Pretty Good Day
I had a pretty good day Sunday. I was a judge for the Fiddling Contest at the New Jersey State Fair in Sussex Co., NJ (this is a regular gig I've been doing for the last five or so years). To kick off the show we judges played a three-song set. There I was sandwiched between Steve the banjo speed demon and a bass player who used to play for Twisted Sister. I'm pretty much a hack mandolin player, so Steve gave me about three or four songs he thought he would do for the Fair. I practiced them diligently, and was almost ready to take them on come Sunday. Sunday morning Steve says he doesn't want to play any "Safe Songs." Instead he wants to play tunes from his new CD, which hasn't been released yet. Now this is not your Mama's bluegrass. This is highly technical stuff that goes a little North of Dawg Grisman, East of Nickle Creek, and the other side of the world from Bela Fleck. The CD itself is pretty awesome with virtuoso playing all around. Steve wants me to PLAY THIS STUFF WITH LITTLE OR NO WARNING!?!
Well, if he's crazy enough to get in front of a crowd and pick with a hack like me with no rehearsal, I'm crazy enough to get up there. As my friend Heather once said so eloquently, "Now that I've made an ass of myself once, I have confidence that I can do it again." Anyway, we sounded like a train wreck, but the crowd did applaud, and there was a lot of them. This NJ State Fair was the most crowded of any I've been to. The weather was great and the people were forgiving.
The contest was killer with about 8 or 9 really good players, the rest were lame. A young lady from Canada was the overall winner. She did a killer version of my favorite tune, "Back Up and Push." I had to give it to her after that. After the contest we walked the vendor row for a bit looking for munchies and beer.
Later when we got back to Steve's house we got out the instruments and jammed some more. On one really fast tune, I almost figured out the secret of playing fast solos. That is very elusive, and everyone wants to learn how to do it. I may have gotten the key--we'll see. I've always had a big speed limit on my playing, but I may be able to break out of it. We also cooked some steak and had a terrific salad with ginger dressing that was just like the Japanese restaurants serve. Afterwards there were fireworks on the lake. We could see them a little bit through the trees. We provided our own pyrotechnics on acoustic instruments. It was a good day.
ACE
Well, if he's crazy enough to get in front of a crowd and pick with a hack like me with no rehearsal, I'm crazy enough to get up there. As my friend Heather once said so eloquently, "Now that I've made an ass of myself once, I have confidence that I can do it again." Anyway, we sounded like a train wreck, but the crowd did applaud, and there was a lot of them. This NJ State Fair was the most crowded of any I've been to. The weather was great and the people were forgiving.
The contest was killer with about 8 or 9 really good players, the rest were lame. A young lady from Canada was the overall winner. She did a killer version of my favorite tune, "Back Up and Push." I had to give it to her after that. After the contest we walked the vendor row for a bit looking for munchies and beer.
Later when we got back to Steve's house we got out the instruments and jammed some more. On one really fast tune, I almost figured out the secret of playing fast solos. That is very elusive, and everyone wants to learn how to do it. I may have gotten the key--we'll see. I've always had a big speed limit on my playing, but I may be able to break out of it. We also cooked some steak and had a terrific salad with ginger dressing that was just like the Japanese restaurants serve. Afterwards there were fireworks on the lake. We could see them a little bit through the trees. We provided our own pyrotechnics on acoustic instruments. It was a good day.
ACE