DonnaD | my Steal Your Space book

Jam – 2012-01-09 – Carroll’s

09 Jan 2013 3 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Scott, StaggerLee, Wikler

When we got to Carroll’s this Wednesday night something was askew. We were in the large Studio 4 , but there was Alan, the Studio tech’s, rig set up in half the stdio so they set us up sideways in the remain portion of the room. Not that there wasn’t plenty of space, it was just sideways, maybe out of phase. That may have had something to do with the night’s music because Alan and I had to got through a half dozen amplifiers to settle into ones that were even usable; I won’t say good. Additionally I got two shocks from the microphones while singing so I know something was not right.

It was too bad the vibe was skewed for the night because it was Donna’s birthday and she had been practicing a whole slew of new songs to get in the groove to celebrate it. She was scheduled to go to dinner with Carolyn, from last week’s jam, to party with her before they would both come and jam with us, but Carolyn was sick and that didn’t happen. Rich was also out of town so we had no piano for the night, I therefore was to take on the bulk of the singing for the night. That would prove to be a bit false.

To begin with, me, Kevin and the drummers were there early We got setup early so I decided I wanted to work on a little of the “We’re not going to take it” jam with the band because Donna was to sing it later for real. It was a lot of fun as we played it twice as Donna came in during our second attempt. It’s cool stuff to do and we are pretty close in some aspects. The first real song of the night was the New Speedway Boogie which is one of her favorites and I think it had an excellent groove got us going on the right foot.

I thought I would take that opportunity of momentum and bring us to the Look Like Rain, I know, it was a bit early but it seemed right at the time. I was wrong as it was a bit premature and took my momentum and confidence down a notch or two. With respect to guests, my Brother Jay showed up with his college roommate Ken and he had is college-age daughter and niece in tow. His niece was a singer and we set her up with a microphone and a book and threw her in the lion’s den. She did an In My Life with Donna, which is pretty good and then sang lead on a Son of a Preacher Man, which was great. You just never know what walks through the doors of Deadstein do you.

During all this, both Alan and I were struggling with out failing amplifiers putting a wet blanket on what should have been a better experience. Worrying about the guitar tone and lack thereof was a preoccupation of mine all night long. I couldn’t get it out of my head. For the second set we got new amps from the storage room, but the only I could get to sound okay gave me shocks in the kisser when I touched the microphone with my lips. After the college people left we had a good set and a half with Donna that was kind of marred by the technical issues. Nevertheless, you have to always move forward and make the best of it and if you listen to the recordings, there are some excellent moments showing great promise!

To hear most of what we played, go to the links below. Unfortunately, I ran out of recording space and lost the last 3 songs.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-09-13/

Set 1

Set 2

Jam – 2012-12-28 – Carroll’s

28 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Fred, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee

The end of 2012 featured the 51st jam of the year and what a year it has been in Deadstein land. For the night we had a surprise guest guitarist, Fred. He was new to all of us but Rich and he played Jerry lead for the entire night leaving me to stick with the Bob rhythm guitar. He was good and it made for a fun night of music. Additionally, Donna was there for most of the night and stayed through the 12 o’clock hour. Maybe it was the fact that we were jamming on the ultra rare Friday night. This was the result of Christmas and New years being on Tuesday nights this year messing up Carroll’s schedules. No big deal, the Friday night jam seemed like a bonus. It was a long separation between the previous Monday jam and this Friday jam, so we were all ready to play. Our guests for the night included Steve and Lindsey. It’s time to get it all going again starting off strong for 2013.

To hear what we did to close 2012 go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-28-12/

Jam – 2012-12-17 – Carroll’s

17 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee

This week, our Stagger was back but Alan was out. Donna D. once again sang a few songs during the first set and left us to our own devices for the second set. She came in sporting a new set of braided polyester extensions in her hair, kind of a surprise to all of us, and provided us a little lesson in things we know not of. We did get lots of songs in for the first set and I think we found the second set more challenging. For the night we had no guests and we were on our own to flounder as we must.

To hear some of the floundering, go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-17-12/

Set 1

Set 2

Jam – 2012-12-13 – Carroll’s

13 Dec 2012 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, Wikler

This night of Deadstein not only was the sixth night of Hanukkah but it was the baker’s dozen on the 12-12-12 which happened the day before. We also had Donna D. join us for most of the first set but unfortunately scheduling at this time of the year is difficult and Lee was the odd man out. Our guests included Steve, Lindsey and Ryan who sat in for Scott on drums for a song or two in the second set.

To hear what we did, go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-13-12/

Set 1

Set 2

Jam – 2012-12-04 – Carroll’s

04 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee

This was a Tuesday night where we played another night with Donna D; joining us for the first set. Alan on the other hand did not join us for any sets . In addition, there were no guests in the room to experience our jam. I was psyched that I printed out Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly just before the jam because that was a lot of fun to play with her. We never did that before and it was good from second one. The Who stuff we tried was a bit more challenging. There was lots of good stuff and I can’t wait to try it all again. Playing with my new subscriptions to Photoshop and the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite and my new Wacom pen/tablet give me the drive to draw instead of write.

To hear what we did go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-04-12/

Set 1

Set 2

Jam – 2012-11-28 – Carroll’s

28 Nov 2012 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, DonnaD, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee, Wikler

It was a standard Wednesday night of Deadstein, with nothing much to be expected but the 6 of us. Though the Rockefeller Christmas Tree was slated to be lit right about the same time as our arrival, it didn’t seem to impact our plans. Kevin had appointments in the city earlier and when I arrived I found him sleeping on the floor. That startled me a bit. Rich thought we were playing the night before and went to Carroll’s on Tuesday night only to find no one the play with. When he arrived at this jam, he was psyched because he has been prepping Donna D. with some good listening music and she was going to be joining us later in the night.

Waking up from his stupor, Kevin wanted to play something mellow and surprising suggested that we play Breathe from Pink Floyd. We don’t do it often but it is in the supplemental portion of the book so we gave it a go. It was a lot of fun and got us off to a good start for the night. We even pulled off the Time pretty well and got back into the Breathe reprise to end this Pink Floyd endeavor. It was cool and fun while it lasted. We then headed into out Deadstein music and we were primed to play.

Staring with the slow Floyd gave me a good foundation of tone to work with for the rest of the night and I felt really comfortable within myself and the music; a great place to be. The band and I were playing well which also helped when Donna D. showed up to sing a the second part of the first set with us. She had been listening to a lot of Grateful Dead music provided by Rich. She pleasantly shocked us when she said she wanted to play Comes a Time and that she had been listening to several versions from several eras and thought she had a good handle on it. Unfortunately she did great but her mic was turned off for the first half of the son; my bad. After we fixed that, she was good to go. She kept surprising us by pulling songs out of her ass that were classics Jerry ballads and would be fun to play, such as the Morning Dew, Stella Blue and St. Stephen. Well maybe the Stephen wouldn’t be too much fun to play since we don’t do it well, but we sure gave it the Deadstein try. I on the other hand, pulled a Stephen –> Dancin’ combo out of my ass which proved to be a great choice for Donna D and the rest of us. She was able to let loose on that one.

Additionally, Donna’s Dew and Stella Blue were really well sung and phrased, and impressive feat while trying to survive the vortex that is Deadstein. The ending jam of the Dew showed the true weakness of Deadstein in our inability of seeing the big picture of a song. Not knowing what a song is about, not knowing where you are and playing a Morning Dew without any of the respect it deserves. It was a travesty to witness the lack of patience of not letting Donna D sing out the final few “guess it doesn’t matter anyway’s” in a serene blossom of tonal petals coated in dew. This would obviously be followed by the guitar lead/jam that peaks out over a couple of minutes like a Morning Dew is designed. It was just such a shame, because the rest of the Dew was so good, why fumble the ball with victory in sight? A little patience, maturity and focus is all we need. Come on people! Anyway, short of that, there was a lot of fun to be had with Donna D.

Our guests were for the night Steve and Lindsey as well as the aforementioned Donna D and a less than stellar showing of Scott Bayer. We ended the Donna D. segment with halftime for some and time for Rich and I to play a couple of Jerry acoustic type numbers with Donna D. The Amazing Grace took me half the song to click in with the 3, but once I did, it was really cool. Too bad about that lost opportunity. The Swing Low was a lot of fun also. After that everyone else left and it was back to standard Deadstein.

We were playing well and time was going slowly. The second set provided a lot of time to play and we continue to play well. We migrated to songs typically associated with the first set, but it was a nice assortment of songs. It also felt like a good second set. I guess we will have to give it a listen. Thanks to Rich for providing the recordings.

To hear what we did, go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/11-28-12/

Set 1