Musical musings

A few musical musings on this day, June 7 2004, a special day (more on that later):

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With Intent has a new drummer. His name is Dan Stuart. A lifelong guitarist, Dan took up the drums about five years ago, and decided he wanted to give it an earnest shot.

A week or so ago, our fearless leader Ed De Caro put an ad into a local website advertising for a drummer. It was important to us that the person who applied had the right attitude above everything else. We were looking for a person who fit in with us personality-wise and musically, and was willing to be a team player and subscribe to the direction we have already taken. Dan was the first to answer the ad. We setup a rehearsal at a local studio so we could have a looksee at him and so he could try us out as well. Ed gave him a few songs to learn, but of course we took him on another journey. He stumbled at times, but for the most part he did great. He is not that experienced, but I could tell he was a true musician. He has over 25 years experience playing the guitar, and it shows when he plays the drums. His meter is very good, I never felt the tempo rushing or slowing down, he kept an even keel. That's a hard thing to master.

After the rehearsal, Ed and I had a brief pow-wow and both agreed Dan was the guy. He will be getting a crash course in all that is With Intent, and we hope to have him playing some of the tunes at our next gig at the Metaphor on July 10, and hopefully be ready to go full bore on July 24, also at the Metaphor. If he's not ready, no worries, we want to give him ample opportunity to get ready. After all, the top priorities are to have fun, grow musically, and keep the BS to nil. And we aim to do that, and I think with Dan we are heading in the right direction.

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The Praise band that I play in, Northminster Presbyterian Praise Band, had their first performance last Sunday the 6th, and it was a very positive experience all around. During our warmup rehearsal before the service, I felt unusually relaxed and at ease. I remembered all my parts, and all was good. We were slated to open the service with three songs.

Then the service started, and it was showtime. We started our first number "Holy Holy Holy", which was just our band backing up the congregation's first hymn number. Good thing, for some reason I blanked out there. Fortunately, years of being an experienced "blanker-outer" has given me many skills in covering up, which I was able to do. It helped that the congregation was busy singing so they didn't have an opportunity to really notice anyway.

The second number was "Come and See", a medium-tempo praise tune. I know this one by heart, and like a fool I began the song by trying to read the chart. I felt myself losing it again, so I quickly just trusted my instinct and stopped reading. Low and below, somehow I was fixed and the music just flowed out of me. The third and final number we played was "I See the Lord", and it is a song that starts out slow and humbly with just a vocal and piano, then segues into a full-blown anthem of Joy for the Lord. We were rocking, and I could feel it. It was great, and the whole congregation seemed to enjoy it too. So much so, that we received an ovation from the congregation, which is almost unheard of for musical performances in our church. Everyone came up after service and offered congratulations. The word is that our Pastor, Scott Mitchell, was really pleased and wants us back as often as possible. It was a good feeling.

It was a good feeling, because we all worked hard. Especially Elisabeth and myself, we put in a lot of time trying to get people to play, and then to pick some songs, then get everyone together and learn them. It feels really satisfying. I personally am very happy, because this praise band thing at our church is a very politically charged issue, with one faction wanting it very badly (so much so that our session has funded it), while another faction exists that is down on music altogether. It was this controversy that made the session very wary when I offered to be a "cajoler" for the praise band to help move it forward. There were no guarantees that what I was attempting to do would even be accepted by the church, I was only given an opportunity. Well it was an opportunity I gladly embraced. I had faith that it would work out. It looks like it will too, God willing.

We're taking this week off from rehearsals, then back next week. I wonder what Elisabeth has in mind for us.

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I went to Lestat's tonight to a) drop off With Intent's package of original material/cover letter in hopes of being able to play there someday, and b) to check out the open mic night. I stuck around for about 30 minutes. The first two acts were stand-up comics, and they weren't much to write about. The second guy though had a good segment about divorce and growing up in a one-parent household. Through his humor you could feel his pain. That's the mark of a good comic. Unfortunately, he spent the other 90% of his routine talking about body parts and cheeseburgers, sometimes in the same topic, which I didn't find funny.

The third and last guy I saw was an incredible guitarist named Michael Reed. He played flamenco-styled guitar. He was nervous and announced he had never played live before. But he was great. His third number was a Fleetwood Mac song written by Lindsey Buckingham called "Big Love", which has a killer guitar part that Michael pretty much nailed. It's very difficult to play Lindsey Buckingham's material, and Michael Reed played it with gusto. Everyone applauded, and he was beaming, it certainly looked like he was relieved everyone liked him. For a first gig he did great. An excellent guitarist.

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Today, June 7, is my father's birthday. Linis David Lewis would've been 78 years old today. Happy birthday Dad! Wish you were here. I miss you dearly.