It a "good" tired I'm feeling right now.
The 1st Church String Band had our first "full hook-up" show in over a year this past Saturday. We haven't used amps and a PA system since a house concert in the early fall last year. We provided music for the Seekers Class dessert party / gathering at the church. From left to right is John Johnson on guitar and vocals, then yours truly on guitar and vocals, Mary McAdoo on vocals, Charlie Weems on electric guitar and vocals, Papa Russ Logan on mandolin and vocals, Gary Ingram on bass guitar and vocals, Ned Conner on guitar and vocals, and Stu Spencer on guitar and 5-string banjo.
My usual "system" is geared around playing solo or as a duet with my sometimes music partner, Larry Dykstra. Rigging everything up for a band with 6 vocal mics, and running all the acoustic instruments through mixer boards is a chore. However, the more you do it, the better and quicker you become at hooking it all up, and the better your ear gets when its time to balance the sound output.
In other words, so far so good!
It seems to me that people are more appreciative of Christmas music this year than in the past. I mentioned in an earlier post that we usually get around 4 or 5 invites to sing during December. This year we received 9 invitations, a couple of them last minute in nature, but 9 none-the-less.
As a result of singing more, we are getting much better at singing the songs in the arrangements that we have come up with. Our banter back and forth between songs is getting more crisp, and our timing is pretty good. I guess that all comes from playing together as a band more. December is usually our busiest month, as we only sing "publically" a couple of times during the year.
Maybe that will change this next year. We are all enjoying ourselves and each other. We are enjoying entertaining our audiences. We are enjoying making music.
My Christmas and News Year wish is that we can keep it up. But that all depends on everyone's schedules. We don't play for money. If we get fed, it's considered a paying gig.
But . . . I'm hoping that we all will make a more determined effort to play more as a band in the coming year.
God's grace, and friends to make music with, still amazes me . . . ><>
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