Blues Jam at the Woodmen of the World Building

You never know what to expect at one of these free for all jam sessions. They can be anything from a " who has the loudest amplifier contest " to an outright disaster. But then again, they can be outright fun.

The band that I play with on a part time basis set this jam session up about a month ago. They rented out the local Woodmen of the World building and sent out hundreds of invitations.

 This was supposed to be a huge event. All of the local musicians were invited, and all of them were promised their shot to get on stage and jam.

There was supposed to be a PA system and a sound man running the PA.

There was supposed to be a lot of people there. Free food and drinks for all ( no alcohol by the way ) , Pizza, Chili, Hotdogs, chips and dip, ect.

After a stressful ten hour work day, I was a bit reluctant to show up. The food menu was attractive enough. However,  I had Arby's for breakfast and Chinese  ( no eat cockloach Chinese lestalaurant, cockloach no good eat ) for lunch, so I wasn't sure if I could pour Hotdogs and Pizza on top of Sausage and Eggs and Sweet 'n ' Sour Pork. My digestive system was already out of whack from the mixture of Chinese and southern foods. So......

When I pulled my Chevy into the Woodmen of the World parking lot, the first person that I saw was our sax player ( from Detriot , this is Kentucky) climbing out of his vintage black Mercedes dressed in a black " Blues Brothers " suit. This guy has jammed at BB King's in Memphis, and he's the only Sax palyer that I've ever known to jam on the Texas and Mississippi Delta style bules. Great Sax player no doubt.

What a cool sight ! This is as cool as it gets !

I pulled my axe and amp out of my Chevy , and when I walked in, the place was like a ghost town. The food was there as promised, but where were all of the people who were invited ?

I was then directed to the stage. Our lead guitarist told me where to set up. I noticed the PA system, but there were no Sure sm 57's as promised, and no sound man.

We did have a bit of a crowd of about twenty people, so we decided to rip the foof off of the joint.

Then we went through the horrid sound checks. You know, you turn up, you turn down.

Considering that none of the other musicians who were invited showed up, we ripped into " Mustang Sally " in C.

This was only the second time that I had jammed with my now part time band, so in order for me to pull this gig off, I kept eye contact with the lead guitarist. When he looked my way, I knew that it was my time to solo.

From that point on, we swapped solos. I screwed up a couple of times by cutting in on our Sax players solos because I got caught up in my own solos and lost contact with the lead guitarist, but no harm was done.

We ripped off a few covers of Stevie Ray, BB King and Cream as well as some of the band's originals that I had never heard( I cheated on those, just turned down and acted like I was actually playing )

It all turned out great ! The crowd loved us ( the few that were there ) !

Even though this was only the second time that I had jammed with these guys, I felt like I was a part of the band, These guys are all pretty laid back and easy going, and they made me feel like I was at home.

You never know what to expect from jam sessions like this one.