Sometimes Daily Grist…
“Early one day the sun wouldn’t shine, I was walking down the street not feeling too fine, I saw two old men with a bottle between ’em, And this was the song that I heard them singing, Lord preserve us and protect us,
We’ve been drinking whiskey ‘fore breakfast”
Lyrics for “Whiskey Before Breakfast” purportedly by Mike Cross
Actually, not my favorite pastime but it is one of my favorite tunes. My research assistant (you remember her, oogle) tells me that the tune with this name originates from a hangover of a drunken jam in Canada that was continued first thing the next morning with the help and inspiration of some of the previous nights libations, so the name. Old time purists can probably give you the original name of the tune (or tunes) and a more complete origins story (or stories).
Being an ironic sort of guy, I do get a kick out of hearing some hot teen or even a pre-teen kid picking the heck out of it.
Enough of that, what I really want to talk about is drinking and playing.
Last Saturday one of my jam groups played at a winery for a fundraiser. Our compensation was…wait for it…wine. Today I’m talking about drinking today not about getting paid. I’ll get into that again another time.
Drinking and playing, this could be a recipe for disaster but those winery folks are smart. They have these controlled pourers on the wine so you can only get a couple of fingers per pour. Hard to get into trouble sipping.
This was not a band gig but rather was a jam group showing up to jam and it wasn’t one of those invite only jams with only one hot player on each instrument, no sir it was all comers. Three guitars, three banjos, two fiddles, a mandolin, a uke, a dobro (or was it a resonator guitar, I can’t tell the difference), a cello and featuring yours truly on the doghouse. (I would have chased another bass player out and I have no problem stepping on the cello.) Someone said this was more like a bluegrass orchestra than a band.
Actually, it was a lot of fun and the folks attending the fundraiser seemed to enjoy it. Getting back to theme, drinking and playing there was no issue but we did play Whiskey Before Breakfast.
Earlier this month the jug band I play in had a gig at the Plough and Stars in San Francisco. Now this is some different calculus. A group of seven sexagenarians let loose on the streets of San Francisco on Labor Day weekend, one would expect trouble and at an Irish bar as well. There were no governors on the pour spouts in this place. Luckily it was only one set and nobody got to sloppy to play. Which was good because the ten or twelve people who were there got their money’s worth.
Truthfully, if any (excessive) drinking took place it was because we bombed. We played well enough but to an empty house. It was Labor Day Saturday and we were competing with Billy Joel at AT&T Park. Dang, Billy beats us out every time. I bet he had a few drinks.
Then there are Farmer’s Markets. These are on Saturday or Sunday mornings from 9:00 to 1:00 in what I would call my prime drinking hours. You know, Whiskey Before Breakfast. It doesn’t matter which band or jam group is playing, I have my flask at ready. Nope!! Not here either.
So for drinking and playing, what else is left? There certainly is the woodshed. Grabbing my bass, a six-pack of craft beers (probably a double hopped IPA with about 9.0% ABV) and a bottle of tequila and getting some real work done on my chops is how I roll. Okay, okay so I exaggerate a little.
Festivals and this includes campouts are really the only place I drink and play, sometimes in reverse order but usually getting both in together.
In my experience, there is a fine line in having a beer to loosen up before playing to having too many beers (or whatever) before playing badly. At a festival it might be alright to get a little sloppy if the others you are playing with are in the same space and time but if you’re performing at club, party, Farmer’s Market or at AT&T Park, drinking too much detracts from the performance and that is not fair to the audience. Just ask Billy Joel.
As for Whiskey Before Breakfast as I said up top, not my favorite pastime but truth be told I’ve tried it a couple of times particularly if Tequila counts but I haven’t done so in a lot of years unless I had an early gig.
