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."