two nights ago, I had the pleasure of taking part in a tribute concert to the Band - one of my all time favorite bands. it all started when i was rehearsing with andy borger for our show at joe's pub a couple of months ago and he asked during a break if i liked the band.. he told me how his friend tim luntzel was putting together a concert at the living room and said he'd recommend me. i agreed to do it without even thinking. it just sounded like fun.
a couple of days later i got an email from tim asking me which song i'd like to sing - i thought about it for a minute. well, i've always loved singing "whispering pines" but i thought that i should really pick something rocking since i have a reputation as a kind of ballad guy. so i picked "shape i'm in".
a few weeks after that i got another email from tim and it was then that i fully realized the scope of what he was trying to put together....over 30 songs, over 30 singers in one night....and he wanted to rehearse.
well anyway, i drove down from kingston a couple of days ago where i've been mixing the record with malcolm and got there just in time to rehearse my song with the band, which, by the way was a totally kick ass group of musicians -- andy borger on drums, tim luntzel on bass, jon cowherd on piano, jon dryden on organ (who is quickly creeping up on larry goldings as my favorite organist) and chris bergson on guitar and the horn section of chris cheek, clark gayton and a trumpet player named jordan katz. everyone had one quick run through.
i'd also emailed jim boggia to see if he'd be willing to sing the harmony on "shape i'm in" and in return he asked me to sing the harmony and the third verse on "whispering pines" (ah, best of both worlds). we'd never sung together before, though i'd seen him do a show with mike viola last year and knew that he was great (and that he's basically a musical encyclopedia). i was also singing "get up jake" with emilie cardineaux and she volunteered to do the dankolicious high part on "shape i'm in". the run through sounded great....I felt a little bad for the band though since they were basically on the stage from noon until midnight rehearsing right up till almost showtime.
The concert:
the best part of a concert like this, which in my opinion should happen way more often is that you get to hang out with your peers. usually, this occurs on this scale only at festivals in the summer but this was even better because it was on a local level. i knew a handful of the singers that were on the bill with me like joy askew who did a badass version of "unfaithful servent" but there were lots of others whose names i'd seen around but hadn't checked out yet. so it was a good primer for seeing what they were about (at least as singers).
well, i had a blast. mixing is a little bit tedious and i got to blow off a bunch of steam, not to mention that the band called me up at the end to sing on "up on cripple creek" with milton which was just the icing on the cake for me.
if anyone in the band band ends up reading this ( i know some of you vain bastards have google hits on your names!)....more shows like this, please....if anyone took pics, too, i'd love to see them. i think i have a couple in my phone that i'll download, but they're probably pretty bad quality.
