I play with a group every Saturday night. I've only been with them since August but the core of the band goes back many years.
The core consists of the guitar player (group leader by virtue of owning the rehersal space), his keyboard playing wife, a drummer and a male and female singer. Rounding out the group is me on bass and a part time back up singer and a part time harmonica player. We play for fun once a week in the basement. No plans or discussion to turn it into anything more. The drive seems to be lacking, but that's OK it's fun and I'm learning a bunch of new songs. We are not a bunch of young guys - the average age is near 50.
A few weeks back at practice one night the old drummer is replaced by a new drummer and a sax player. They came as a package deal. No discussion - they are just there.
As we're packing out at the end of the night, I ask about the old drummer and where these guys came from. I get a string of vague complaints about the old drummer and they mention they found these guys on Craigslist, and the old drummer will not be coming back. I don't know which side placed the add.
Anyway, I'm just the bass player and the new drummer is decent so I go with the flow.
Fast forward a few weeks, the new drummer has convinced the guitar player to have his sax playing buddy handle all the male vocal parts and we get an email that the old male singer will no longer be playing with us. He was at practice with us on Saturday singing and the email came Sunday.
Now I don't know how the sax player sings - we've never heard him.
OK - the question I have is - is this normal? Are people just replaced like this with no notice or discussion. Even if the new guys are better (and the jury is still out on that) is this how it goes in the intense world of basement based classic rock cover bands? Am I just too sensitive?
As a non-core new member do I overstep my bounds by mentioning my concerns, do they owe me an explaination?
The sad part is I thought these guys had a chance to make something special. With male and female lead singers we had a wide range of songs we could play.
The remaining female singer is really good and it's a lot of fun to play her songs (Janis, Dusty Springfield, Mellissa Etheridge, Carley, Carole King, Stevis Nicks, Patti Smith, Journey ...) or I would have just walked away already and would not be telling this long winded story, looking for advice.
Who knows there's probably a craigslist add looking for a new bass player right now.
