road trip

[Jim D]

I was in WV over the past weekend visiting my dad. We went to
bluegrass music concert while I was there. Very interesting band from
North Carolina. Four piece group, incredible fiddle player. I bought
one of their cd's, haven't listened to it yet tho. Just got home
yesterday in time to make a duo gig of my own. Very tired, plan is to
rest today.


Made video's with my phone of about half a dozen of their tunes. Nice
theater, the videos turned out very clear and usable. We had good
center frontish seats and so I could frame the group very well in the
camera. Nice steady full frame stuff. Not your typical blurry over
exposed youtube concert videos that look to have been taken from the
nose bleed seats :-) I'll be able to actually study the fiddle guys
fingering on some songs, the video is really that clear.

What I notice about true southern bluegrass groups .... they play at
incredible instrumental levels ... yet they sing with a style that's
very foreign to my ear.

I also noticed how awkward things were between songs. That's a lesson
for us. Instead of thinking song ... song .... song ... and ignoring
the audience between songs, realize that they are watching you ALL THE
TIME, and that includes the gaps between tunes. So think about that and
do something for the audience ( at a concert ) to focus on between
songs. Either introdce the next tune, or go right into it, or
something. Fumbling around switching instruments or whatever looks
kinda lame from the audience viewpoint. It seems that having someone
introduce the next song would be a simple fix. That would require a
fixed setlist and the person(s) doing the talking to get right in there
and hold the audience attention while the band switches banjos or
whatever.

We'll be quite seriously working on that ourselves for our show sets.

JimD

[Ouisie]

That's what happens when musicians go to concerts ;)

Always studying things, and why not - we know where we *really* want to be
at a concert...the best seats in the house, onstage!!!

As for the talking to the audience part, how much time is there between
tunes, or adjustments, or anything else?
I've noticed bands who say very little to the audience because one tune is
followed by another.
Then there are the artists who want to tell the story that goes with each
tune and so spend quite a bit of time yakking when they could be playing and
singing ;)

Ouisie

[Jim D]

Post by Ouisie
That's what happens when musicians go to concerts ;)
Always studying things, and why not - we know where we *really* want to
be at a concert...the best seats in the house, onstage!!!
As for the talking to the audience part, how much time is there between
tunes, or adjustments, or anything else?
I've noticed bands who say very little to the audience because one tune
is followed by another.
Then there are the artists who want to tell the story that goes with
each tune and so spend quite a bit of time yakking when they could be
playing and singing ;)
Ouisie

It wasn't the time between songs that struck me, it was the lack of
organization ( best word I can think of for this ). They did two sets,
each about an hour. The first one was fine, they went from song to
song fairly smoothly. There was some talking. It seemed relevant, they
had something to say.

After the intermission, things appeared to go to pieces. They became
very sloppy transitioning to songs. At first I thought they just ran
out of planned material and started improvising their setlist. Who
knows.

JimD

[Ouisie]

Post by Jim D
It wasn't the time between songs that struck me, it was the lack of
organization ( best word I can think of for this ). They did two sets,
each about an hour. The first one was fine, they went from song to song
fairly smoothly. There was some talking. It seemed relevant, they had
something to say.

Could be but with Originals, your songs will have something to say ;)

Post by Jim D
After the intermission, things appeared to go to pieces. They became very
sloppy transitioning to songs. At first I thought they just ran out of
planned material and started improvising their setlist. Who knows.

JimD

Almost sounds like the intermission was more of a booze break ;)
I knew a duo that did that, until they started keeping their beers with
them. One even had a cup/bottle holder clipped to his mic stand ;)
But they had "Ed Sullivan Syndrome", seeing how fast a song can be finished,
like what used to be the case on the Ed Sullivan Show. Maybe they thought
the booze might slow them down a bit, but it seemed to have had the opposite
effect ;)

Ouisie