Tom’s parents are in town for the week and Tom gets a great deal of his musical inspiration from his dad. We had a lot of nice lineup changes and a generally great session. We’ve been trying to play with one large condenser complimented with a couple small condensors for the instruments. We’re getting better at this, though it gets a little difficult when the musicians start to reach 5 or 6 in number. Players: Tom Rooney, Jim Rooney, Johnny Fitzpatrick, Me, Pat Ferris (bass on first set), Ken Nottingham (bass on second set), and Brett the fiddler. Pandi, of the Gloria Darlings, also did a set of some Dylan tunes.

Jim gave me some lessons in the ‘gain before feedback’ mantra for live sound setup. Basically, you want to crank the signal on the final output – be it the amp or speakers (if powered). Then you can set the levels out to those a little lighter and avoid clipping (or over-modulation). Jim also narrowly avoided my theft of his tortoise shell pick. I’ve never used one until last week and now I know what all the hype is about – great grip, clean pick sound, and that thrilling rush of holding the remains of a poached endangered species (what?).

On a side note, I had a nice conversation with Sylvia Weidermann, formerly of Hell’s Belles. We talked about how some people are simply driven by the passion for playing music. She’s currently working on a new project with the original Screaming Trees‘ rhythm section. Judging by her enthusiasm I would recommend keeping an eye out for their debut…

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Shows