Trio at Jigg's Corner

Once again our trio headed up to Jigg's Corner to rehearse in front of an audience. It was a strange night; possibly, I was told, because the Moon was in Gemini again. But that's another story. Jigg's is always good because there are a lot of people listening, including a smattering of musicians. (It's also good thanks to the bartender and kitchen, both of which do an excellent job.) We did four tunes. Instead of doing the tunes as we usually would, we somehow ended up auditioning a drummer who we had never met. He sounded OK on the first tune, but that's about it. I brought the DX-7; I didn't sound good on the first tune because it requires a straight piano sound and extended range, neither of which the DX-7 has. There weren't enough mikes on stage for me to have one to play the recorders into in the last number. So we ended up doing an imprompt "share the mic" slapstick routine. I used soprano, alto, and tenor recorders, working my way from big to small during the tune.

Solo at Black River Barn

Went down by myself for the open mic; brought the DX-7 and Hartke Kickback-12, intending probably to just jam with others rather than do my solo thing. There was no signup sheet, and the house band wasn't ready untl after 10. Very informal. I approached them and asked to join the house band for awhile and they assented. Band was way too loud! (Probably because of the guitarist). I knew most of the numbers they did and was able to follow the others because they were only 4 or 5 chord songs. The crowd did not seem to mind the volume level. I did; I had to turn my amp up way past the point where it colors the sound too much, and I wished I had better hearing protection. I always use cotton; here I would have needed gun muffs or those compressable foam things. After about 6 songs, they started inviting singles up to sing. It appeared that they were all regulars. The first woman to get up couldn't sing and wasn't pretty, so they let her do one tune only. The best performer I saw was a woman who did an excellent job belting out "Like the way I do" (and she was pretty). Not sure if this venue would work for my acoustic trio, but the house band assured me it would be fine. Of course, they're just trying to build a crowd.

Checking out Black River Barn, Succasunna N.J. USA

Tuesdays aren't open mic night at the Barn, but I went down to check the place out. They had a DJ there who had brought his own sound system. He was set up in the end next to the pizza oven. I could tell that that was the only place in the room to set a band up, and it was going to be hot (as in temperature). Barmaid was not good. Let's say lousy. I had a bottle of Bud ($3), and for my second had a draft instead ($3). She opened a bottle even though I asked for a draft. Then she poured me a totally flat draft (end of the keg I guess), and ignored me. Meanwhile, the DJ was playing the third Eagles song in a row (Desperado: why do so many people like that song? It's only listenable when Johnny Cash sings it, and it's the singer, not the song.) I left as soon as possible.