... and then we were TWO!

Well, the auditions at the weekend didn't come up with a new guitarist for the band - Steve, the bass player is going to ask someone that he knows, to see if he's interested.

... and, Rick the drummer told me at the audition session that he is too busy to move forward with the project!

You have to be a masochist to want to form bands!

The search continues.

Another pic ...

I just got this sent to me

Is it real or is it Photoshop??

... and yet another image

Someone just sent me THIS image. I think that it's cool that folks want to share their photos that relate to the band.

Thanks, and keep 'em coming!

Auditions

Auditions will continue next weekend to find a guitarist for the band. Audition pieces will be:

"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield

"Spooky" by Classics IV

"Riders On The Storm" by The Doors

Good luck to all those guitarists who attend.

From a fan!

I was sent this image today by a fan who has never heard us, but who thinks that what we are doing is a good idea!

Thanks!

The search continues ...

I posted a new ad on the various online sites that I use to find potential musicians yesterday.

I've had one interesting reply from a guitarist/singer in Providence. Fingers crossed that he might come through!

The First Mugshots

 Rick Santos - Drums

 Steve Tapper - Bass & Woodwinds

Ray Price - Vocals, Bass and Electric Dulcimer

Let's make some noise!

The very first attempt at pulling together a line-up for "Mr Tambourine Man" was held in the living room of Rick, the drummer from Providence. Quite understandably, he didn't want to schlep his drum kit up and down his stairs and into a rehearsal space and then reverse the journey, so we went to him.

This is always a moment of apprehension - what the hell is this going to sound like? I had sent a handful of mp3s of song choices to everyone, and the guys had expressed interest in a selection of songs that we would try out together.

So, after setting up, we launched into The Byrd's version of "Mr Tambourine Man," The Eagles "Heartache Tonight" and Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain." Now, it was Mother's Day, and Steve had already performed FOUR gigs in MA, AND driven down to RI to meet, so I didn't want to go too long for his sake.

It's always interesting merging musical talents for the first time, but these guys did really well on this first attempt. In fact, as I was packing my gear in to my car at the end of the session, a neighbor of Rick's told me how much she had enjoyed the sound - our first audience member!

After we had played, I went round the assembled group, and asked whether after this session, they were interested in continuing. I was fine about working with any of them. Only the guitarist said that his personal project had to take priority, so he didn't want to commit the time to "Mr Tambourine Man."  Three out of four interested / committed players from a first session is NOT BAD!

So, the journey continues ...

... now we need to find at least one more member to play guitar or keyboard and maybe sing with us - I think that a quartet would be ideal, as in this economic climate, it's good not to have too many "mouths to feed."

Finding Musical Friends!

Next came the process that I was dreading - the search for musicians to realize my dream. I have been a musician all my life, and know just how hard and frustrating this part of the work is. I put ads in all the regular places - Craigslist in Boston and Rhode Island, Berklee Music School's Website etc. etc., and waited ...

Soon the wacky responses came rolling. Even though I had set out very specifically what I was looking for and asked for online examples of playing/singing skills, I got replies like, "I'm a gitar plyer" or "I sing EVERY kind of music ever thought of in the history of humankind, but NO there are NO examples of me singing ANYWHERE." I can assure you, it's VERY exasperating : )

I DID get one or two interesting responses however, and  swapped emails, but a couple of likely sounding guitarists were very difficult to pin down (impossible infact). Yes, they were interested, but no they couldn't make ANY daytime OR evening either on weekdays or weekends! Hmm, how are we going to get together exactly? One guy wrote that he would be available around November 2011!!

Thankfully, there WERE sane people who answered my ads too. A bass player/wind player from MA named Steve Tapper (I keep thinking that he has the same name as the VERY cool guitarist Steve "The Colonel" Cropper who played with Booker T & the M.G's), a drummer from RI named Rick Santos and a guitarist from RI who just LOVES the music of "Buffalo Springfield." Not a bad selection to start with.

I met Rick for a chat at my favorite coffee hangout, "The Coffee Exchange" in Providence, and went to see him play at a Blues Jam at the new Pawtucket rock venue "The Met," so by the time that we actually got to play together, I felt that I knew him a little bit. Steve, strangely enough had applied for a bass playing position with my Breton dance band "Trouz Bras" a couple of years ago, so it was good to know that he was interested, as I'd liked what I'd heard before. The other guitarist was wrapped up in a solo project, so I knew that his time and interest would be limited, but I liked the songs that he sent me, and thought that he would be a good addition to the project.

Wow! We have a time and place when we can all be in the same place lined-up! Let's do it!

First steps

I thought that before I even found the right musicians, I should come up with a name (ALWAYS the hardest part of forming a band) and carve out a little piece of Internet real estate. I felt that the process would give me focus and clarity about what I wanted to do.

So, I sat at my laptop, and just did a "stream of consciousness" number on the problem. Names of songs from bands of the period, album titles etc. etc.  As I was looking for musicians from my age group to populate the project, I was thinking about time, age and revisiting music from the past. There were WAY too many ideas to document here, but just a few that were INSPIRED BY THE BYRDS are: "My Back Pages" "Turn! Turn! Turn!" "Younger Than Yesterday" "I Was So Much Older Then" "I Wasn't Born To Follow" "All I Really Want To Do" "Mr Spaceman" "Eight Miles High" and so on (you get the idea).

Anyway, incredibly, most of them were already taken by bands from around the world. I went through the same process with Jefferson Airplane, The Eagles and down the list of influences, and the story was the same - the titles had been snapped up by "Tribute Bands" for the various artists.

I was getting disillusioned, when I thought of "Mr Tambourine Man." Now, I immediately thought that there would be at least half a dozen Bob Dylan or Byrds tribute bands around the world with that name, but always being one for believing in miracles, I decided to give it a go. After extensive searches on the Internet, of many search engines, Facebook, MySpace, and other websites, it transpired that I couldn't find anyone using the name! WHAT??? I even did a web domain search and found that I could actually purchase http://www.mrtambourineman.us - I was AMAZED!

Then I followed it up with:
http://facebook.com/mrtambourinemanband
http://reverbnation.com/mrtambourineman
and mrtambourinemanband@gmail.com
... and finally this very blog:
http://mrtambourinemanband.blogspot.com/

So, I had a name for the project, now I just had to find the musicians to make the music!

Here we go!

I am just starting the process of forming a new musical project called "Mr Tambourine Man." The band will perform the music that many know and love from 60's and 70's California - think The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Arthur Lee and Love, Spirit, CSNY and many more. We will also be sprinkling in songs from other favorite artists from the period to keep things interesting.

So, as I am right at the moment of inception for this project, I thought that it would be interesting to document the pitfalls and pleasure of forming such an endeavor. 

Be there as things develop and we begin to move forward!

It should be fun to document each step of the way to becoming a fully fledged band and to gasp at the miss-steps and cheer as we progress!

Here we go ....