Rosewood at the West End Alley

Last Saturday was the first of two scheduled Rosewood Trio gigs at the West End Alley, a new restaurant in Pottstown.

We'd been rehearsing, and had some new songs to add to the set list. We've also rehearsed a couple of times with a drummer, but he didn't play this gig with us. The place was too small, and the stage was just big enough for three of us. (Parenthetically, I guess it was short-sighted of me to pick "RosewoodTrio" as our Facebook URL, when we won't be a trio if we do add the drummer. "RosewoodMusic" would probably have been better. Oh well....)

We arrived around 6:00 to set up, as we were scheduled to play from 7:00-9:00. It's a cute little place right on the main street of Pottstown, and they have a professional PA and sound system, so all we had to do was plug into it. Darling Wife and Brother Chris were there to see us, and they had an appetizer as we set up and did our sound check, then ordered dinner as we started our first set at 7:00.

We played about 50 minutes, took a 15 minute break, then came back and played a second set until 9:00. Sandy had her brand-new Taylor, which sounded fantastic - and I think the mix was good. The little on-the-fly changes we make are always amusing and always keep me on my toes. I know that no one in the audience would ever notice, but I smile to myself and think "that's not the way we rehearsed it." But we're nimble enough to react and stay with it seamlessly. As always, it was a blast to play with them. Darling Wife pronounced her dinner excellent, as well as the BYOB wine we brought.

Our last song was Brown Eyed Girl, and Sandy jokingly told people to dance and sing along. She didn't know that Brother Chris *never* needs a second invitation to get up and dance. He grabbed a waitress he'd been talking with all night, and they danced the whole song. She was a good sport, and when I tried to thank her afterwards for being a good sport, she assured me that she understood and that it was a pleasure.

As we were cleaning up, we asked Darling Wife to take a few pics, and maybe we could get a good one to use as a promotional pic (replacing the "cowboy hat" pic we've been using.) The one at right is the one we like best.

Another fun night of good music. And another paid gig too (very small pay, but a paid gig nonetheless.) We all celebrated with a glass of wine and a dessert.

We'll be back there again Saturday evening, Dec. 21. And Sandy already has a Christmas surprise in mind.

Marylou's 50th

Jan, Ginny, Dave, Harry

Our friend Marylou from the acoustic jam meetups just turned 50. (As an aside, Marylou has appeared on my blog before - we ran into each other at the Martin guitar tent at the Folk Fest and had an impromptu jam with their demo guitars.) She's a huge fan of music and jams and open mics, so her family and friends rented out a big room at the Thorndale Inn two Sundays ago and threw an open mic.

We went without any specific plans to play, but I took my acoustic/electric with me, just in case I found someone who wanted to do a few songs (and more importantly, could sing.) I found two such someone's almost immediately. Our friend Ginny had her guitar and her ukelele with her and was looking for someone to play with. Then we got talking with Jan, a mutual friend who runs the Monday night open mic at Jasmine Thai, and we were a threesome for the day.

We gathered in an unused dining room to pick songs and briefly rehearse. Ginny had a list of songs she'd been practicing, and I jumped at Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane." That's one of my favorite songs, and I know it well. We ran through the changes a few times and agreed on who'd play what. The ladies would both sing, and I'd take the guitar lead.

We had a bit of trouble settling on a second song. Jan wanted to do Lucinda Williams' "Drunken Angel." I didn't know the song, but she assured me it wasn't complicated, and taught me the chord pattern. It's a nice song with a simple progression. So we were good to go.

Marylou's friends had a PA and a sound system set up, and everyone sounded great. We ate and drank and talked and watched other people play. Then finally it was our turn. We set up and plugged in, the guy running the sound checked our levels, and we launched into the Neil Young - with our friend Harry playing blues harmonica with us. This was the first time I've had this guitar plugged into a real sound system, and it sounded fantastic (and was quite a rush.) Then it was the Lucinda Williams, with Jan singing and Ginny switching over to her uke.

I think it went great and it was a lot of fun. And I now have an open invitation to play at the Jasmine Thai on Mondays. I've got to see if I can make that happen.

Guitar Expo

The weekend before last was the semi-annual guitar expo at the Oaks Convention Center. Chip and Sandy went to this in June, and told me I simply had to see it. I needed no convincing, and have had this on my calendar since then. I asked Darling Wife if she wanted to come, and she did, so we made an afternoon of it.

Even though we were told it was massive, our first reaction on walking in was something like "holy f&@%." An entire expo hall filled with guitars. Football fields of guitars. It was boggling. We walked up and down the aisles in awe.

The first couple of rows were mostly acoustic instruments - mostly guitars, with some banjos, mandolins, and ukeleles thrown in. It's billed as a "vintage guitar show", and many of the instruments really were vintage - from the 60's and 70's, all the back through the 20's. Martin, Taylor, Gibson, etc.

The next aisles were more weighted towards electric guitars. It was a smorgasbord. I never knew there were so many Les Pauls in the world, let alone all under one roof. Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, etc.

Darling Wife was just as enthusiastic as I was, and any number of times laughed and said "oh, you need one of those!" I think her final list was 7 guitars that I had to have. If I can remember the list, I'll post it separately. The next step, of course, is winning the lottery.

The true vintage instruments were fascinating to look at, but I wouldn't want to own one. I don't want a 1938 Martin for $25,000, or a 1959 Les Paul, or whatever. First, I'd be terrified to have anything that valuable. Second, I just can't believe that a 1938 Martin sounds *that* much better than a new or recent Martin. Third, even if you convince me that it does, I'm not a good enough player to be worth that difference. If you have the money and like collecting cool stuff, god bless you - but that's not interesting to me. I'm happy to look at it, but I have *no* desire to own it.

It also turned out to be something of a social event. I knew we weren't going to see Chip and Sandy - they were there first thing in the morning (and Sandy made an impulse purchase of a new Taylor acoustic - an upgrade from the one she had!) We did run into a few people we know from the acoustic meetup, and it was fun to chat and compare notes about what we'd seen and what we lust after.

It was a total blast, and I can't wait for the next one. I'm only sad that I'll have to wait until June.

Lessons for Two

This past summer, Younger Daughter asked if she could take guitar lessons. Of course I said yes - everyone in this house knows that I'll support anything musical. If anyone wants to play the kazoo, tuba, bagpipes, or anything in between, I'll do whatever I can to make it happen.

Summer came and went, and with various trips and vacations, plus time spent at her mom's, it didn't happen - but neither of us forgot about it. In September, we saw a Saturday morning group beginner's guitar lesson on the township recreation schedule, and tried to sign up, but it was cancelled because not enough people signed up. So I went to Facebook and posted a message asking my friends if they knew a good local guitar teacher for a teenage girl. I got a good recommendation, talked to him on the phone, and signed us up.

Yes, "us." I saw from his online bio that he teaches a few instruments, including mandolin. I'm still playing a lot of mandolin - I play scales, exercises, and songs just about every day with very very few exceptions. I think I'm making nice progress, but I'm entirely self- and YouTube-taught, and I thought it would be helpful to get some feedback. You pay by the month for weekly lessons, so I'll do a month and then decide whether or not to continue.

We have back-to-back half hour lessons, and the first one was last Friday evening. I've taught Younger Daughter some chords, and she's enthusiastically practicing them. She wants to play songs she likes (Avett Brothers, Mumford and Sons, etc.), and I've told her that once she learns a handful of chords and gets them down cold, that she'll be able to play whatever songs she wants. Parenthetically, I could certainly teach her myself, but I think the discipline of going to a once-a-week lesson with a teacher who's not Dad will be helpful.

Both our lessons went well. He was impressed with how much YD knows already, and continued her down the path of chords and exercises that I started her on. My lesson was good too, and I now have some new exercises to practice - which I am.

Next lesson in three days.