To paraphrase Eric Clapton, "It's late in the evening..." and earlier today was the first rehearsal session with my new backing band. It was really wonderful to spend time just focusing on the music. I decided to hire a backline of musicians rather than collaborate this time. I want to be completely free to create the songs in my head without feeling like I'm imposing on other peoples time and goodwill. We ended up having a wonderful jam session which focused on just one song. There was no rush to rehearse a set of songs to book gigs in order to make enough money to keep the band together. This was 100% about the music. I'd like to introduce the session players who took the time to help me craft one of my songs.
I met Jake when he came in to play a horn instrument for the music library. He told me one of his primary instruments is guitar. I asked if I could hire him for private rehearsal sessions and if he knew any bass players or drummers. Through Jake, I met Noah on bass.Through Noah, I might just have a percussionist next week. They can also bring in different instrumentalists for specific songs as and when we need them.
All we did for our first session was run through the song several times, iron out the tricky bits, record it for private practice time this week so we can really jam on this song next week. As we were unpacking, I played the song we were going to rehearse that evening, but as we were packing up, I played a new song for us to mull over in a week or two and we talked about it on the way to our cars.
It was really a lovely way to spend an early evening. I hope you like This Simple Song when we're all done. I'll add it to my Spotify page among other places and keep going.
Good night.
Rhonda