What’s it like playing the main stage at GOF at 9:00 Sunday morning? Well I’m here to tell you.
First of all let me give you some important background. Our set was not a gospel set as this was negotiated with the festival producers when we accepted the time slot. If our band was to do the gospel set, it was highly possible that there could have been some smiting happening like thunder, lightening, locusts, plague, floods etc.
This leads me to tell you about our band. While, we had most of the requisite acoustic instruments, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bass (the instrument not the fish) we also had the big bluegrass festival no no…..drums. The drums were allowed per the Houston Jones exception of the Northern California Bluegrass Society. Also we brought along a jug and a washboard for good measure but did forget the banjo. Not your mother’s traditional bluegrass band and very ill suited to play some Stanley Brothers gospel classics. But then again we weren’t the gospel set, just the opening act for the gospel set.
So let’s talk audience for a few minutes. Who is in the audience at 9:00 AM Sunday morning at a bluegrass festival for a set that is not gospel and not bluegrass, on the morning after Saturday night, the last night of jamming? It wasn’t our families as they quit coming to our shows years ago, Golfers with later tee times from the golf course across the street, what do you think? Ah, vendors, volunteers and sound folks, now there is a hearty group of folks and yes they were there.
Actually, we had a nice sized audience of musically interested folks. We’re unique enough to draw some diverse (and excellent) musicians to see what this cacophony was about and they did a good job of pretending to be enjoying it. Our emcee was Cliff Compton and he seemed to enjoy the show as well.
I also had two of my bass teachers in the audience (which I thought was pretty cool); one was there by choice and the other was working, Lisa Burns and Paul Knight. Besides them I noticed a couple of other “prominent” bass players in the audience. The conclusion I draw from that is that bass players have good taste in music.
Enough of that, I promised some more “odds and ends” and will move on to that.
Last year I was all gung-ho about getting some opportunities to play at any of the number of Octoberfests (or if you prefer Oktoberfests) in the Bay area. I pushed the idea that bluegrass or Americana could be included as beer drinking music and would fit very nicely at these events.
Turns out I landed one of these gigs last year at the Mountain View Oktoberfest. We played two sets that I thought were well received. I contacted the producer for our return engagement this year and was told how great we were last year but that he was going all German bands this year. In other words no accordion no gig…..no lederhosen no gig….. no schmaltz no gig. So it goes.
When I think about that I’m reminded of a joke that I’m quite sure most of you have heard and know the punch line to it. So I’ll turn it around Jeopardy style to see if that helps.
The category is Odds and Ends for $1000
Answer: Perfect Pitch
(Remember your answer must be in the form of a question.)
Question: What do have when you toss an accordion into a dumpster and it lands on a banjo?
The final “end” today is the Monthly SCVFA reminder. This Sunday the Fiddlers are holding their monthly jam at the Hoover Middle School in San Jose at the corner of Park and Naglee from 1:00 to 5:00. Hope you can come out and jam.
