Blues in F at Calamaris

Max's mate Chris, a harp player from a former band, happened to be at our Calamaris gig with a Bb harp so he got an invitation to sit in. He is welcome back anytime. Such a lot of fun!

Maggie McGill at The White Star!

ReverbNation

Having created a page for the band on Facebook, I was then keen to get some of our music up so as people can get some idea of what we sound like. I did a bit of research in to Facebook music players and accidentally happened upon ReverbNation. It is very like MySpace but dedicated to music and the Band Profile created can be linked into the Facebook page which is great. It also has some useful widgets which I have added on the right of the page also so as you can listen to a couple of tracks recorded at rehearsal, find out where our next gigs are at and join our mailing list. I only got this happening yesterday and I have been a little stunned that we already have 13 fans and I have received personal feedback from some about the tracks I have uploaded.
"much respect....from SR......hornsraised-rick..."
"Good stuff guys"
"Really tight live work guys!!"
If your band is not on ReverbNation then I can recommend that you might like to consider doing something about that!

Albany gig done and dusted

Ramsnake in action at The White Star's Sunday session recently. It was a great gig with a good crew bopping along in the final set and the general feedback was that all who were there really enjoyed our offering. We had to handle our own sound for this gig with the help of Scotty, who created a basic set up for us. Thank goodness. I hate having to deal with the PA before a gig and really did not get my own sound dialled in and consequently had a poor night on the guitar. I really missed not having the band's 4th member Terry Dodd, our sound guy, who normally looks after things for us as my guitar always sounds great and I play far better. I think I will try miking up my amp next time as it seems to make a significant difference to the way I hear the guitar having something coming back to me from in front of the amp. Oh well! Looks like we will be at Calamaris before the end of the year possibly in September when the weather starts to improve. As well as this blog you can see more pics and catch up with what we are doing on our new Facebook page here.

An Albany gig finally and Max reveals his secret to great bass playing?

Another gig down at the Denmark Hotel in front of a smallish but most appreciative crowd. We are tweaking the set lists and have added some more up tempo tunes with the slower showcase style tunes reserved for concert style gigs. So our repertoire is growing fast with some other new repertoire in progress that we will introduce over time.
I have been chasing gigs in Albany and have finally cracked it and am able to announce we have a gig at The White Star Hotel's Sunday Session on the 7th of August starting at 6pm. So if you are up at Calamaris, where we hope to score a gig at soon too, you can come on down to the Star after the music finishes there so as you can carry on bopping!
I was delighted to see Kimbo from the Albany Blues Club turn up at our last Denmark gig and he was keen to get us down to the club in the future, so look out for an announcement about that sometime. Kimbo was the sound guy for my last band in Albany and always did a great job, so it was great to catch up with him again.

The Tele Deluxe has gone to a new home somewhere?

A surprise I know, but I just wasn't quite getting the sound I wanted from the Deluxe. I contemplated upgrading the pickups to Lollar Regals but in the end decided that the 12" radius on a Strat neck just wasn't quite as playable as I would like. My MIM 70's reissue Strat with a standard 7.5" radius neck, vintage frets and 11s plays fantastically in comparison. So I traded it for an MIJ Tokai LS98F Cherry Sunburst Love Rock! A what you ask? Yeh, I know, just an appalling name for a guitar but, a made in Japan Les Paul copy that many consider equal to if not better than Gibson's version. I have dubbed it the thinking man's Les Paul as it is beautifully built, sounds fantastic, plays wonderfully and was half the price of the equivalent Gibson!? I have loaded it with 11s also and it is providing a nice fat sound whilst still being very playable. I am really looking forward to bringing it out at the next gig as it will provide a great contrast tonewise to the thinking man's Strat!








Some nice sounds from a couple of Love Rocks on this demo.

Denmark Markets Gig Easter Saturday 2011

How good it was to get together again for a gig after a few weeks off while Max and Laurel visited the Mediterranean. I had such a lot of fun and I don't think we did ourselves too much harm doing this gig as there was a substantial audience both outside of and under the marquees that had been set up to either ward off the sun or rain. Well on this day it was the sun and hot it was and I was in a lather of sweat after our set. We really nailed many of the songs and are slowly getting it all as tight as it should be. Max and Todd are really starting to create a nice thumping tight underpinning for the vocals and solos. The new Strat has definitely taken over as the number one guitar - such a lot of fun to play. I remembered to give our 1st of May Sunday Session gig at the Denmark Hotel a good plug at the end too. See you there!