A DAY IN THE NIGHT

Here is the intro to "Me and My Guitar" I try to describe a night of what life is like behind my guitar.Read,Enjoy and comment!
“A Day in the life"
"A Hard Days Night"
Six o'clock in the morning on Friday, the alarm goes off and I wake up. I stumble across a dark room hoping not to stub my toes on sharp objects. It is Friday on a June summer day, not a cloud in the sky, and it's warm. I'm playing the Howling Dog my favorite club in all the world. The Dog is a local summer tradition. Open only from May to November, depending on the weather. It is your quintessential Alaskan rock 'n roll bar full of memorabilia - pieces of the pipeline, pictures, posters, lots of funky stuff and woman's bras that are traded for tee-shirts and nailed to the ceiling. Ya, lots of personality.

After a few cups of coffee and several cigarettes I motivate myself to walk out to the van and start loading up my gear. As a working musician,it's a nice rig. Marshall half stack, boss pedal board, nice cordless unit, and two custom built Warmoth guitars. I load my stuff up in the back of my van, and it's off to my social worker job where I deal with problems, clients and paperwork all day long. But throughout my day, the specter of the rock 'n roll animal my" Dark Knight" lurks in the shadows, the beast that waits to be released End of the day I head out to where the Dog sleeps. Fox. Nice drive, past the trans-Alaska pipeline and you look about you on the way out there and you realize that long ago this was all about gold mining. Old parts of the Dredges, and piles of tailing's everywhere. I pull into the Dog's parking lot and drive around back and start to unload my gear. I prefer to set up my gear early, because I hate getting to the club, setting up and playing. I like to set up early then have time to shower and change. Now an interesting thing about the stage at the dog is this, back in the 80s President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul met here in Fairbanks. They rolled out the red carpet for them. Somehow, the owner, Mike Brock of the Dog got a hold of this carpet and covered the stage with it. So many times throughout the night I looked down and realize I'm standing on the stage and thinking where did Reagan stand?where did Pope John Paul stand?sometimes I think both of them would have liked what I do. Red carpet a Pope a President and a rock 'n roll Prophet Not a bad combination.

This gives me the opportunity to tweak all my gear and make sure everything is just fine and don't have guitar necks that need to be adjusted or patch cords that need replacing plus I can see that the PA in functional. When performing live, Murphy's Law absolutely applies what can go wrong will go wrong. So I make sure I was have backups for my backups, extra batteries. Good chords, spare guitar, plus it gives me a chance to gage the room. And once I do the sound check I'm able roam about the stage and tweak the sweet spot. These are places where I can the best controlled feedback. Spots on the stage where I can make a note sing for several moments(drives the crowd nuts). After tweaking my gear. I grab my songbook and head to the bar have a glass of wine and start to look through my songbook. We are a classic rock band, but I have an extensive song list that runs the gamut of blues, jazz, funk and even several originals from my cd's recorded over the years. I begin to look through what I might want to play tonight. I love this down time before the gig. The calm before the storm. The time on stage prior to the gig gives me a chance to check the sound of the room as well. Each room sounds different, and as more people come in or leave throughout the night, the sound changes. Having done all that, I head home, and sit down to a nice dinner with my lovely wife. Allison and I are admitted foodies. We live to cook gourmet food and drink really great wine. So after dinner I head to my closet. I respect the stage too much to show up in street clothes. I hate it when I see bands that look like they should be detailing your cars rather than play music for you. Having lost 160 pounds in 2001 has awarded me the luxury of being able to buy very cool stage clothes and with the Internet and a credit card I can pretty much find whatever I want. So tonight I'm feeling a bit of a “60s Rat Pack” vibe. Having recently visited Nashville, Tennessee. I bought several very cool 60s style dinner jackets so I pick one out. A maroon colored number with a skinny matching tie. Blackshirt, tight black jeans and a set of polished dingo boots finish out the “Ready to Swing” look. Oh, and you can't forget the hat. I pick out one of my many black Fedoras. With outfit complete I give my wife a kiss, and I'm off to the club.

As I roll into the parking lot. I noticed that it is about half full. This is a good sign, that means half the people there are finishing up happy hour and the other half have showed up and started drinking ready to party for the night. I drive around the back park my van next to the volleyball court. I grab my guitars and come up through the deck door. The deck leads to the main room, dance floor, and stage. Usually, during my break I like to hang out on the deck. This gives me a chance to chat with the patrons have a nice drink. And inevitably there is some one passing around a joint or three. Here in Alaska, pot is decriminalized. So it's a good time for all. I walk up to the stage turn on my amp,the PA and my pedal board. Then check the tuning of my guitars. The rest of the band shows up, bass player and drummer. Dave and Johnny are two of the best musicians I've played with. They know my entire bag from the Jazz to the classic rock to my originals. Good musicians, in fact,they are great musicians. Great ones pay attention, listen and watch. What I love about these guys is they watch ME closely. I can holler and shout, move one way or the other and they are right in my corner rarely dropping a beat. Hell, they don't even smoke or drink. (I make up for their lack of bad habits). On my mic stand is a little shelf. On the shelf I usually hold my cigarettes, a slide, some picks, and a singers best friend - Hall's cough drops. They keep my throat lubed and my head cleared so that I can belt out the blues all night. I see sitting there a glass of my favorite wine. The bartender here is a cool guy. He knows what I like and this is one of the few clubs where the band gets treated nicely. Plus there is a tip coming his way later. It's still early so I say hi to a few my friends.

Most of us have been in the business as long as we have will tell you the first set is a toss off. The patrons need to drink a little more and get ready to rock plus the band needs warm up. I pick songs that for the first set go along. We hit the stage and we are off and running. Some Benson a little Stevie Ray and a couple of my own. "On Broad Way" is really great song to warm up on. We start the song I start a solo after two choruses. The solo consists of some double stops sort of a major minor thing with a trick I do where I play, a blues lick a minor third from the key. By this time the band and me are warming up and the crowd is starting dance. We end the set with a little something from ZZ Top and take a break. I hit the stage lights and signal the bar for “Break Music” something to keep the energy pumped.

Growing up I was never much of a fan of the Rolling Stones. But once I became a bar musician, I realized these guys know how to rock and get a crowd on their feet. Come on?40 years in the same band,they got to be doing something right. A Stones tune in the right spot in a set will get the crowd going. On my pedal board I have a yellow stomp box. This is my “Keef/Stevie Ray/Blues tone. Like a slightly distorted “broke up” sound. I stand on this while whipping thru the Stones and some Stevie Ray stuff. A little more Stevie Ray some Doors ,George Thuroughgood. By now the crowd is starting to really warm up. A few more tunes, and it's time for a break.
At the front of the stage running its entire length is a rail that stands about 4 feet high. I have an anvil case it's what I store my amplifier head in. The thing is built like a tank. I placed it in front of the rail underneath the lights. It works as a step for me to stand on, so I can put my foot on the top rail of the stage and really get in the crowds face. I use this throughout the night as I stepped forward to take guitar solos interact with the crowd.

During the break, I noticed a group of young guys in their early 20s. I hear from the bartender that they're all military guys. And that they're ready to ship off to Iraq, Monday. I am the son and brother of ex-military man. My father was third wave at Omaha Beach. My brother served two terms in Vietnam. I have a deep respect and love for the military and I like to acknowledge them whenever they are at the club,plus if I can I want to send them off with something special. I love Jimi Hendrix and had been playing his music for years. I play a whole set of his stuff. But I'm known primarily for my rendition of Star-Spangled Banner. Me and the boys to a combination I play Star-Spangled Banner, then we going to “Who do you love” by Bo Diddly. When I play this song. I have the drummer play a straight rock beat. While I do the dumb da dump da dump rhythm parts. What this does is drive the song and makes it more rock and easier to dance to.

Back on stage, we play a couple more songs. I start with some Hendrix, all “Along the watchtower “Fire: and “Bleeding heart blues.” The solo for Watchtower is probably one the greatest guitar solos ever record. A masterpiece. It gives me a chance to really stretch out and start to utilize my stone boxes. For some guitar players stomp boxes are the main course. For others or just spice to the stew. ( For instance someone like U2's edge.) The way he uses stone boxes is the main deal. He's mostly an atmospheric player not what I call a shredder. For someone like me. I use them to add color texture and flavor to the main thing , which is my ability solo."All Along the Watchtower" is one of the songs were I utilize several different things to add color to the song. Digital delays, chorus, pretty much all my stomp boxes. My digital delay is set set for the upbeat. I hit a note, then go” one AND two one AND two “ etc. so the song give me a chance to really stretch out and start to lay down a foundation and build the excitement. After my guitar solo, I go into a couple of BB King songs. Skynyrd, ZZ Top. The Top gets the crown going. We take the solo into warp drive I'm over the rail and in the crowd, playing guitar behind my head, standing on bar stools and playing with my teeth. They are is eating it up like candy There's a crowd standing around me, and I hand my guitar pick to some girl. I hold the guitar, while she plays it. Occasionally I'll even take off my guitar and drape it around some girl just to engage the audience more(drives the band nuts though when they start hearing all this incoherent racket coming out of my amp) I run back to the stage to finish the song. At this point in the night I'm chewing lighting and spitting thunder. With my head cocked sideways leaning backwards I'm letting it blast in absolute reckless abandon! The band and are “in the Zone” barreling down the tracks like a hot rod freight train on crack, unstoppable. I end the song with flurry of machine gun licks standing on my rack case facing the band slightly pushing my wang barholding that feedback driven final note. I nose dive off the step for a proper rock and roll “trash can”ending... “ and the crowd goes nuts”... Finally, I take a pause. I signal for the military guys to come over stand in front of the stage announced to the crowd that they're going to Iraq soon and we want to send them off with a bang. I stomp on the distortion channel of my Marshall do a couple of dive bombs with my wang bar and hit the first distinctive notes of Banner the Gi's standing in front of the stage pump their fists in the air and raise their drinks in salute to all things Hendrix. At this point in the solo it is a cacophony of sound. From dive bombs to a Harley fat boy running through its gears. I rattle off a pile of machine gun licks and shake my wang bar. I pause, at this point, all is quiet, and I slide into the opening lick of Thunderstruck by AC/DC. This stands the crowd on their ear. By now the GI's are punching each other spilling their beer and howling like junk yard dogs in heat. I continue with the solo and just at the right time, standing on my flight case 1 foot on the rail I raise my guitar and begin play with my teeth. This sets everybody off the edge. I turn and look at my amplifier. If it could smile, Mr. Marshall would be grinning from handle to handle and spitting fire. I turn to look at the band and signal time to end. So from the the final note we slide down to the cords C then D then E.I stand in the sweet spot, holding the E note in octaves as I get controlled feedback. I look at the boys in the band and signal break time and off the stage we go(We'll play Bo later in the next set) As I head off the stage. The Gi's are slapping me on the back and shaking my hand. I remind them to come home safe, secure and healthy. Next set.

Hump time, between one and two in the morning. This is when the crowd has been drinking all night and they are frothing at the mouth to boogie and we aim to deliver. Now it's time for the Stones,AC/DC Metallica and Megadeth. The hard stuff is coming. Requests are coming to the stage, along with tips and house is packed. It hot and sweaty just the way we love it.

I decided to slow it down, after pounding them with several songs by the aforementioned bands, I pick something slow and soulful. Hendrix” Little Wing”. I start the song with the pick scratch across the strings of the 12th fret. Slide down to open E in the second fret. I play as G chord with some filler notes and up to A minor. Few of the filler notes then to E minor. B minor B-flat minor A minor to C major. Then classic Jimi Hendrix cords,G. Major, A major F major. Down to C major to D major. Now comes the solo. The first part, I keep really clean with my chorus and compressor engaged. Some octave work as I stay within the realms of E minor pentatonic. I watched the crowd as couples dance slowly. I add a little bit of distortion with my yellow peddle to the sound to build slowly. As the band runs through one or two more choruses I continue to build intensity. Finally, the moment comes, I stomp on my distortion channel, and I hit a high D note the on the B string. I pull a note from a D to a E, and slowly rock it back and forth to give it that singing quality. At this point, I am beginning to be surrounded by a wall of sound. The band, and I are one. And the line between performer and audience begins to blur. This is the sweet spot that moment of takeoff. It is what all musicians strive for, To dance together in the fire. I continue to play, and open my eyes to see many of the dancers have stopped dancing. Now they feel it too. The hair in the back of my neck is standing up. There are goose pimples up and down my arms. As I twist and manipulate these notes slowly rocking my trem bar I begin to get controlled feedback. That adds to the intensity of the moment. I feel it, they feel it, this is that special moment. At this point, my guitar is not so much an instrument as is an extension of some part of my body. All the lines are blurred, and it is one incredible and very intense feeling. I end the song with a flurry of notes, nod to the drummer,it's break time.

The last set is usually a wind down set. We call this set “Motel time “you know what motel spelled backwards is girls? LET (E)M!!.. Here is where the band starts to pull out some of the more interesting songs. Some of the patrons are putting on their jackets, calling cabs and heading for home. The crowd is starting to thin out obviously, so the band rolls into some of the more esoteric tunes by John Coltrane,Miles Davis, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani,and George Benson. Maybe even a little Steely Dan. We end the night with” Lenny” by Stevie Ray Vaughn. I thank everyone for being there that night, remind them to drive safely, tip the bartender and the waitresses and we will be back tomorrow. I turn off everything on stage pack up my guitars and head to the bar. The owners,bartenders and waitresses are all happy. They made good money tonight, and they really enjoyed the band. I get the bands pay, check the tip jar and pay the guys. Grab my jacket and I'm out of there.

Back at home time I am chillin, I got something snack on and am having a glass of wine reflecting on the night and my life. I'm a pretty lucky guy. I have a great day job,three beautiful kids, a lovely wife, and I get paid to play the guitar. Something I used to do for free. Not bad for a kid from Fairbanks Alaska.

So, come back with me now my friends, to where this all began many years ago. You'll find that is started in a very unusual way. As Jerry Garcia once said, and I quote” it's been a strange trip after all”.