Electric Love Bucket

Electric Love Bucket



After Simba I decided I should try leading a band once, just so I would stop being a whiny bitch about the lead not doing things perfectly for my satisfaction.  So I put this group together.  I found Byron, the guitar playing with a group that was supposedly developing young singing talent.  That group scared the daylights out of me.  An old guy (not me) shepherding a bunch of underage girls.  I'm out.  But I found Byron there.  This kid was a killer lead guitar player and could do both rhythm and leads, and could transition seamlessly.  And he could hear what I was doing across a loud band.  Just a joy to play with.  We were playing some ZZTop tune once and he and I began passing back and forth the theme from Close Encounters.  In the middle of the lead or a rhythm he'd play it, then in the middle of the bass line, I'd play it back.  Back and forth.  We had a good laugh at the end when we asked the rest of the band if they'd heard that.  They said: "Heard what?"  Most people just have their ears painted on.

So he and I started out by just trying a bunch of varieties of songs at my house and it was going so well that I called a drummer and held up the phone.  We had a drummer.  Still looking for something else, I was still helping out a bit with the young singer development group when they had auditions for new talent in the food court building at the fairgrounds.  One singer was singing without amplification in the building while I was out across the parking lot getting my amp, and I could hear her.  The singer was 24, used to be a motorcycle model and could frickin' belt!  She was very disappointed in the quality of the singer development group, so I gathered her up for my group.  We put together a set list based on her voice -- she liked Amy Winehouse, her voice was deep enough to do ZZTop tunes, and she had enough power to pull off Alabama Shakes's Gimme All Your Love.

Boy howdy!  Every time we did that song we all shook our heads in amazement at her power and presence.  

We played a couple gigs and it sorta worked but there was still something missing.  Then my favorite saxophone from Simba's band (Alex) showed up at one of the gigs and we had him play.  


That’s Alex (aka Fabio) with out lead singer, Sophie. 

When Alex took over a lead he lifted the whole band two levels.  And we stayed there when he handed off.  He was just what we were missing.

Ooh, here's a promo video we made:

Well, it wasn't a bad group.  We didn't play too long together.  Lotsa personality issues.  The worst of which was that I was doing all the work for the group, and all the support and I wasn't actually the lead.  Not one song I suggested ever got on the set list.  As per usual.  The lead singer started to listen to the drummer and wouldn't play gigs I scheduled.  So I dissolved the group.  I had gotten what I wanted out of it.  I learned how much of a pain leading a group can be so I am much more tempered in my complaints as a regular band member now that I used to be.  It was a good experience.  But I'm no band leader.

Voodoo City Radio and Coldrail Blues Band

I played with this group for about two years. Their stuff is on Spotify:

You can see from that link that the group played a lot of 12 bar blues. The thing I learned from this band is that if I’m frustrated that all the song seem alike, it’s the job of the rhythm section to differentiate with rhythm. You gotta play the chords. But each song needs a different feel. Huge eye opener. I learned from Simba to play the motions of the lead. Some leads don’t provide that visual or rhythmic cue. So then it’s up to me to move them. A very valuable lesson. 

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