How many of you play just country music ?

[basscountry]

I am kind of curious as to how many of you guys are country bass players ?.
I have read a lot of posts from a lot of threads, of guys describing their " rigs " and how they look, sound, etc. And the most of them say that they play: hard rock, acid rock, metal, death metal, funk, R&B, etc. I don't read of many guys that play country music ?. I'm beginning to think that I am the only one ?.

In the 40 + years that I have been playing, I've worked in beer joints, night clubs, lounges, fair grounds, auditoriums, theaters, stadiums, etc. I've played in basement bands that done nothing to working with some of the " Big Names " in country music, plus doing a fair share of studio work. I remember the days when we only at 4 or 5 brands of guitars to choose from and about the same number of amps. The one thing they ALL had in common were, they were ..... H E A V Y !. Thats really how us " old guys " got " broke down ", from lugging those heavy things around.

I know that by playing country music, I/we made an obscene mount of money, that I wish I had at least half back ?

But, those were the good old days, right ?

So, whats your story ?:

[bassbully]

Cool Bro, i just got into country bass playing. I played R&R last few years alot of it classic some blues and finally said heck with it. I'm sick of crappy gigs sweaty hairy nuckled dudes snarlin back at us fights and ugly women...hey sounds like a country song

My Mama's born and raised in Arkansas and i have a ton of kin down there... love it in the mountains. So i found a country band and although the first one didnt last long or work out I just think i landed a better one so YEEE HAAAWWW I'm back!

I was wondering what big names in C&W to you play with? Great to hear your still going on after all these years...any tips for a newbie in country music?

[Blake Bass]

I haven't been fortunate enough to make a living as a bassist playing country exclusively. I have had to play everything from jazz to rock to show tunes to stay employed. But if i had a choice I would really love to play country full time, it just isn't that popular in the DC area. I can only think of two country bars between DC and Baltimore.

[unbasslichkeit]

I started out as a bluegrass bassist. I'd played acoustic guitar and harp for a few years previous and when the chance came to play 'doghouse bass' I jumped at the chance. I think it's helped me a lot with playing country music, because in bluegrass you're not tied to the drummer as timekeeper - YOU are the timekeeper.

Played my first country rock gig in 1983; originally had a fretless Precision but found I couldn't sing lead and harmony and keep intonation at the same time. (Fretless has always psyched me out, and its hard to figure out why.) Traded the fretless in on a Fender Jazz Bass, and to this day I seem to be the only country / roots bass player I know in DC who plays one. It was once said in a song that "DC is a Telecaster town", and it is certainly a Precision town anyway.

I've always stuck to smaller combo amps since if I need to get real loud I'm going through the PA. Just got an Ampeg B-100 - one of the last of the SLM ones - and it fits in the car and on stage. I'm working with a honkytonk roots combo which does some folkier based stuff but mostly straight ahead vintage country covers and originals.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend since we've got an actual steel player on the payroll, and he's very good. (Blake Bass is right about the two country bars - I believe one is J-V's in Falls Church and one is Chick Hall's Surf Club in Bladensburg, which is where we'll be. Chick's unfortunately is due to close just about any time now.)

[bassbully]

I'm still wondering about the combo route myself. With PA support a combo with a 15' should be enough with a couple hundred watts. Is that ampeg doing you good? I have alot of big leftover cabs and stuff from my rock days and hate to carry half of it for country gigs...need to downsize . I did buy a used ampeg B2r head and used it on my carvin 15 cab which isnt to big and it sounded good...but its still bigger than a combo.

[unbasslichkeit]

Originally Posted by bassbully

I'm still wondering about the combo route myself. With PA support a combo with a 15' should be enough with a couple hundred watts. Is that ampeg doing you good?

Ampeg B-100 weighs 65 pounds. It's only 100 watts but I'm only competing with a Fender Deluxe reverb so I don't need that much. It also has a cool viontage vibe which is best for all the 50's and 60's stuff we play. There's a bigger model called a B-200R, but a batch of those had bad QA/QC problems last year so watch out on a new one.

[basscountry]

I was wondering what big names in C&W to you play with? Great to hear your still going on after all these years...any tips for a newbie in country music?[/quote]


Well the list is pretty long when I think about it. I started at 3 years old with Buddy Boswell and the Union Mill Opry at Edgerton, Mo and then moved on to the taverns, and beer joints, then about 14 years old I went on the road with Johnny Paycheck, and then Johnny Bush, Faron Young, Little Jimmy Dickens, Porter Wagner, Bill Anderson, Gene Watson, Ray Price, Charley Pride, Charlie Walker, Jean Sheppard, Wanda Jackson, Kitty Wells, Johnny Rodriquez, and then finally Vern Gosdin and back with Johnny Paycheck. I also worked " packaged " shows out of Nashville which featured different Opry stars. I also worked with Gary P Nunn who was the originator of Austin City Limits. In between the road work with the above, I did a lot of studio sessions.

As far as advise goes, its this: watch and listen to as many bass players as you can. See what they are doing and if you can, look at their amps, equipment, etc. Don't try and copy, note for note, just try an get it close.
The second thing is, and really more important than the first, is : Play your guitar every day !. Do some scales or some run or lick that you like, but pick up your bass everyday and do something !. If you don't keep your hands flexible, then it will get harder to play for each day you lay off. And then you will get like me and lose all of your dexterity and speed and then you can't play, nor matter how hard you try, it just won't be there.

An old man told me that, when I first started and I blew it off. Well now I'm the old man and that other guy was RIGHT !. I've been playing for about 44 years and semi-retired for around 15 and I have lost my speed and flexibility and I can't play but maybe 3 songs until my hands cramp up and I have to rest them. My fingers kill me everyday, all day, because of arthritis. So, STAY ACTIVE, and keep playing.,

[bassbully]

Wow basscountry ...awsome you played with some of the big hitters of the day. I wish i could buy ya dinner sit down and pick your brain and take a lesson or two from ya.

I have a rock and roll background and although many say countrys not tough on bass i disagree. You have to play very clean on the beat and timing is huge no room for error and can't hide behind distortion and a wall of noise.
Im getting better at my timing and walks in the country timing ..blues walks and suffles to me are easyier and i can greese them more country is so dang clean.I do love playin it thou love seeing the lady's dance. I do play everyday and always try to work on scales and walks ,song etc.

[dsanders]

I don't play only country music, but enjoy pickup gigs here in town when I have free time. It keeps my mind sharp, a shift downtown will generally force me to play 1-15 songs I don't know, and that is always a rush. My last road gig was a country project and we had a blast .

[basscountry]

When I semi-retired, I wanted to get away from music altogether. I couldn't !. It was a lot worse than trying to quit cigarettes. I was a mad-man. When I went to church I couldn't sit and just listen, I had to get up there and " help " those players. Music runs through both my mom and dads families and all 3 of my brothers play, so it is bred in me, I can't run from it. I have to be around it, doing something.

I wish I had thought about long-term goals instead of living for the moment, when I was making all that money. But I thought I would always be able to play and make it. I never gave a thought about it coming to an end. Now here I sit, fighting for S.S. disability, and don't have a pot is p--s in. I had to sell ( give away ) my equipment, just to have a roof over my head. There was times my belly begin to think that my throat had been cut ?. So keep that in mind, if you play for a living.

But, thanks for compliments. And yes, playing country music will make you work as a bass player, and you can give the drummer a fit.

[The_Owl]

I've been giging country (not the CMA kind) music almost exclusively for 3 years now. I love it. Although I'm educated in most genres, country is the music of my heart, at least right now.

[basscountry]

I don't care for a lot of this " new " country music myself. Give me that old hard-core stuff any day. Thats what most people can dance to, too. And the people that dance a lot are the people that drink more and thus they pay for the band ?. Thats the way it has always worked.

[cb56]

Hi bass country,
I'm playing more of the new country and it's not all that bad, but you do have to pick and choose,
Sounds like you had a nice career playing with some top notch acts. So I'm guessing reed springs is somewhere near Branson? There is a guy here that lives in branson that plays at some of the country music theaters but I can't think of his name. Maybe he'll chime in at sometime.
Sorry to hear about your arthritis, Have you tried any of the over he counter stuff for that? Just curious because I have a banjo playing friend that has athritis and he swears by the stuff.

I took a different route when I was young. I had and old musician friend tell me that the best thing to do was to get a job working for the state or something and play music on the side. That way you have a steady paycheck, insurance, retirement etc... Might not be as exciting as being a road musican with a top band but something for you youngsters out there to think about. I'm not a rich man but I'm comfortable.

Maybe consider teaching to add to the income? And good that you are involved with the church, playing music I assume? Also are they helping out with the gear situation?

I hope things work out for you basscountry. There's got to be something out here to keep you going.
Remember Col. Sanders was 65 when he started KFC.

[The_Owl]

Originally Posted by basscountry

I don't care for a lot of this " new " country music myself. Give me that old hard-core stuff any day. Thats what most people can dance to, too. And the people that dance a lot are the people that drink more and thus they pay for the band ?. Thats the way it has always worked.

I agree. Give me Merle, Hank, George Jones, Willie and Waylon over Toby Keith, any day of the week.

Long live the Honky Tonks and Outlaws!

[bassbully]

Originally Posted by basscountry

I don't care for a lot of this " new " country music myself. Give me that old hard-core stuff any day. Thats what most people can dance to, too. And the people that dance a lot are the people that drink more and thus they pay for the band ?. Thats the way it has always worked.

Man basscountry i hope it all turns around for you too. I also thought about you teaching bass...might bring in some $. As much as the road sounds great the pitfalls of the future...no retirement, income etc are tough. Im sure the rewards were great for awhile and you had a great time met alot of people and seen some great places.
Back in the days i first got into Rock if i would of got in a band that traveled or toured i know in my heart i would of died a drunk or junkie...i was messed up back then experimenting etc. I never even got my garage bands out of a bowling alley...thank god.
I just play on the weekends and have fun and work my stinkin job LOL. I wish now i could be lucky enough to go on the road full time but i'd miss the family too much.
On the new country ...I like the old myself but some of the new is cool and if you dont play it in the bigger and higher paying clubs in my neck of the woods you wont get booked. They like to dance up a storm around here and rock it up...new country does that and i see a trend in it getting big again.

[basscountry]

Let me first say that, not all new country is bad, just different. I don't like the Opry line up anymore, because they have bumped the regulars, to feature the new people, which would be alright if they would give both equal time. But the new artists are selling, and the audience they are trying to bring in are buying, so they replace the old timers, the ones that made the Opry in the first place ?. Just give everybody equal time ?, problem solved.

Now, while I had the good fortune to go play with the ' BIG boys' and make a good living at it, I don't think that it could be done nowadays. Had I not took advantage of the opportunity I was given, I would have had to have a job or another career of some kind.
And its good that you got benefits to fall back on, thats good advise for young people.
Playing music full time is not at all, what the media hypes it up to be, by far. The " new " will wear off pretty quick. Your not going to get rich and have beautiful women hanging after you. Well us " side-men " won't anyway ?. Nevertheless, play somewhere, if you can, but play.

Now as for the arthritis, I am on oxycontin and morphine and pain patches, plus celebrex and mobic, and I still have pain about all the time. I use a power chair here at home and a cane or walker when I go out. Its 4 years and counting and still no disability, even having a lawyer all that time. My wife Betty, is on disability herself, for fibromyalgia and it took her right at 5 years to get it. When we fell apart, we really Fell apart !.

The church has not helped with equipment and probably won't. Most of the long time people either own their own businesses, or retired from big company's with good benefits. They have money and don't really believe in disability ?. Its sad, but their from the old traditional thinking, of no hand-outs ?. Thats what they say disability is.

As for teaching, I can barely play myself and with all the med's I'm on, I have a hard time with my memory, and to be honest, I just don't have the patience for it ?. My nerves are totally shot. And yes, I take pills for that too !.

My grandson Justin, is the only real bright spot I have now, as far as passing along anything. I was able to coach him when he was young and I wasn't so bad. He is now 18 and loves southern rock. He's a " Eddie VanHalen " type guitar player. He is expanding his styles constantly. When he was little he would mess with my guitars and it just came natural to him, I didn't push, plus hes always been around music.

[cb56]

Man, that is so sad. I feel for you bro!
I'll keep you in my prayers.

[basscountry]

Give me Johnny Bush all day, every day !. He is one of the old " shuffle " kings. He started as a drummer and he wants all 'walking ' bass in his up tempo stuff. Another one is Ray Price. Almost, totally shuffle, every song. Billy Walker, Charlie Walker ( no relation ) Jimmy Dickens, Ray Pillow, Connie Smith, Ernie Ashworth, Harlan Howard, all these guys and more, cut their teeth on shuffle songs.

" WALK'IN BASS FOREVER "

[basscountry]

Thanx for your prayers, and I will pray for you also.
Pray and faith is what will get us through.

[basscountry]

Twang Gang, perfect band name !. Do you have a steel man ?. If not, think about gettin one ?. A old fender twin reverb and a telecaster = TWANG