My old mate Dave H. from high school reached out recently and asked me to sit in with him and his old pal Greg Hoy. Additionally, Dave wanted me to sit in with his project, the Greenwood Music Collective (GMC), as his bassist was out of the country for a few weeks. Since I had no shows lined up in the immediate future, I said yes.
Over the past few weeks, I've met up with Dave, Kelly and Jack at Jack's house in North Seattle. We were able to get dialed in on a bit of their tunes, which consist of all three of them singing their own tunes. Kelly has a really beautiful voice and her songs are pretty good as well. Jack plays guitar and banjo and brings his own flavor to things. Dave is on drums and he's an aspiring songwriter who is excited to play his new songs out (and on piano, no less!) for the first time.
After two rehearsals, it turns out that Jack had to bail as his mom has recently passed, so we are revamping things, including having Greg play a few tunes with us. Additionally, I am filling in for Jack on a bass gig with another band called Del Vox, but that's next week.
Until Wednesday of this week, I hadn't played Greg's music with anyone but myself. That all changed as Greg was in town for the start of his tour and we met that night at Dave's house in Woodinville. Dave's house has a large rec room/loft space above the garage that he has all his gear in. We got plugged in and got to work.
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| Brought the P and played through the 15" combo |
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| Dave's playroom |
Greg rolled into town with nothing but a carry on, with the world's tiniest guitar pedal, about the size of two full size candy bars. We started off with his songs and for the most part, they went really well. I tried to sing backing vox on what I could and Greg was super encouraging about what and how we played.
It was interesting playing with Dave; he and I played in a band called the Roundabouts in high school. We were a three piece and despite me not remembering, we did at least play one show outside of his house (there are pictures).
Over the years, Dave was more of a jazz, less rock, drummer. Playing with him was fun because he was solid, but very different than I'm used to. I was able to get through it and we were pretty much ready for the show.
Kelly showed up and we worked on some of her and Dave's songs. Dave's songs are a little challenging as the structure to his songs aren't as traditional as I'm used to. He's learning the art of songwriting, and though I'm no songwriter, I haven't quite latched onto the feeling he's going for on some of his songs. But for the most part, they're do-able and we'll be just fine.
I have 5 gigs in the next three weeks, so I'm pretty excited about that. Good times!
