Two years back, after I had been delivered my "walking papers" from Mule Shoe, I set out to create a new band, on my terms. After several interviews and quasi-iterations, I wound up with a three-piece lineup consisting of myself RH, and MA. We had about 6 "rehearsals" which really consisted of us sitting around with acoustic instruments, singing along to my iTunes collection, consuming copious quantities of beer. Inexplicably, RH stopped showing up for our practices, he never returned my phone calls, nor did he ever give me any reason why he lost interest in our project. But that's all in the past now.
MA and I continued forward, with a little less wind in our sails. As time went on, we did less practicing, and more drinking and goofing around. MA even stopped bringing his instruments to band rehearsal; it just became our night of the week to blow off some steam, and have some good laughs. We did some recording, and we picked new songs and dropped old songs from the repertoire.
It's really funny how things work out.
Fast-forward to this year, and Mule Shoe is no longer a band. DH agreed to record his solo album with me. MA of course, wound up being the new bass player for the Savoy Blues Band, and he turned out to be the perfect fit for our style of big-band blues and funk. DH knew about the Savoys and my little side project since we began recording. As the album progressed, it became clear that he would need a band to "back him up", and promote his recording.
Thus, the two projects became one.
DH has joined MA and myself in the new project. We even spent several weeks looking for a fourth member to round out the band. At this point, we found a barely-legal wizard bass player by the name of K. He seems interested and enthusiastic about our little band, even if he is a little quiet.
What I am pleased to inform you of, is that we have entered full-band rehearsals. This was something that never happened until last week. If I may say, the first few practices have turned out to be quite exciting. With a few rough edges aside, the band sounded like a band from the start. Everybody is doing their homework, and only a few issues are ironed out at practice.
And let me tell you, the material we have been picking are not particularly easy. They are either physically demanding, requiring all four of us to have complete command and control of our instruments, or the vocal arrangements are complex and challenging to sing -- even for a band that has three experienced singers.
There is nothing easy about this band.
As a teaser, here is a brief list of some of the material we will be performing.
- Say Hello - April Wine
- Jukebox Hero - Foreigner
- Too Late For Love - Def Leppard
- The Zoo - Scorpions
- Limelight - Rush
We had our second practice this afternoon, and for the first time, we ran through Jukebox Hero and Too Late For Love. Both songs aren't terribly difficult with respect to instrumentation, but with respect to vocals, are quite challenging. But what I am pleased to announce is that all the vocal parts are there, in pitch, and it sounds huge.
You can expect to see us in bars, pubs, and clubs by April. I can't wait to see what the local response is going to be, which I expect it to be quite positive. I will be posting our appearances on the tour dates section when they come available.
In case you have been wondering, we are tentatively called Tongue N' Groove.
