cafe Paradiso.   Don't know exactly when we'll be on stage; performances start at 8 pm.