Tangential

Last year, I started up a series of duos and trios to perform my loopy improvs at The Blues Iguana and Roo's Bistro. Guitarist Allen Pitts was the first one I tapped to join me. We had just started to evolve the concept when several things kicked in to cause me to shut down Narada Weeps for a few months. After the turn of the year, I contacted Allen and said I wanted to get things going again but I didn't want to use the Narada Weeps name for this. Instead of this being my project and his joining me on my music, I wanted to start up something that was ours--something where he was as instrumental to the creation of the music as I. And thus we have the birth of our group Tangential.

Right now we are working up the music that will be the crux of our debut show, March 24th at the Blues Iguana. After we get a couple of shows under our belt, we will be going into Don Riddle's Deep Rock Studio to record an album. I'm hoping that when Ms Mac goes on summer break in July and August, Allen and I will be able to use that time to perform several more shows. There is even talk of a full performance DVD in the works. Allen is extremely creative and talented and I feel very fortunate to get to work with him.

All of this isn't to say Narada Weeps is going away. I'm still working on tracks here at the house and will be putting out another CD in the June/July mark. And along with squeezing in a solo show or two in the summer, I wouldn't be shocked to see some of it make it's way to a Tangential show--maybe in a slightly modified form (which is a cool thing).

Ms Mac . . . Tangential . . . Narada Weeps . . . ???? . . . sometimes it is very good to be a bass player. ;)

http://facebook.com/tangentialmusic

My Mixed-up Musical Muse

I'm the musical equivalent of a fat guy trying to paddle a canoe up a waterfall--I just can't seem to go with the flow. While I love playing bass with a party/club band for the fun of seeing folks really let loose to the music, I'm not a strong entertainer in my own right. I'm just not a showman. So, with these types of bands (like my current band, Ms Mac), I'm lucky in that the performer/show side of things get handled by the front folks--I just have to lock in with my drummer (the very talented Tony Hargrove with Ms Mac) and everything else is taken care of. So, why would I want to do anything else?

I guess this story goes back to the fact that I really like a lot of different styles of music. Now, you may have heard some folks say, "Oh, I love all music," but very few folks actually do. In fact, most people don't even like more than two or three genres at best--and that's if they are pretty open-minded. I won't say that I love "all" music because that just isn't the case. However, I do tend to like quite a bit of it, and the variety is a bit eclectic. And then I add a little twist above the "normal" listener--I don't just want to hear the music I like, I want to play it.

Right now, as I type this blog, I'm listening to Seth MacFarlane (yeah, "The Family Guy" guy) singing on the DVD "Swingin' in Concert". Listening to this outstanding orchestra play wonderful classics from the great American songbook has me drooling at the thought of getting the chance to play in such a situation. Later on in the day, I might be listening to jazz, blues, opera, classical, Celtic, North African, Southeast Asian, reggae, bass and drum, techno, new age . . . well, I think you get the idea; and, in each case, I am going to want to actually play the music. I just can't help myself.

Over time, this has led to problems because I would jump from idea to idea, style to style, concept to concept, and, in the process, not finish anything. I've been working on a St. Patrick's Day CD of traditional Irish and Scottish music arranged for solo bass going on five years now. It's not a bad thing in that, the ideas never do go away; I can finish them eventually; but the ADD does get a touch tiring. That is why I eventually locked on to the idea of using the "Narada Weeps" label to cover all of my crazy musical ideas. That way, I can jump from project to project, or mix them all up, and keep one "identity".

And that showman problem I mentioned, not being one, has lead me to some cross medium concepts: What if I team up with an interpretive dance group? What if I team up with a graphic artist for a multi-media approach to performing? And now these ideas can be mixed with the crazy musical ideas to create all kinds of possibilities. See what I mean about that ADD? At least I will never face a day where I have absolutely nothing to play--there is just too much music out there, and too much I want to do.

So, I guess I better get to it.

I love musicals . . . especially when I get to perform the music.

Back in May of 2010, a buddy of mine called me up and asked if I could take his place playing bass for a local musical production. It was Texarkana's Downtown Youth Theater doing "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". Since I was available, I said "yes". (I pretty much always say "yes" if there is any way possible for me to do the performance.) This turned out to be one of the most enjoyable and musically rewarding performances of my life. The cast and crew were all wonderful people, and extremely talented; the musicians were all top-notch and the music itself was challenging and engaging. They even paid me a little money for doing the show--bonus!

Around Easter of last year, one of the movie channels put on special showing of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Godspell". While listening to the music, I posted online about how cool it would be to get the bass chair for either of these shows, but the first was really packed with rocked-up, funky numbers. And that was the end of the discussion . . . until this week. It was just announced that, for their spring show this year, the Downtown Youth Theater will be putting on "Jesus Christ Superstar" . . . my head just about exploded. I think I sprung a couple of keys trying to get the email off fast enough putting my name in for the bass chair.

While I am considered by some to be the front-runner for the spot due to my previous experience, they could go with someone else (lots of GREAT bassists in the Texarkana area), or even just go with prerecorded tracks (I would rather lose out to another bassist than see that happen). All I can do now is wait and see. Oh, the anticipation is just . . . :)

My Half Baked Cakes

One of the hardest things for a musical artist to do is define their "voice". The absolute hardest thing to do is to maintain that voice in the face of all the well-intentioned advice meant to make the music more "successful". This is especially true if you are off the beaten path a bit. If I were to grab up a guitar and write some folk songs, I would probably still get some of it, but it would be nothing as I face now.

The primary issue is that what I do is so far out of the realm of what folks find "normal". I play an electric bass and use is as a chordal instrument, to play leads, as a completely solo voice . . . I am not the first to do this stuff, not by a long shot. But, of the people I know locally, I am pretty unique. And then I add to the "strangeness" by going instrumental and improvisational. I cannot begin to count the times I have been told if I would cover this or that song or modify my tunes or performances to make them more like what the bar audiences in Texarkana are used to hearing, that I would go over better.

The problem for me was, in the beginning, I tried to listen to this advice. Someone would make a recommendation and I would try to go that way for a while. Then another recommendation would send me down another path. This went on for years. In fact, to a degree, it still does. I find the temptation to give in to those suggestions quite overbearing. When I sit in the dark, alone, and ask myself why I cave so often and in so many directions, only one answer comes to mind--doubt. I doubt myself. I doubt my worth as an artist. I doubt the worthiness of my music. This doubt makes me second guess what I hear in my heart and turn towards what I'm being told by others.

The largest source of my doubt stems from my skill as a bassist. More specifically, my limited skill. I'm not a virtuoso. I would love to be. I've put in thousands of hours with that as the goal. But, in the end, there is a basic athleticism in my hands that I'm lacking. I'm just not that fast--nor that technical. With practice; lots of practice; I make minor advances in those areas; however, at the rate those advances come, I will have to live to be about 300 years of age to be considered a virtuoso. So, I check out what all the other solo bassists are doing and I realize that I just can't do what they do. Not even close. And that leads to my wondering who am I to be calling myself a real musical artist.

While I still have a way to go in my journey, I have finally started coming to terms with my place in the musical world. I'm not a virtuoso--I never will be. But the music I hear in my mind is very much within my skills to share with the world. And that music, I believe, is worthy of a voice--even if it is a limited voice such as myself. So I record my musical explorations as they come to me--as it makes sense for me to do so. Will everyone get what I do? No. Will most folks get it? Still no. At best, a very small minority of people will get my music. But, for that small group, my music will speak to them in a way that is special to me and that is what I must focus on.

I had my music described as "you are baking a cake--you crack open some eggs and that's it". I thought quite a bit about that as I could see the point being made. Compared to commercial music, my music isn't as "complete" or "polished". But then, I don't intend for it to be. The core of my music is improvisation. I might use a riff or motif I've used before, but I have no desire to mimic a previous performance. Those motifs are just launching pads for a musical journey that is unique for that time and space. It is meant to be different from every other time I played off that motif. So, in short, my response to that comment is simply, "I never claimed to be baking a cake--that was your interpretation of what I was doing."

I'm still working on figuring out who I am as an artist. I have hundreds of ideas in my mind and they do not all fit into a single category or fall along a nice, organized path. My journey of musical exploration will be just as improvised as a performance of my music. And anytime you improvise, if you do it right, you will always end up someplace other than where you started, but most likely not where you thought you were going. And that is so cool. As they say, it is all about the journey, not the destination.

My Second 15 Seconds of Fame

There is a great web site for bass players called No Treble (Nothing But Bass). One of their regular columns is a weekly showcase of a bass player. These range from local cats up to those who tour the world but may not be so well known. On a lark, I filled out their questionnaire and submitted it. Months later, on November 22nd 2011, I made their Player Spotlight. And then, as if that wasn't cool enough, a month later I was named in the Top Ten Player Spotlights for 2011. Of course, I have to own up that I was chosen far more for the entertaining way I answered the questions than for any quality I had has a bassist or musical artist but, as they say, "As long as they are talking about you . . ." :)

I was, and continue to be, honored and thankful for the recognition.

My First 15 Seconds of Fame

Here is a cute little story.

Back in 2007, Bass Player magazine started up a little contest on their forums for bass players to submit tips and suggestions for publication in the magazine. If yours was picked, you would win a piece of gear they had reviewed. So, I submitted a suggestion that I used regularly--calling on my drummer background, use the snare drum rudiments to create practice patterns for use on the bass guitar. And then I forgot all about it.

The end of 2007 was pretty insane for me. My database consulting business had collapsed, my home was being foreclosed on, my first band (Deacon Dark) had just fallen apart and, just to add insult to injury, my computer had crashed. So, it is pretty understandable that I wasn't exactly keeping day to day tabs on those forums. As a bonus, the email address I had used when I registered for those forums had been dead for years by this point. Thus, when my suggestion was selected, I had no clue and the editors had no way of getting in touch with me.

The story could have ended right there if it weren't for an interesting little happenstance. My wife and I went out to see a new band made up of musicians I had worked with and, while we were waiting for the show to get started, I was mingling with all the musicians in the audience. A bass player buddy of mine said, "Oh, by the way, congrats on Bass Player." As I said, I had completely forgotten about submitting that suggestion so my only possible response to him was, "Huh?!?". He then went on to explain that he got the new issue of Bass Player (this was December so it was the January 2008 issue) and saw that my suggestion had made the publication and I had won this neat Seymour Duncan Paranormal DI pedal.

When I got home, I logged into the forums and, sure enough, there was the announcement along with several public requests for anyone who knew me to let me know to get in touch with the editors of the magazine. I did and, just in time for Christmas, I got my brand new pedal in the mail. I have used it for years and it has proved to be one of my most valuable tools. Plus, it is really cool to be able to say, in some tiny way, *I* was in Bass Player magazine.

Here is a scanned image of that page that Seymour Duncan keeps on their site:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/products/effects_pedals/seymourduncanparanormal.pdf

:)

Who am I? And, how to find me in cyberland?

I go by two "terms" most often in my musical endeavors: SmittyG on Bass or Narada Weeps. Searching for either of those will normally get you to me pretty quickly. But, at this end of this blog, I'll post links to my most common cyber-hangs.

At one point, I was trying to make a distinction between Narada Weeps and other things I might do. The idea was that it would be used for my ambient loopy music. But then I realized that I was going to have to come up with a new "band" name every time I changed up genres. Since I tend to be all over the map musically, that's just going to get too messy. So, at this point, I use Narada Weeps for pretty much anything that is me solo or where I am the primary creative force for the music played by other musicians.

The name "Narada Weeps" has an interesting history. I've always been fascinated by studying other cultures with a primary focus on their religious/philosophical views. One of my favorites is the Hindu culture of India. In several texts, Narada is describe as holding a musical instrument. In some stories, he actually brought music to mankind. When I started looking to create my own music outside of what I was doing with the local bands at the time, I tapped into the concept of "Narada" representing musical artistry. The "weeps" side was an expression of my frustration for the fact that it was, and continues to be, far easier to find an audience/market for  my playing in cover bands than for anything I might actually create of myself. Plus, I just thought the name sounded cool.

While explaining names, I guess I can take a moment and give the explanation for "SmittyG". It comes from my time in the Navy. In the military, everyone with the last name of Smith is called Smitty. When I was in boot camp, we had two Smith's--me (first name Glenn, for those who don't know) and a guy named Michael. In military vernacular, to cut down on confusion, they called him Smitty M-type and me Smitty G-type. Over time folks just shortened those down to SmittyM and SmittyG and then, for Michael, just down to Smitty. For me, SmittyG had stuck.

Once I left the Navy back in '88, the nickname dropped from use and it would have probably stayed that way if not for a goofy little thing called trocks. Trocks is a nickname for a website started by my buddy, Scott Lent, to promote the Texarkana music scene. http://www.texarkanarocks.com is the full name/link. Back in '03, when I was creating a username for the site, instead of using "Glenn", and I still have no clue why this popped into my head at that moment, I remembered my nickname from the Navy and used "SmittyG". Once I started getting more and more involved in local bands, the name took on new life off the site and eventually jumped over into my regular non-music life. At this point, I guess it's just me.

The SmittyG on Bass variation on the name was just my attempt to stake the claim that I'm a bassist--and nothing else. While I like to see myself as a musician/composer, my weapon of choice is the electric bass guitar. Not that it is better or worse than any other instrument out there--it's just the instrument that speaks to me and allows me to best present my music. However, over the years, I've had a lot of folks, who meant well, who have tried to tell me that I need to branch over to regular guitar, or keys, or percussion. (That last one, since I did start on drums originally, has some appeal to me.) "SmittyG on Bass" was my response of "this is who I am and this is what I do--deal with it".

So just how did I become a bass player? Well, since I'm sharing everything else with you, I might as well cover that story as well. Both my father and step-father are guitar players. My step-father actually played semi-pro. When I was eight, he showed me how to play a couple of chords and started teaching me some simple songs. I immediately took those chords and started making up my own songs--creating music was always the greatest appeal to me. However, I was never really that drawn to guitar and didn't progress much past strumming some chords.

When I was 11, it was time to join school band. What I really wanted to play was either flute or French horn. The band director said my braces were a no-go on the French horn and my step-father said that playing flute wasn't for guys so drums it was. I actually have a pretty solid since of rhythm and time so I was able to grasp the basics pretty well. But, regardless of how much effort I put into it, I just could never really get into the drums as I wanted to--they just didn't "speak" to me. I dropped out of band after just three years. However, that didn't stop me from trying to play in rock bands in high school.

It was during one of these garage band phases that I found the bass. I was in a group with a couple of friends and the guy on bass didn't really play, he just liked the idea of getting the girls (boy, did he pick the wrong instrument). I would take the bass home and learn the songs so I could teach him how to play them. Over time, it became very obvious that I was far more comfortable and capable on bass than I would ever be on drums. Once I made that realization, it became my main instrument. After a couple more attempts to play both bass and guitar (not at the same time, of course), I finally dropped the "main" part of that description and decided bass is who I am and what I do.

Well, I guess that is enough story telling for now. Here are the links to where I tend to put most of my effort of sharing and promoting my music:

http://www.facebook.com/smittyg.bass

http://www.reverbnation.com/SmittyGonBass

http://naradaweeps.bandcamp.com/

http://www.youtube.com/NaradaWeeps

Come back now; ya'hear?

Rebooting my Music Life (At Least the Blog Part)

New blog coming soon. All you wanted to know about SmittyG on Bass and Narada Weeps but were afraid the knowledge would keep you up nights crying under the covers. Brace yourselves . . .