Re: Sit-Ins (sessions)/Nashville

[rocket@eden (Rick Barker)]

I was out of town for Labor Day weekend and wasn't able to respond in a
timely manner to this particular thread. Having played music professionally
for 15 years and music being my sole source of income for the last five I
am compelled to add my 2 cents. I don't think the world should get the idea
that all professional musicians in the US are mercenaries.

Although I've been fortunate enough to have landed in a position to get
paid to play, that is not why I play. I play to impress the interesting
vegetation in the front row :-). I also play for the love of creating
music. As soon as playing professionally is not fun, I'll do something else
for a living.

>I am intrigued by the frequent use of the term "open mic night". Do I take it
>>that *all* your sessions take place over mics? This leads me to surmise that
>>you all play with (up against :-) ) electric instruments is this true?

My experience has been that an "open mic night" is where one or more
musicians take the stage and perform some material as a unit. Usually
they've rehearsed this material(to varying degrees of course). There is a
small PA but usually not amplifiers per se. The quality of the players can
range widely. Often there is a host who runs the affair.

A blues jam is different. Usually a house band(which is getting paid) hosts
the jam. As Barry S. pointed out(paraphrasing), these jams generally have
an attitude of "I'm gonna strut my stuff" associated with them. Quite
often, players are playing with other players they've never played with
before which can turn out fun or can be a train wreck. Someone posted an
incomplete list of the players at these jams. They left out excellent
musicians who have day jobs as lawyers, etc., who are not wannabes, novices
or hot-doggers who could easily be in a working band in their own right.
They also left out professional musicians that have the night off. I've
never come across a blues jam that happened on a weekend night. Generally
they occur Sun-Tues when many working musicians have the night off.

>Someone out there tell me about a good blues jam experience.

I've had several. But, I've had many more experiences over the years that
left something to be desired. Since arriving in Nashville, I've had a
significantly higer percentage of good experiences. The overall quality of
musicians in this town is amazing. And I'm not referring to the "country
schlock" that drones on corporate country radio. There are some excellent
musicians in this town like I haven't seen before although there is a major
shortage of very good harmonica players.

I have come across several sessions(as they're called) in this country.
They're more like a living room jam. Something that needs to pointed out
here is that "folk" music is different in the UK than it is here. By a
relaxed definition, folk music in the US includes blues, country, jazz,
rock and that music which usually gets the label "folk". And the lines have
become very blurred in the last 30 years. In the UK folk music is a
different thing altogether. At the "sessions" I've experienced here in the
US, Celtic, Irish & Scottish music is generally played.

There you have it, 2 cents worth.