Playing Loud

One of the challenges of playing in coffeehouses or clubs is getting people’s attention. The truth is most people go out to socialize and see their friends. Music is part of the scene, but they don’t really care about the music. Cover bands generally have it easier, but people want to hear songs they are familiar with. Places like Homer’s Coffee House where people generally go to listen to original music are rare.

As musicians, our job is try to be creative enough to get people to stop talking and listen to the music. Not an easy assignment.

An easy solution, that I have sometimes been guilty of in my younger days, is just turning up the volume so that listening to the music is the only choice. This is a pretty juvenile approach, but it sometimes works. If it didn’t work we wouldn’t see so many bands doing it. A better choice is connecting with the audience and building rapport. This requires professionalism and experience, but is well worth the time and effort.

My dad told me, “If a restaurant has poor food, they give you a lot of it. If a musician can’t play very well, they play loud.” I think he may have been on to something.

The next time you feel like turning it up to 11, try a little creativity instead.

Stage Presence

I was part of a five-piece bluegrass group that played at our church on Christmas Eve. After the first service I asked my wife how we sounded. She said we sounded fine, but I forgot to smile or make eye contact. I related this to the other guys before the next service and with the first chord, we all had big smiles, looking out, looking people in the eye. The response was tremendous.

As musicians we tend to forget that performing is about 85% visual. What you look like is literally six times more important that what you sound like.

I was reading through the requirements for the Montreau, Switzerland Jazz Festival and the first thing mentioned was “Strong stage presence.” If you are auditioning for Montreau, you need a video, not audio recording. They need to know what you look like and how you relate to the audience. I don’t know about you, but I need somebody to remind me of that every time I walk out on stage.

I was relating this to my mother, who has about 75 years of performing experience of one type or another, and she admitted that it is harder that it sounds. Relating to the audiences and holding their attention is primarily a visual activity. All the nationally known acts know this, many local musicians don’t, and there is the primary difference, not how well they play or sing.

Bob Kaat-Wohlert

I first met Bob about seven years ago. I knew right away that he was one of the best guitar players I had ever met. I soon realized that he was THE best guitar player I had ever met, and since I have been around music and musicians all my life, this is no casual observation. Bob can play any style and genre of music with ease and is knowledgeable about all sorts of music theory and trivia. He doesn’t “showboat,” but plays whatever the music requires.

Bob and I began to talk about putting together a band and started meeting in the fall of 2004 to form what would become Sky Blue. Our intent was to form a Christian blues band, but our eclectic tastes and experiences soon caused us to outgrow that moniker. Sky Blue played our first date in March 2005 with Bob on guitar, me on steel guitar, Bob’s wife, Theresa playing bass, and Doug Gunn on drums. Doug was later replaced by Wes Burrows.

I learned a long time ago that a good way to judge a man is to look at his wife. The type of woman that would marry a man tells more about that man that most of us men know. Those of you who know the terrific Theresa can tell, by that theory, that Bob is a great guy.

Bob, Theresa, Wes, and I are coming up on five years and our 100th paying date together as Sky Blue, as well as having played numerous jam sessions and casuals together. Bob and I see eye to eye about 95% of the time, but we both realize that the music is bigger than both of us, and that tie keeps us all together and loving every minute of it.

One of the big puzzles in my life is why there aren’t lines of people around the block wanting to see the guitar master at work whenever we play. If you are guitar player, there is no better way you can spend your time, other than practicing, than to come and sit in front of Bob whenever Sky Blue plays.

Learning from other musicians and exposing yourself to all kinds of music is one of the best things you can do for your musical career. Playing with Bob has certainly improved my playing and encouraged me to work harder at my craft.

One of my greatest pleasures is playing in a band with these wonderful people.

British Invasion?

One of my favorite things is reading biographies and autobiographies of well-known musicians and performers. In the past few years I have read dozens. Most recently I read Paul Shaffer autobiography, "We'll Be Here For The Rest of Our Lives."

Paul is the band leader for the TV show "Late Night with David Letterman. " He also produces the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Concert each year. He was the original music director for "Saturday Night Live" and put together the "Blues Brothers."

He writes about a conversation over lunch with Animals bass player, Chas Chandler. They listened to an interview with the producer Don Kirchner about Phil Spector. "'Phil was an artist,' said Don. 'We'd cut three sides for $1,500 - no problem. Phil would go in the studio and spend four grand on one song.' 'Stop the tape,' Chas exclaimed. 'That's why those Brill Building blokes lost their way. Do you know how much it cost us to make House of the Rising Sun? Fifteen dollars, with enough left over for pints all around. British Invasion, my rear.'"

I think that is where are again. With the big labels spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce a few over-produced homogenized songs that will pass a focus group. They have forgotten that rock & roll ( and country) is about communicating energy and emotion and not about Auto-tune, Pro-tools and how many tracks of over effected guitar tracks can be used.

Maybe it is time for an invasion by another country to teach us what we should already know. That spending $100,000 to produce a CD doesn't make it good music, or that spending $100 doesn't make it bad.

Andy's Music

This weekend my wife and I were in Chicago when we dropped by Andy's Music on the North Side. Andy's is an unique music store at 2300 W Belmont. The owner, Andy Cohn, has assembeled some of the most amazing and wonderful musical instruments from all over the world.

There are stringed instruments of every shape and size imaginable and some you would never imagine. The basement is of full of drums, cymbals, and percussion instruments from every continent.

From steel guitars to bag pipes and steel drums to wooden flutes of all types, I am sure they are somewhere in this wonderful old building.

I understand that Andy's has a another warehouse full of amazing instruments as well. Whether you are looking for a special kind of pick or a set of string for you oud; or maybe, like me, you just like to play instruments that you don't see everyday, Andy's in Chicago is your place.

Radio Programming

The other day was on a short roadtrip, about 45 minutes, so I decided to listen to a Contemporary Christian Music station. During that time they played quite a few songs with few interruptions, which was good. But without exception, every single song was a high tenor male voice, singing at the top of his range, accompanying by the same 4/4 bass beat and virtually the same drum pattern. All songs were approximately the same tempo.

In 45 minutes I didn’t hear a single female voice, a male bass or baritone, or any instrumental solos. I don’t think that creativity is gone from Christian music, but radio stations certainly show no creativity in their song selection. Secular pop stations are little different.

I presume the argument is that this is what people want to hear, but radio stations are all hurting because people are going elsewhere for music. I have a hard time feeling sorry for these radio stations, Christian or secular.

Sky Blue CD - "What Would Jesus Drive?"

The Sky Blue CD, “What Would Jesus Drive?” is done. We will have a CD Release Party and Concert this Saturday, October 17, 2009, at Homer’s Coffee House, 80th & Metcalf in Overland Park, Kansas.

We spent every other Saturday this summer in the studio, writing and recording. We had no budget, no time limits, and no bosses telling us what to do. It was a true labor of love.

I have always been a little uncomfortable with musicians calling themselves “artists” as is the norm in some circles. But with this CD I am beginning to feel that it might be a legitimate title. For one thing the songs are all original, well 8 out of the 10 are, and the other two are greatly altered. So we really did create something from nothing, which to me qualifies as art. The songs were all collaborations between Bob, Theresa, and me with Wes adding his part later.

Working with others, who are true artists, to create something that is new and original, that we think others will enjoy, was a true joy itself. As independent artists, we see the CD as a calling card. This is who we are, at least at this moment in time.

Occasionally in the music business somebody will sell an amazing numbers of records – perhaps millions. This is highly unusual and should not be considered a realistic goal except for a very few groups with huge marketing budgets.

For most of us, making a record that we are proud of, that we can point to and say, this is where we are musically and we want other people to hear it, is a legitimate goal.

This is not an ego thing. It is not reclaiming lost youth or trying to be something we aren’t. It is a group of artists working as a team to create something we like, that expresses a little bit of what we have to say.