Wow, good to hear from so many of you old friends from around the globe! And nice to see the links to those old posts - brought back a lot of memories.
One of the reasons I posted so much on here was to be of help in as calm and reasoned a manner as possible to those who were struggling to leave the WTS and high control religions in general. I've had a lot of feedback over the years and I think I've been of some help to a few folks, which is nice to know.
As far as the questions about my band and the music: We have a 4-piece band - two guitars, bass & drums. The lead guitarist is a virtuoso rock guitar player who is encouraging me to do more lead work, which has been nice, if intimidating. When you're in a band with a guy who, when a song or a guitarist like Hendrix or Santana or Gibbons or whoever is mentioned and he can just rip into it - well, it's pretty mind-blowing.
So, I'm playing rhythm and doing some lead on several songs, doing most of the vocals, and writing originals. What kind of music? Pretty eclectic. Stretching back to T-bone Walker's Stormy Monday, covers like Neil Young's Cortez the Killer and Powderfinger, Soul Survivor's Expressway to Your Heart, Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal, then covering bands we love like the Bottle Rockets, Arc Angels, Beat Farmers, the Smithereens, Patti Smith Group, Meat Puppets, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Band and writers like John Hiatt, Jon Dee Graham, Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men, Jeff Foucault, Tom Waits, Prince, Leonard Cohen. Add in a small handful of better known covers - Beatles, Clapton, Hendrix, Stones, CCR, Cream – and you've got a mix of guitar-driven Rock & Roots music.
I play an Ibanez I bought back in 1981 - Strat style with with a humbucker-single coil-humbucker configuration and also a Fender Squier Strat with 3 single coils that I bought in a second-hand shop for $40 and fixed up.
My amp is a rare tube Legend Rock and Roll 50 - made for a short while in the late 70s early 80s til they were bought out by a bigger company. Finger-jointed wood case with a cane front and 12" Celestion speaker. Amp was used by ZZ Top, The Outlaws - incredibly loud. At 50 watts it's louder than a 150 watt amp. You can't run the volume above 2 and survive. I've been struggling to get it under control for months - finally making some progress. Got it in an auction on E-Bay for $255! I've seen them sell from $500 to $1300.
I've been corresponding with one of the columnists at Vintage Guitar mag about adding another guitar at a decent price, and his response was that I should buy a guitar kit and build my own. As he put it, "We are living in the golden age of guitar kits," noting that for the price of a Chinese made import, I could build my own and have a guitar worth 4X that. So, when the tax refund comes back, I'm going to indulge myself. The hardest part is the finish - and I'm friends with several local guitar builders and will seek some guidance.
The coolest thing about that is that from $100 to $300 or so, you can build anything from a Tele to a Les Paul or a Paul Reed Smith archtop.
As you can see, I'm a bit excited about all the music stuff. Some ideas I've had for decades finally all falling into place.
Good to hear from everyone!
S4
