My most miserable steel guitar gig.

Melinda Dauley · From: Tacoma, Washington, USA

Mine wasn't a steel guitar gig but was a gig with my band at the Tractor Tavern, the day after Christmas. No one showed up except for our friends. That wasn't a suprize. The bad part is that I had a cold and I asked the bar tender for something to clear my head. They gave me something hot with whiskey in it. Instead of just clearing my head, it made me hoarse and kinda drunk.
I thought I was going to die after that gig.
Melinda

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Just remember: Bi-valves can't play steel. And if they ask, just say no.

Lyle Bradford · From: Gilbert WV USA (deceased)

Mine happened this Xmas. I was asked to play a song during a stage change. I agreed not knowing the lights would be very dim. Well on top of that they shut the curtains and I was almost in the dark.I could see the top strings but 5 to 1 was impossible to see. I was totally embarrassed like never before in my days of playing music.

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Me Tam is off to David Donald and the Mobius Loop.

I can speak for most of backwoods, Lowbrow America, from the hellishly mannerless bars of Glouchester to the beer puddled floor if the Elderberry Tavern in Gates OR. There is a common thread of some kind of "order". From the concrete sloped to the drain floors of Basye WV, where if not for friendly relatives, one would be killed outright, to the "blindfold on the way in" gigs of outlaw bikerdom, some kind of "accepting" monority.

There is at least 5 percent of "the crowd" that recognizes a steel guitar, and the "chaos" factor that one encounters is rather the exception than the norm.

Here, the "Chicken Wire" gig is kind of an accepted tradition. Kind of like rows of hay bales "moating" the stage in parts of Canada.

What you have described, are scenes from a "Dantes Inferno" compared to what I've seen.

I'll remember that about the "bagpipe drone" tuning tip.

There are people here on this side of the pond that don't even know what "Skiffle Music" is.

I've indeed been in that "Mobius Loop" over here for some time now..

(Other than getting stuck by a hypo-syringe sticking out of a horrible looking nag's pocket some 15 years ago, I've never been in mortal fear. My daytime jobs have been my source of that input.)

Hey. Somebody's got to do it.

My thanks to a true Frontiersman.

You've got my vote lad.

Eric L

Bill Erb · Posted 10 Mar 2003 8:31 pm

Ha Donny
I can relate to your bad experience because I did the show the year before at the air port with the same band. It was hottttttttttt!!!!! I don't know how the people stood it.
Take care
Bill

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BILL ERB

Kurt Graber · From: Wichita, KS, USA

Pay to Play??
That brings back a memory. We were playing a "Cattlemans convention"?? of some sort at a ritzy hotel somewhere in Missouri. I was just a sideman in this band and earned a set wage. Nevertheless, we were just about ready to start playing and the organizer of the event went up to our front man of the band and said that there is a charge for electricity from the hotel and the band is expected to pick up the tab($100). Our front man had been in the music business for years and just politely smiled and said "Thats not a problem, we don't need electricity!...Now, we sound a lot better with it. But, we don't actually have to have your electricity".(I know for a fact, this guy would have strummed his acoustic guitar for four hours) 10 minutes later we were playing the gig, and they picked up the $100 electricity tab. I also think we played that gig the following year. go figure......

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

One of my "best ones" was a Cattlemans' Convention NY party at the Red Lion here a bunch of years ago. It was 2500$ for a 5 piece. The guitar player was/is a dear old friend of mine, Neil Grandstaff, who is a musicians musician, and could sell water to a drowning man.

Tenly Holloway, the leader/singer came back after the break and told us that they wanted to book us for a one night main gig in Denver. She was floored as to how much to tell them. Neil spoke right up and said "Five Grand". One g up front, flights to and back and rooms for the night of the gig, transpo and meals. She came back shaking her head in disbelief. They Bought it.

Woefully, she ended up moving to Montana before then and we never got to do it.

I always liked Neil. He has a positive way of looking at things.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

!

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 13 March 2003 at 12:32 AM.]

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Many years ago when I was young and stupid I played pedal steel in the house "happy hour" band in a country dance hall in Texas. It was a great regular sit-down gig. My apartment was just across a vacant lot from the club, so one Sunday night I walked over to it on a break. I wanted to get my other shoe, which I hadn't been able to put on my right foot for the last few days, because I'd slipped and fell down the stairs to the apartment when I'd heard the ice-cream-man and thought my girlfriend would like some and tried running down the stairs to catch him. Yep, pretty dumb. Anyway, now it looked like it was going to rain and I thought the swelling had gone down enough I could get my foot in that shoe. If I didn't, after the gig I would have to cross the muddy vacant lot in one shoe and one sock. I went up to my apartment and into the bedroom and whoa, there she is in the sack with an aquaintance of mine! They were nekkid as jaybirds so I assumed they weren't just getting some rest. She said, "Oh boy..."; he said, "Jim, what are you doing here?" I said "I live here, what are you doing here?" She said something scolding me about how I didn't trust her, I told her all I wanted was my shoe. There were a few other unpleasantries exchanged, then I grabbed my shoe and left.

I was pretty shook up but I walked back to the club and played the next set. It started really getting to me and I told them I just couldn't be here, I couldn't tell them why, and I split. I found the guy my "girlfriend" cheated with and he said he didn't even know she and I were together. It was obvious she was to blame, not him. We went and got drunk.

Next day the band tells me I'm fired for walking out in the middle of a night without a good explanation. I said I understand and don't blame you. Back at the apartment, my now ex-girlfriend wouldn't let me in and said she took my name off the lease. I didn't know she couldn't have done that at the time so I believed her.

Now I'm jobless and homeless. Remember the joke, "What do you call a guitar player without a girlfriend? Homeless!" Well the apartment had been MINE, but...not worth fighting about. I went to the music store and asked if they knew anyone needed a guitar or steel player, they said there's a band plays three nights a week in a honkytonk outside town, for $25 a night, was just in and needs a steel player. I'd been getting $330/week from my house-band gig but anything was better than nothing. On the phone they told me to come in and sit-in with them. I lived in my car for the next couple days til it was the weekend and then went to sit in and try and get the gig.

There was a pedal-steel player already there and set-up on the stage. I thought he also must be just sitting in, or maybe he was leaving the band. I introduced myself to him with a smile and handshake and he gave me a dirty look, oh well. I noticed he had numbers and letters written on his fretboards but I didn't say anything. I started setting up my steel and he regarded me with sour looks.

They told me to set up beside the other steel player. I told the guy I needed about 2 inches to squeeze in beside his steel and he freaked. He jumped up and said "I've been playing steel for 25 years (or something like that) and I don't need any help!" and he started packing up his steel! I thought, "oh geez, now they're gonna think I did or said something to him and think I'm the bad guy and I won't get the job". The bandleader came over to see what all the fuss was and I just stammered "I only asked him to slide over a couple inches..." The bandleader was cool about it, he said "don't worry about it, let him leave, if you can play at all you got the job". OK, so at least I had a job.

These guys weren't a great band but they were pretty cool people. My first night on the job the bandleader and his wife (club manager) asked me where I was staying. I said "nowhere until I get paid". They asked, "was that you sleeping in the little red car down the road this afternoon?" I said "yes." I think I only told them I planned to get a room when I got paid. They said they had a big old house and I was welcome to stay with them. I had not much other choice so I was really grateful and slept on their couch for a couple months while I played in their band and saved money to get another apartment. They were great people.

Like I said they were nice, fun people but it was not the best of bands...there were 4 of us; drums, fiddle, bass, and me on steel and sometimes guitar. The drummer was always high, the fiddle-player bandleader was always drunk, and the bass player was always just bad. I must confess during this rather dark period of my life I also "overindulged" and messed-around more than enough...

One night we were playing something and just about 2 notes before my lead was to start, the bass player's hand slipped or something and suddenly he was playing walking bass a fret sharp and didn't even notice. With just bass, drums and fiddle to play with, I thought, "What in the world am I supposed to do now? The fiddle player's just standing there holding his fiddle and the bass player's a fret sharp! If I go into my solo in the right key it'll sound like crap, if I follow the bass....why should I follow someone who's wrong?" Instead of going into my solo, I sat there and didn't do anything for a few seconds. I figured let 'em wait, lemme think... Bass player was looking at me, probably thinking "why isn't he playing?".... I yelled at the bass player, "You're a fret sharp!" He smiled and yelled back something like, "Yeah, we're cool!" still walking bass a fret sharp. Maybe he thought I said "You're the best, gosh!" I tried again, "YOU'RE A FRET SHARP!" The look on my face must have caught his attention this time, the smile started to fade and he looked at me more seriously. He looked confused. All this time the band's still playing, or rather, drums and half-step-sharp walking bass are. I'm sitting at my steel, pointing at the bass player's left hand now as he leans closer to hear me: "YOU'RE PLAYING A FRET SHARP!!!" Finally he got it, looked at his fretting hand and said "Oh!" and slid back down one fret and smiled. THEN I went into my steel solo as if nothing had happened and the song went on as more-or-less "normal".

A few months later my old band called me to meet them. They told me they hadn't wanted to fire me but felt they had to on principle, I said I understood and didn't blame them. They said they knew I must have had my reasons for doing what I did and not explaining it and they could accept that, now they figured I'd payed my dues and learned my lesson and they wanted me back. I said yes and rejoined them.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 12 March 2003 at 01:16 PM.]

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Jim P... and the bass player was always just BAD .. LOL that got me!

One gig we thought was bad till the end, turned out to be just bizarre.
5 piece Bluegrass band with period 1955 instruments including a MINT early'30's Walnut Dobro 100 and 1929 Lloyd Loar F-5 mandolin.
Playing afternoon gig on the roof garden of a Chinatown NYC, chinese only apartment building, just opened.
We played 2 hour long sets, we were just fine, great groove, 4 part harmonines working no PA just great back porch music for about 75 women and a few grampas average age oh say 73...
2 hours, NOT a smile, not a hand clap, no decernable audience movement! Took a break and had a soda and some nibbles, 2nd set... stony inscrutable stares, at most a nose scratched once an hour or so.... We finish and the young GQ building owner says that was nice, but will you do an encore please... silence... OK sure, he has promised a real nice check.. so we do 3 more... not a sound. Finally he asks, All done gentelmen. We indicate yes.....

He says about 5 words in Manderin. The place erupts in applause, cheering, full smiles, 80 year old grannies shaking all our hands like a conga line, 1/2 hour of total adulation. We were stunned!

It seems that Bluegrass was explained to them as "american acoustic classical music",
when we had said it was Classic American Acoustic Music.

The audience was sitting like a Beethoven concert and each set break was a pause between movements, and it's not polite to applaude BETWEEN movments!

So we have now figured why we thought we were bombing so badly. As I am packing up, the janitors 14 year old assistant from Little Italy comes up to me, looks at my '54 Kay bass and asks.. so Mr. is that a trombone?

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 12 March 2003 at 04:46 PM.]

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