Back on Track at Last
The holidays certainly take their toll on my time; yours as well, I would guess. The recording process got bogged down, too, in part because the studio was tied up over the holidays, then my choice of banjo players got sick on the first of January and was still ill around the last week in January. Additionally, he kept complaining that a.) he didn’t want to go all the way to Lexington from Louisville and b.) he couldn’t take off work because he had employees.
This is not a problem specific to my project; generally, weekend players or even working musicians can be problematic about scheduling time to record, as my previous experience working on other projects as proven. Then, of course, once they’ve committed to a schedule, it is often difficult to ensure that they will playing at the level you will want. Session players and musicians who have been session players understand the rules and will be ready to play when the time comes.
As a result of this delay, I gave up on my friend and connected up with two bluegrass musicians that I knew to be longtime working players at all levels, Murrell Thixton and Danny Jones. Thixton, a banjo player, was last with Storefront Congregation, a most excellent bluegrass band from Louisville. The players in Storefront included several musicians who had been in a bluegrass group, New Horizon, that was named Upcoming Artist of the Year way back in 1980, at the height of the bluegrass craze in Louisville. Mandolinist Danny Jones has been in the bluegrass scene for many years, including a stint with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys and as the founder of Bluegrass Alliance, a band that ultimately spawned Newgrass Alliance.
Anyway, they both asked for a CD of the tunes I was interested in having them play on, which I sent to them. I also sent an email down to my producer in Lexington and asked for a selection of dates. At this writing, that’s where things stand for recording.
On other fronts, the television program “The Player’s Spot” is continuing right along. We have recorded ten shows and broadcast seven of them. Clips from the artists on the show have been posted on youtube.com.
The downside to this project has been that I haven’t been playing nearly enough. This lack of picking time has been commented on by other folks who were playing at the Wednesday night jam session, so for some time, we have been searching for another friendly place to jam, with no success, until the management of the Bluegrass Brewing Company in St. Matthews, which had licensed the use of their name to the Theatre Square bar, took over (bought?) the Theatre Square facility, which has now reopened after being dark for over two months. Steve R. and his wife Debbie promptly went down and arranged for the return of the Wednesday night jam, which will kick off on Wednesday, February 7. I am eager to return to playing for two or three hours at a stretch.