Saturday 7 August 2010

So, I've got some more gigs together with the band I formed back in May for a "one off" gig in Bridgnorth.

Except that it's not quite the same band. Ken Stratford, the wonderful Double Bassist who can be heard on Pessimistic Me and seen in the videos from the said Bridgnorth gig, will be away for a few months. So I've recruited another musician I've met through playing at the fantastic Crossroads Blues Club, Mick Jeynes to join us on electric bass.

I meet up with Mick this week to play him the tracks we will be doing, and teach him the bass parts for my originals. This was fine, as far as the tracks I know the bass parts for. You see the thing is that I played bass on three of the tracks from Twenty Two, whilst the remaining two feature Matty on electric bass and Ken as mentioned above. Now, I know more or less what they played, because I wrote the songs and was sitting right next to them as we came up with and put the parts down, but I have trouble remembering what I myself did yesterday, let alone what someone else did months ago. Plus the fact Ken's part was played on an instrument I can't even play...

And to add another layer to the fun, I had to sit and actually work out what I myself had played on the tracks I played bass on. Like I did when I taught them to Ken, and didn't think to write them down for reference later.

So this time I not only gave Mick chord sheets, but hand written (and beautiful) bass tabs like this one, with instructions to be as free as he likes and keep what he thinks is good. Because things are never finished are they? They keep changing and I don't want to get all these great musicians on board and not have them put ideas forward.

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