Lets see we so far auditioned 3 bass players and only one so far makes the grade. A good friend of mine John is a drummer and we have been jamming together for years and we both auditioned for casino type bands and we both failed to get the gig. So we decided f**k them and we are putting together a project with our music, stuff we want to play. The CL ad basically mentioned we are looking for older mature bass players and in all honestly they are coming out of the wood work. The one common ground is these guys play mostly country but want to play rock although not hard metal. Thats OK with me since I love good ole preamp number 9. Last night my fav bass player so far showed up and he knew 4 of the 5 tunes we asked them to learn (American Band, Highway to hell, Aint talking about love, Whats your name, and finally Would) for the audition. We have a few really good singers on the side although what we (or I) want to do is to audition a real singer rather than continue with the same ole singers. There has got to be new blood out there for sure, or those who I have yet to discover. One thing for sure that has had a huge effect on me was the audition last week with the Casino gig. Yes I did try to learn the very new original material and while I beat out so many here on the coast one was slightly better than I am. So I have looked more closely at my playing and it has motivated me to not practice my rhythm playing but my leads. While I was speaking to John (drummer) I mentioned exactly this and he was quite happy with me saying this and then he dropped a small bomb on me. John stated while I can nail just about any David Gilmore lead with the same tone and attack this influence is so strong it bleeds into the other tunes. It was actually funny how he told me; man I have never seen someone walk on so many rose peddles or be so careful with wording. He was like Jocko your good, damn good but your leads.......... Well his feedback has pushed me further into more wood shedding back to the basics. I have always been someone who takes comments like these rather well since I try not to have a ego or be one of those guitar players I really hate. I believe everyone here has met one of those people, so good in their own minds and quite in love with themselves. While some of those guys are damn good and may or may not be better than I am the attitude is a huge turn off for me. You can't tell those guys anything and they are not fun to be around.
Well its off to work in a bit, then a jam session with another bass and a really hot guitar player tomorrow. Dammit I am going to get a f**king band put together down here. Last nights bass player is actually leaving his band although they have two more shows at one of the casinos here and they are making 2500 for two nights work between 5 people. Dammit I want those casino gigs so bad right now.... Even with my faulty Gilmore lead playing I know I have what it takes in motivation and determination all I need is the right people and a little luck....
Hope everyone had a great week, we actually got some rain last night and rain is something we need so bad here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Cheers