Do I Need A Band?

When you go to see someone play music, why do you?

There are good time bands, to get you dancing and make you happy or distract you.

There are bands who play songs with which you are familiar. Songs that evoke good memories and feelings and connect you to past times that were so rich and vibrant, and, upon recall, seem just as deep.

But are there times you go to see an Artist perform, who just happens to have a band?

I remember being excited about seeing Jeff Buckley. I had heard "GRACE" and I couldn't wait to see him in the real, with his band.

Instead, I witnessed guys who played over the vocal. It was a jam-bros experience, I guess, as Jeff and his band seemed to be "into it."

But I couldn't hear the vocal at all and I was disappointed.

I expected to hear "Hallelujah" as sung by Jeff Buckley. And I didn't. And now Jeff is gone, and I never did have the Jeff Buckley Live experience.

I wonder sometimes. Why am I playing? Why do I make records? And how, if I ever perform live, should I present what I do? A band completes the sound, and may even provide "like the record" experience, and for that reason it may be pleasing to the audience.

I know bands now, who are in record deals, who tour with backing tracks as well as live sound, just to enhance the quality of the live sound, so that the audience really feels they are getting the recorded sound.

I have seen Richard Thompson live solo and with a band. Which do I prefer?

My answer is "Both." To be an ardent fan, one requires a sense of the Artist, his stories and his take on life. His ability to play guitar. His voice.

But when you see Richard Thompson play with a band you are in for extended electric guitar solos that are spontaneous and take you to places you didn't think you would go to. Some of my best experiences in seeing RT were in small pubs in England post Copredy Festival when he cut loose on his Strat for a pretty small group of people in the bar.

A band gives a player that ability to cut loose on an instrument. I love soloing and I love playing electric.

When I performed 6-7 nights a week, it was with a partner. I had to become my own drum and played guitar very percussively. My partner, Frankie, played sax and sang backing vocals. He played a mean tambourine and sometimes even played keyboards. We even had a drum machine we used sometimes so that I could solo on my Strat. That might strike you as cheesy, but it worked. People danced, and I could extend a song.

And here we are in September. I have no finished record. I have 20 songs. I am not sure what I want to present to people or where.

What do you think?