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They call me the breeze

You can read about my experience doing Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp here, but I wanted to add something that I briefly mentioned.

Aside from the Pull Tabs playing a bluesy rendition of "Strange Fruit," I had no real experience playing blues or southern rock. But when it comes to the blues, plenty of it is in jazz and rock music. I might have never listened to a Muddy Waters song in my teenage years, but I definitely learned a lot of his swing and bomp from Led Zeppelin.

So I essentially learned a portion of the blues by default. Like a truncated history lesson if you will.

I enjoy playing the blues, but I'm not about to rush and grab as many blues songs to hear. If ever I'm jamming with somebody who wants to play the blues, I'd be happy oblige. Matter of fact, when I first sat down in the room with my fellow Shotgun Brothers, I offered to them that I can "play anything." Since the two guitarists were more comfortable playing songs by the Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, I did my best interpretation to get the songs fleshed out.

One of the finest compliments given by one of my bandmates to the rest of the band was this: though he was lost in terms of what all he was going to play in this camp, he felt way better when he started playing with us. I very much credit Teddy for suggesting to our guitarists to play what they felt most comfortable doing. In turn, we had a set that wasn't like the other bands. It felt like us even though I've been jamming out to Rush, Cheap Trick, and Def Leppard lately.

Long live the blues. There would be no metal, jazz, rock, or southern rock without it.

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