Authentic

Sunday's band rehearsal/practice/jam was one of the best ever... after Matt packed up and left after about three hours. He literally just pulled up stumps, jumped in his car, and drove off without a word. Quiet all day, not speaking, except for moaning about his excessive hangover...

I'm not for one moment suggesting I've got all my $#ite together. Not at all. We've all got our own issues to journey through in this life we're given. That's just reality.

We were all playing pretty well for the first few hours. Tho Matt was, how shall I say it, 'uninspired'? I don't think he wanted to be there. We all tried to encourage him, but he just kinda stood there and played the bare bones. Couldn't even manage a guitar solo out of him, which is saying something.

We also managed to get three piano-based songs down tho - even with me plodding away on keyboards. But yeah... not so easy when one of us is not a willing participant. Passive resistance? I dunno what planet Matt was on, to be honest.

We're all really worried about him. I've never heard Mick sound so upset. I mean really upset.

After Matt evaporated, we had the best jam ever, just Julian on drums, Mick on bass, and myself on guitar! For about two hours, we literally just played some nice grooves as a three piece, using nice open chimey chords, feels and harmonies together. Really nice feels. Julian using brushes (among other things) - sounded so awesomely authentic!

I mean... I can't believe we were doing The Byrds, Buddy Holly and Everly Brothers stuff spot-on, at really low, intimate volume levels! Even jazz grooves! I haven't played anything like that with anyone else ever! I think that's why we enjoyed it so much... doing something we'd never normally do. It felt really GOOD.

I must boast... playing my guitar thru my amp, just plugged straight-in without any effects, sounded like a million dollars! What a great investment! No, seriously. It's like a dream to play. After years of owning and playing basically junk instruments, this is a beautiful piece of work, that makes playing just so much more easier.

So yeah, without any struggles at all, Mick, Julian and I have added like 10 new songs to the setlist, without even thinking about it. That's almost a whole set, just as a mellow rockabilly/50's r'n'r/mellow harmonies type outfit, just the three of us. wOOt.

Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have dreamed of playing a Buddy Holly set! It was like a breath of fresh air for all three of us. We literally played until the sun went down.

That's not putting Matt down. He has his own demons he's obviously working thru at the moment. I guess we just felt a sudden release of freedom to try something totally different - and it worked like a dream.

Also for me, it was the first time I used my old-old-OLD bass-guitar speaker cabinet just on its own, the one with just the one large speaker in it, rather than the big heavy quad one. It's the first speaker cabinet I ever owned, and it's only been used once in about 10 years! It sounded so warm and mellow (now I've finally replaced the old blown speaker)... a beautiful companion with my other cabinet, which is bright and percussive. They blend together beautifully. So yeah... even trying something totally different as far as speaker configurations was, for me on Sunday, like a breath of fresh air.

Mick having the freedom to play bass was a revelation as well. He really can play, when he's given the space to just let himself go. So, just the three of us together was kinda magical there, for about two hours. We didn't want to stop.

I'm not trying to make us sound like we're some rock'n'roll musical gods in the making - nothing like that, good gawd no! It's just that when we really do 'click' together, something magical happens. Tis the joy of each having played for years, with so many different people, in so many different styles and situations.

That doesn't happen all the time between musicians. It doesn't always 'click' so easily.

So yeah, when together you start playing "the music in between the notes", then you know you're onto a good thing.

We enjoy it. That's the bottom line.

It's damn FUN!!!

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Matt hasn't been speaking to anyone this week. It's not just me. He's not returned my calls or messages since Sunday either.

He's normally the talkative (as in "motor-mouth"! lol), positive one. He's really in a bad (drug-induced) funk at the moment. We don't know how he's gonna pull himself out of it, which concerns us.

I don't know what to do.

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Peas be with ewe

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