Music has been a hobby of mine in some way, shape or form since I was very young. My current interests take three main forms:
1: New and Classic Albums
I try to listen to something new, or at least new-to-me, at a pace of at least one album a week. You can search all of my recent posts about studio albums by clicking “music” in the tag cloud to the right or by clicking HERE.
2: Playing Bass Guitar (and a little acoustic guitar too…)
I bought my first bass for $100 off of Craigslist in 2001 and haven’t looked back since. I’m just proficient enough to be a bit of a sonic danger to myself and others, and enjoy playing as often as possible. If nothing else, it gives me a chance to wear black jeans with white sneakers and not feel self conscious about it. (That’s a joke for all you non-musicians out there…)
Lately, I’ve been learning the bass parts to a lot of old Motown tunes played by the great James Jamerson. It’s been slow going as a lot of his lines are very complicated and require some serious left-hand work on the fretboard, but the practice has been paying off.
My main bass is a 1990 Fender M5, Japanese made five string. It’s tuned E E A D G with a different style low E string, mostly just to confuse other musicians. Lots of fun to play.
{click any of the thumbnails for larger versions}
I also own a 1975 (the year I was born) Kramer aluminum neck fretless that can make some crazy sounds, especially in the hands of someone like myself whose intonation isn’t quite what it should be. The bass weighs 17 or 18 pounds due to the unique metal neck and doesn’t get played all that much as a result. It has its place though…
What else? A couple of Fender amps, a trombone (I want to learn the Fred Wesley solo from “Pass The Peas” one of these days), a few keyboards on loan from a friend, an effects pedal board, and a few acoustic guitars including a Fender acoustic bass that I play quite often. It’s only a matter of time before I own a drum kit as well.
3: Seeing Live Music
I’ve managed to see upwards of 50 live shows each of the past two or three years. The “show a week” pace is a lot and I’ve dialed it back quite a bit here in ‘08 (for some reason I’ve been into the movies more than music this year) and will probably only see 15 or 20 shows all year.
We’ll see…
All the gory details are below:
2008 Shows:
- 1/12 - Sat - Tea Leaf Green (w. The Tao Jones)- Fox Theatre
- 1/13 - Sun - North Mississippi Allstars / Ray Bonneville etown taping - Boulder Theater
- 1/27 - Sun - The Mars Volta - Fox Theatre
- 2/10 -Sun - Big Head Todd & The Monsters / Kathleen Edwards etown taping - Boulder Theater
- 4/26 - Sat - Kimock, Vega, Molo, Seals - Owsey’s - Denver
- 5/10 - Sat - Benevento, Mathis, Chamberlain - Boulder Theater
- 6/7 - Wed - Skerik’s Maelstrom Trio - b.side lounge (formerly Trilogy)
- 7/11- Fri - Nels Cline Singers / Charlie Hunter Trio - Boulder Theater
- 7/12 - Sat - Goldhill - Liz & Rich’s, Coal Creek Canyon
- 8/20 - Wed - Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers - Boulder Chautauqua
- 8/21 - Thu - The Black Keys / My Morning Jacket - Red Rocks
- 8/23 - Sat - W-Mob / Soulive / Lettuce - The Mish
- 8/29 - Fri - Mike Gordon - Fox Theatre
- 8/30 - Sat - Ratdog / The Allman Brothers - Red Rocks
- 9/19 - Fri - Railroad Earth - Fox Theatre
- 9/24 - Wed - Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer - Barts CD Cellar
- 10/4 - Sat - Yellowjackets w. Mike Stern - Boulder Theater
- 10/7 - Tue - Brian Jordan Trio - Fox Theatre
- 10/12 - Sun - David Byrne - Buell Theater Denver
- 10/23 - Thu - Tea Leaf Green / Cornmeal - Fox Theatre
- 11/3 - Thu - Toubab Krewe / The Ragbirds - b.side lounge
2007 Shows:
- 1/18 Thu - ZERO - Cervantes
- 1/20 Sat - Stanton Moore Trio - Fox
- 1/25 Thu - moe. - Fox
- 2/9 Fri - Tea Leaf Green - Fox
- 2/24 Sat - Assembly of Dust / HTHS - Fox
- 2/28 Wed - Bustle In Your Hedgerow - Fox
- 3/2 Fri - Kevin Nealon - Boulder Theater
- 3/3 Sat - NMAS - Breckenridge S&Y’s
- 3/6 Tue - Umphreys McGee - Fox
- 3/9 Fri - The Funky Meters - Fox
- 3/13 Tue - Stanley Jordan - Fox
- 3/17 Sat - Kimock, Molo, Vega, White - Oriental, Denver
- 3/25 Sun - etown taping w. Chris Thile & Mofro - Boulder Theater
- 4/4 Wed - eTown w. Neko Case - Boulder Theater
- 4/13 Fri - Tea Leaf Green - Tahoe (Squaw)
- 4/25 Wed - Zakir Hussain - Boulder Theater
- 4/27 Fri (Early) - Microbrews for the Environment (8-trac, Great American Taxi) Boulder Theater
- 4/27 Fri (Late) - Phix - Fox Theatre
- 5/12 Sat - Drive By Truckers - Fox
- 5/22 Tue - The Hold Steady - Ogden Theatre, Denver
- 5/25 Fri - The Bad Plus - Boulder Theater
- 5/28 Mon - Regi Wooten / Kutandara - Boulder Creek Festival
- 6/2 Sat - The New Mastersounds - Fox Theatre
- 6/5 Tue - eTown w. ALO - Boulder Theater
- 6/15 Fri - Bob Saget! - Paramount, Denver
- 6/22 Fri - Infamous Stringdusters - Fly Me To The Moon Saloon, Telluride
- 6/23 Sat - Telluride Bluegrass Festival - Yonder / Alison Krauss & Tony Rice / Sam Bush
- 6/29 - Fri - Tea Leaf Green / The Motet - Cervantes
- 7/21 - Sat - Leo Kottke - Chautauqua
- 7/24 - Tue - Keller / RatDog w. Steve Kimock - Red Rocks
- 8/1 - Wed - Scofield, Medeski, Deitch - Boulder Theater
- 8/2 - Thu - Ryan Adams - Fox Theatre
- 8/3 - Fri - Benevento, Mathis, Chamberlin - Trilogy, Boulder
- 8/4 - Sat - Meshell Ndegeocello Etown - Boulder Theater
- 8/12 Sun - String Cheese Incident - Red Rocks
- 8/16 - Thu - Beastie Boys - Red Rocks
- 8/17 - Fri - Beastie Boys - Fillmore
- 8/25 - Sat - Nedfest: Tony Furtado Band, DJ Logic, The Motet, PBS w. Kimock
- 8/26 - Sun - Avett Brothers Etown - Boulder Theater
- 8/29 - Wed - Soulive - Fox Theatre
- 9/1 - Sat - YMSB - Fox
- 9/2 - Sun - Wilco - Fillmore Denver
- 9/8 - Sat - Built To Spill - Fox Theatre
- 9/11 - Tue - Rilo Kiley - The Ogden, Denver
- 9/19 - Wed - John McLaughlin - Boulder Theater
- 9/19 - Wed - Mystery Reggae Band? - Trilogy
- 9/23 - Sun - Charlie Hunter Trio - Fox Theatre
- 10/6 - Sat - Pearl Street AllStars - Boulder Theater
- 10/15 - Mon - Garaj Mahal - Fox Theatre
- 10/17 - Wed - JFJO, Dead Kenny G’s, Skerik - Fox Theatre
- 10/18 - Thu - DSO - Boulder Theater
- 11/5 - Mon - Neil Young - Wells Fargo Theatre, Denver
- 11/9 - Fri - Warren Miller Movie - Boulder Theater
- 11/9 - Fri (late) - SoundRabbit - Trilogy
- 11/11 - Sun - The Hold Steady - Fox Theatre
- 12/17 - Mon - ETown w. moe. & Pieta Brown - Boulder Theater
- 12/29 - Sat - Leftover Salmon - Boulder Theater
