This is a cut/paste from a Gchat conversation I had with my Dad yesterday, when I related the story of my weekend.
Terry B had a party out in Micanopy where they live. Same people I got Oyster from – known them as long as I’ve known Mike, roughly 12 years.
She’s always said, years ago when I was threatening to play guitar (this is lonnng ago), “Man, Chris, when we gonna get together and jam??”
Well, my attendance at this party she was throwing for Mike (same Mike I was visiting) was a (pleasant) surprise
Maybe 30 people at its most crowded
I had my big amp and my strat. After shying back for a while, I caved into people asking me when the hell I was gonna plug in and contribute, I set up with an extension chord and just sat on my amp, on the outskirts of the circle of lawn chairs, with the group of musicians at the other side.
My volume low, just feeling around for some practice.
After one jam, someone came over to me and said, “Dude, that was really thick. Great playin, that was awesome.”
and he shook my hand.
inside, I about shit myself, it was such a great compliment.
so then they demanded I move my gear “into the circle,” and that’s where I stayed, on and off, for the next 4 hours.
must’ve gone through 20 songs, and hardly hit a wrong note.
I was playing lead the whole time, because the rest of the “band” consisted of 5 acoustics, 1 acoustic bass running through a little solid state Fender amp, a xylophone, a fiddle, a banjo, two or three singers rotating through songs, and 6 people playing drums.
I was in heaven.
Flashbulbs kept going off because people were taking pictures of us playing.
Now, one lady I was introduced to was in town for Bo Diddley’s funeral. I struck up conversation and learned that she’s been recording with Bo Diddley as a backup singer for 25 years.
I told her I had my rig with me, and that I’d be playing that night, and ironically enough just learned to play the song ‘Bo Diddley’ a week before the man died.
So, after 4 songs of getting comfy, I started strumming on muted strings, the ‘Bo Diddley beat.’
you know the one.
and everybody sorta stopped what they were doing…
and I began, and she stood up and sang the whole thing, with me playing riffs on the breaks
with all these people around
and come to find out, one person in the crowd had a handheld DAT recorder. she recorded it in stereo, pretty high quality.
she’ll be sending me an MP3 (hopefully)
she even said, the chick that recorded all this, that “it sounded so good even afterwards when you were just noodling around before the next song that I kept on recording, so I have that little part as well.”
I got so many firm handshakes and hugs and compliments and requests for when I’ll be back, please come back soon.
I’m not making this up, or overstating it…. I felt like a rockstar.
and I insisted all the other players take a few riffs on my strat. they LOVED it, and some of them were exceptional players.
so that’s the story of how I played a 4hr set of lead guitar in Micanopy this past Saturday.
I’m hoping the MP3 shows up soon so i can post it up to my channel as an audio/video
