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Topic: New Years' eclectic songlist |
Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 1 Jan 2009 9:05 am |
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I may have some pics later...played a "New York New Years' Eve" gig last night (where New Years' is blasted off at 9pm west coast time - great for folks like me that get up at 5am). It was a mixed bag of classic rock, soul and jamband insanity. Played 6-string on about half, and steel on:
Like a Rolling Stone
Just One Look
Brown Eyed Girl
Rescue Me
Something to Talk About
Whiter Shade of Pale
You've Got a Way
8 Days a Week
We Can Work it Out
Nowhere Man
We are Family
Locomotion
Dancing in the Streets
Wonderful Tonight
The Fender B6 copedent I use worked amazingly well on Nowhere Man (probably my highlight), Something to Talk About (where I used a wood-handle, stainless body Shubb Dobro slide that rang like a bell - that thing is my new favorite "secret weapon" - changes the tone from my big, fat two-pickup 400/Stringmaster sound to a Strat with a Coricidin bottle slide. Add a hair of edge with a Distortion+ and you've got a blues tone to kill) and Wonderful Tonight (a beautiful, slow Clapton ballad). Whiter Shade of Pale also worked out pretty well. The others involved pretty much intros and 6-string-like rhythm guitar with a few twists.
Some of my playing was admittedly pretty lame (sometimes my intonation wandered somewhere south of Tierra del Fuego)...I still consider myself a stone-cold rookie...but some came out far better than I expected - and the tone was great; my Holland amp lost power RIGHT after soundcheck and I had to borrow a Lab 5 solid-state "house" amp (one of the few times I did NOT bring a backup amp - never again), which is a really fat sounding amp with an almost tube-like character to it. I had about 90 seconds to set it up, and got lucky with the settings - could have been a trainwreck, because we were playing LOUD and I had 3/4 of the hooks and intros to play. No reverb, a little delay and various stuff on my pedalboard depending on the song.
This is the first time I've played a multi-set gig on steel - also the first one where I wasn't playing Byrds/Burritos/other country-rock and was playing almost all "pop" and "rock" songs.
And the funniest thing (L.A. NOT being the steel capital of the world) was at least ten people asking me afterwards what that thing was that I played sitting down. But several of the teenagers wanted to sit down and try it...may have some new recruits.
And I was home at 11:30 before the nuts were on the road...
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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Al Terhune
From:
Newcastle, WA
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Posted 1 Jan 2009 10:43 am Re: New Years' eclectic songlist
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| Jim Sliff wrote: |
| ...my Holland amp lost power RIGHT after soundcheck and I had to borrow a Lab 5 solid-state "house" amp (one of the few times I did NOT bring a backup amp - never again) |
Jim -- you of all people. I'm so disappointed. You have a backup of everything, even a backup soldering iron.
On the lighter side, I wish I could have been there to watch you perform. Sounds like a fun time.
_________________
Al
My equipment:
One heck of a Wife
The ghost of a red Doberman
Several pairs of reading glasses strewn about |
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 1 Jan 2009 12:40 pm
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Seems like a good New Years for those of us who are "out of the box" a bit... my gig was fantastic as well. Packed house, the band was on fire, and everyone had a terrific time. As Jeff, our bandleader, leaned over and said to me in the middle of our set, "It's great to be alive." I talked Bruce Hampton into sitting in on my steel for a tune and he made some of the craziest sounds ever heard.
Hope it's a great year for you, Jim. |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 1 Jan 2009 6:14 pm Re: New Years' eclectic songlist
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| Jim Sliff wrote: |
Rescue Me....
Dancing in the Streets... |
While these were probably vocal renditions, the Motown catalog probably has dozens of tunes that would make excellent steel guitar instrumentals. As far as I know, the only ones that were ever recorded are "My Girl" which was done by Bobbe Seymour on his "Uptown" album, and Reece's recording of "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life."
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 2 Jan 2009 9:29 am
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Yeah, they were vocals; I actually prefer playing in a supporting role rather than playing instrumentals (except for surf music...). To me it's far more challenging learning where to lay out, how to apply the rule "less is more", and the value of one well-placed note than it is to play a bunch of hot licks.
FWIW here's a couple of lousy-resolution camera phone pics of my setup (except the amp, which is of to the side out of view):
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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Stuart Legg
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Posted 3 Jan 2009 2:10 am
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| Weapons of mass destruction, Cool! |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 3 Jan 2009 12:35 pm
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Yeah, and not shown are the Distortion+ and a custom-built 4-knob, 3 switch octave-fuzz mounted to the bottom of my 400 - I kick those in with my right knee and have push-pull switches on the volume and tone knobs...an on/off for each pickup...plus a phase switch. I used a volume pedal that night (I usually don't) for cello-like swells using the fuzz. I turned off the octave function and got a nice, smooth, bow-like sound - worked nicely on Whiter Shade of Pale. The Distortion+ was for the Raitt tune and a couple of others.
That's actually only HALF my usual pedalboard setup; I thought I might be squeezed for space and only brought bare essentials. I actually have an entire 2nd Pedaltrain board and usually use multiple overdrives of different types, several "swirly" gadgets (including a Korg G4) and almost always 2 or 3 analog or tape delay units set at different tempos and repeats - no reverb.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 3 Jan 2009 1:19 pm
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Effects pedals are great tools and necessary to play much of today's music. But I think one needs to learn to play both with and without them.
A few years ago I was visiting a booth at NAMM and a kid in his teens came up and asked to see a guitar. The kid was clearly a beginner, and he apologized for his lack of ability by saying that he "...can't play without distortion."
Don't get me wrong, I LIKE distortion. There are times when it's essential. But there are also times when it's out of place.
I like cayenne pepper too, but I don't want it on my ice cream.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin |
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Stephen Gambrell
From:
Over there
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Posted 3 Jan 2009 9:44 pm
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NO MOLLY HATCHET????  |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 21 Jan 2009 10:02 pm
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Nah, I need to grow my mullett out more...
finally got pics:
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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