Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Socials

 Hey, everyone! You can find me on several other platforms: http:/ http:// themeparkexperience.substack.com http:// Instagram.com/ericjgrubbs http:// TikTok.com/@ericjgrubbs http:// threads.net/ericjgrubbs http:// ericjgrubbs.bsky.social Thanks! 

One With the Force

For as long as I have been alive, Star Wars has been in my life. I was only a year old when The Empire Strikes Back came out, a time when apparently a lot of people were angry about the twist that revealed Luke Skywalker’s parentage. I was not aware of this until I was in college, and frankly, does it really matter about the twist or the context of the day for fans? I think it does, as history has a way of repeating itself. These eleven films (along with a couple of animated shows, a holiday special, and a couple of live action shows) continue to mean something, even when they come out to mixed reviews. The Star Wars saga itself is bigger than those reactions, and I’m happy to see the saga transcend generations. I’m only a few days removed from seeing The Rise of Skywalker for the first time. I thought it was a fantastic film in the Skywalker saga. And since I’m not a filmmaker or a producer, I’m not one to make a bold claim about how I would have done it better. Because Star...