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crawdad · August 23rd, 2008, 04:31 AM

Tonight was a Johnny Cash Tribute Show in Wayne, Michigan. For this show, I play my Tele and a martin acoustic on a few tunes, and I do some harmonies and a Carl Perkins cover to give the "Cash" impersonator a break.

It was a hot and muggy night, but there was a crowd of about 350 people who were Johnny Cash fans, eagerly awaiting the show. I got there early. Part of the deal was that the band would get dinner. Well, dinner turned out to be salad and some two hour old pizza which I passed on.

Finally, the band before us finishes and we get set up. For me, most of the show is clean Telecaster into my Allen Old Flame, with a bit of slapback echo. Once I get that dialed in and soundcheck my Martin, I am good to go. The stage is big and we have a pro sound company--big mains and real nice monitors.

We get a good groove happening right from the start. The bass player has a new upright semi-solidbody bass and it is getting that beautiful thump that you only get with such an instrument. The drummer is cracking with crisp energy and our frontman is in great form. I have the Tele set up for that Luther Perkins kind of twang and it is real fun to lock into that stuff. At some points, its almost like early electric Dylan--cool!

We do a chronological pacing of Cash's hits and we have a girl who does the June Cash character. It goes over REALLY well. At the end we do "Jackson" and the crowd brings us back. We do "Hurt". When we finish that song--ten seconds of dead silence--the audience isn't sure that the song is over 'cause it ends abrubtly, but them the applause comes. It is real satisfying. An hour and a half of music and we are all soaked with sweat, but smiling because its gone well. We've done a credible and inspired tribute. I feel like a million bucks because I get to do this stuff. I'm hot and my clothes are soaked, but I drive home, blasting the air, and think about how good it felt to make music tonight. I know all my gigs won't have this kind of payoff, so I bask in the moment and look forward to the next gig tomorrow.

August 23rd, 2008, 04:31 AM	#19 (permalink)
crawdad Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,593	Tonight was a Johnny Cash Tribute Show in Wayne, Michigan. For this show, I play my Tele and a martin acoustic on a few tunes, and I do some harmonies and a Carl Perkins cover to give the "Cash" impersonator a break. It was a hot and muggy night, but there was a crowd of about 350 people who were Johnny Cash fans, eagerly awaiting the show. I got there early. Part of the deal was that the band would get dinner. Well, dinner turned out to be salad and some two hour old pizza which I passed on. Finally, the band before us finishes and we get set up. For me, most of the show is clean Telecaster into my Allen Old Flame, with a bit of slapback echo. Once I get that dialed in and soundcheck my Martin, I am good to go. The stage is big and we have a pro sound company--big mains and real nice monitors. We get a good groove happening right from the start. The bass player has a new upright semi-solidbody bass and it is getting that beautiful thump that you only get with such an instrument. The drummer is cracking with crisp energy and our frontman is in great form. I have the Tele set up for that Luther Perkins kind of twang and it is real fun to lock into that stuff. At some points, its almost like early electric Dylan--cool! We do a chronological pacing of Cash's hits and we have a girl who does the June Cash character. It goes over REALLY well. At the end we do "Jackson" and the crowd brings us back. We do "Hurt". When we finish that song--ten seconds of dead silence--the audience isn't sure that the song is over 'cause it ends abrubtly, but them the applause comes. It is real satisfying. An hour and a half of music and we are all soaked with sweat, but smiling because its gone well. We've done a credible and inspired tribute. I feel like a million bucks because I get to do this stuff. I'm hot and my clothes are soaked, but I drive home, blasting the air, and think about how good it felt to make music tonight. I know all my gigs won't have this kind of payoff, so I bask in the moment and look forward to the next gig tomorrow. __________________ You can't have everything. Where would you put it?