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When My Worlds Collide

I'm the sort of person who tends to compartmentalize things in my life. It's weird...but it works for me.

Case in point, today. I was doing a show with my band, Memphis Mike & The Legendary Tremblers, today and decided to merge a couple of my personal worlds...at least a couple of my musical worlds. Allow me to explain...

In this band, we play loud, usually fast, boogie-kinda rock and roll. Some call it rockabilly (we don't), some call it country rock, some call it blues, some call it surf. Like Sam Phillips, we just call it "rock & roll" maaaaaaan. Sure, I like to incorporate blues, country, jazz, surf, rockabilly, punk, etc. into my playing. It's called having my own style. When I do solo shows, it's usually just me and a resophonic guitar, playing a lot of side guitar, and attempting to play 'down home kinda delta blues'. I rarely, if ever, play slide on electric. But today was different.

I've been in a different mindset lately about music. I've got the band, plus I've been doing solo shows, plus I've joined another band on bass. I've been writing (and rewriting) a fair bit...so my mind has been all over the place. As I was getting ready to leave for the show today, that little voice in my head (the reasonable voice...not the one that sounds like Mrs. Bates...HAHAHA Joke Son!!!) told me to take my slide with me.

As I waited for my bass player to swing by, I grabbed my writing guitar (my old Gibson ES 120T), tuned it in a G tuning and started playing some of my solo acoustic stuff...trying to decide whether or not to play some today at the show.

We got to Jay's earlier than usual, so we had to a chance to actually warm up a bit. The voice in my head told me "play some slide". I detuned my 1960 Gibson 175 down to an open D and started playing with the old "Mystery Train" riff. It was sounding good. The rhythm section, as usual, picked right up on it. They started out simply then got more into the groove. We did a couple verses of the song and a solo or two. I liked it!

During one of the sets (we played 4 sets today...so it was either the 1st or 2nd set), I opted to do this song for the (admittedly sparse) crowd. This joint, Jay's, is more of a sports bar/restaurant kinda place. Not exactly known for rock and roll. The few folks there, were there to see us...not sit inside and watch the game.

The crowd dug it. They seemed a bit taken aback that we played this song, this way. In fact, we did a 2 song medley, "Mystery Train" & "Big Boss Man"...sort of my own nod to back when I used to occasionally play bass for Sleepy LaBeef. (If you've ever seen Sleepy LIVE, you know he's the king of medleys)

Most importantly, it felt GOOD to play this electrically. The 175 was not the ideal guitar for it...but it sounded pretty good from where I was standing. I may have to look around for some clunky old electric to start playing slide on. This could become another part of the ever-growing show. We tried a version of "My Babe", the old Little Walter song (written by Willie Dixon, who wrote almost EVERY blues song) later on in the 3rd or 4th set. It went over OK...but the rhythm section was neither ready for it, nor do I think they felt it. We'll have to work on that one.

Anyhoo, it was fun to stretch out and do something different. I try to do this a lot in different areas of my life...but music, I've always compartmentalized. It just may be time to get uber weird! HAHA!

OK...I'm done rambling...for now. Got some business stuff to deal with. A musician's work is never done.....

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