| Subject: | Re: [RESOGUIT-L] Is Jerry Douglas a guy thing? | | Date: | Thursday, February 15, 2007 05:59:06 (EST) | | From: | KCSteelPlayer <KCSteelPlayer @...com>
|
In a message dated 2/14/2007 9:41:34 AM Central Standard Time,
mccloskey@gmail.com writes:
> My wife was saying that while she liked the concert, she liked Alyson Kraus
> better when we saw Jerry with her. Women like songs that they can hum.
> Jerry's band was all instrumentals, lots of extended improvisation and
> blistering solos: the polar opposite of the AK experience, which was short
> songs and done exactly as the record. My son and I were both disappointed
> with AK for that very reason and my wife and daughter loved her for that
> very reason.
>
I assume your son is either a musician or an aspiring one, and your wife and
daughter are not. I've forwarded this email off to Josephine for her thoughts
(after all, she's a fiddler whose interests include jazz, especially
high-energy swing-possibly too high, she said that Hugh and Karl Farr were a
little
too laid-back for her), but I really suspect that the differences lie along that
line. I have little use for hearing everything done like the record; in fact
I rarely play solos just like the record, or the same way every time (off the
top of my head I can think of only two I do regularly: Bruce Bouton's ride on
"Highway 40 Blues" needs no improvement, and the back neck can play the
six-string bass ride from Dwight's "Little Ways" easily enough and it's a cool
ride); intros being another matter altogether, and have found Jr. Brown's live
radio performances a real yawner because he plays everything just like the
record: Had I not been told of his performances at the Wakarusa Festival, I'd
have
just written him off entirely. That said, I DO expect certain things from
listening to improvisations: If you think of music as a language, I expect each
(roughly) 16-32 bars to resemble a paragraph. If a solo doesn't hang together
in such a manner, I'll readily assume that the soloist may well be a great
player, but has UTTERLY no value as a musician (Listen to whoever played fiddle
on
Jimmy Martin's recording of "Fraulein" for a dang good example of "what, was
he thinking?"). If you're gonna trade fours, listen to what the person before
you just had to say: if what yuu're gonna play wouldn't fit in the same
paragraph, perhaps you ought to find a different sentence/clause than what you'd
had in mind.
> The reverse was true with Jerry's band: I, and all the guys in the
> audience,
> loved it. The women seemed less thrilled. According to my wife, women don't
> like instrumentals, blistering solos, and extended improvisation. They like
> short songs they can sing to. She was amused by the guys at the table next
> to us who kept a running commentary on Jerry's fingers and what they were
> doing.
>
> So, is Jerry a guy thing?
>
Probably not, but the world of musicians has a way of effectively putting up
a Little Rascals-like "he-man woman hater's club" sign, and it takes certain
personality types in women to get along with people like that, and many others
get driven away (my wife wants little to do with musicians, after having been
one herself when we met, due to the attitudes of other guys)
Lane Gray, steel player for Jody Scott and Too Country
www.myspace.com/jodyscottandtoocountry
"Sometimes the best hook is a hole." Chuck Hayes, over a beer.
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