My jam band died in utero.

I've been feeling isolated from the music community. I've been trying to connect in all the ways I can think of over the past few years, and nothing is sticking.
I went through a ghastly experience years ago prior to the invention of the internet.

True story:
I responded to a personal ad that read:
"Acoustic Guitarist/Songwriter seeks someone to collaborate with."

I met up with the guy and played 3 original tunes of my own for him to listen to. And then I asked him, "What do you have for me to listen to?"

He said, "I've only written one song. It's a cowboy song called "Drop Your Pants And Dance."

I put my guitar back its case and got up to leave.

He said, "Hey! Where ya going."

I said, "As far away from you as is possible."

^^^^True story^^^^ and it wasn't funny then or even now.

There are crazy people out there. Avoid them.
 
Vaguely related. When one of my old bands I started was looking for a bass player - we were going to be a 3 piece with singer - one dude we tried showed up not having gone through ANY of the songs ahead of time (while Hit Me With Your Best Shot isn't rocket science, it isn't a Standard or 12 bar blues and one must be familiar with the arrangement as well) . He learned as we went by trial and error. After about 3 songs he said "Hey you want some keys for this band? I know someone...'.
Thanks for trying to take over and run the band while not even bothering to learn material for audition.

I hate playing with strangers.
Wound up using the bass player from another of drummer's bands. Super good dude, great bass player and now a dear friend.
Ya never know what you might get.
 
When I first started playing in bands it was with friends and good acquaintances in college. While technically those early bands could be called cover bands, that wouldn't be very accurate. We just hadn't started writing yet. We called them party bands. We had no aspirations of even playing local clubs (although we occasionally did). And we made very little attempt to cop recordings. We just played what we liked. At parties. Did that for most of the '80s. Towards the end of the decade a few originals crept in, and then I moved to all-originals bands, from '89 on.

I recently was talked into playing in a cover band. By my friend Lisa. An octogenarian lap steel player, haha! A few months back she went to a show my main band (punk rock and roll originals) played, and someone asked if she was my mom! We'd played together in 2 non-cover bands (one does what I call "weirdmusik"-- kinda experimental performance art with a sometimes humorous bent, originals written by our lead "singer," who's actually primarily a visual artist who knows zero about music theory, chords, etc.; the other was a traditional Irish acoustic band in which she played harp and I played banjo and mandolin).

Just made the jump from 1 set to two. No attempts at note for note or even necessarily the same arrangements. Fortunately our lead singer is talented and she has good taste in pop music. As you might expect, we do a lot of songs by grrrl singers. So everything from Linda Ronstadt to Pretenders to Cranberries. We're having a lot of fun.

EDIT TOP screen Amber & the Antidotes @ Cypress & Grove Brewery May 29 2026.jpg
 
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