Recent content by dspellman

People cycle in and out of bands, and it's almost never a trauma-free experience. More importantly, timing is usually not ideal. My friend Greg Leon (guitar) bailed on Dokken *after* having worked with them on their first album (he's pictured on their original EP) because he didn't think they...

It certainly helps. I learned to transpose on the fly when I added sax to my repertoire. This one's an Eb, that one's a Bb. Can't remember how many times a singer showed up that couldn't sing in that key (whatever "that key" was) and the whole band looked at each other with big round eyes. I...

In my early days, the Musician's Union apparently made me the designated piano player (or B3, whatever) for any band that entered a 100 mile airspace around Dubuque, Iowa and that was limping in with a gnarled-up keyboard player (hung over, got his hand caught in a meat grinder, caught some...

I'm agnostic when it comes to bass sounds, and I don't care much what the brand or the model is that gets it done. Fact is, I'm a keyboard player first and I've done a whole raft of bass tracks using keyboards (and learned to play bass runs with both feet, heel and toe, on a classical pipe...

It's not appropriate. If they're not paying you enough to eat, don't play the gig. Especially true at weddings and funeral banquets.

I dunno -- I've usually been pretty easy about all this stuff. I think my main criteria is the money. We've done slogs in a school bus into the wilds of Wisconsin (Beaver Dam ??!?) for a college dance that began around 9 pm and went for four hours. I've done lots of bar gigs that were four...

My most-used bass is a $100 Fender Squier Skull bass (P&J style) -- four string. I have more expensive basses, including five-strings with active preamps, etc., but I don't use it as often as the cheapo. I've found a lot of German cars have issues with reliability (Merc and Beemer in...

Two. One of them is a backup.

I've only got two and trust me, NOBODY wants one after I've had it a while.

This. We played in a dive called The Turf on Sinsenawa Avenue in East Dubuque, IL until the wee hours. After, we'd get a couple of the honeys from the other bars and head down to a place that had chili dogs. Thing is, they'd started this huge pot of chili early in the evening, and by now (3 am)...

Just keep pulling that t-shirt down over it.

Awesome for media coverage and street cred, though.

Coincidentally, that's exactly what I eat before a gig.

No. Our sets are constructed with pace and song choices and honestly, we just don't have an unplanned spot available for sit-in stuff. We're generally not that loose. Second, I don't lend my gear to anyone and that includes for a three-minute song in the middle of a set. I've done this a...

Whatever. I have no faith in guitars purchased off the wall in a GC these days. The good news is that there's a 45-day return policy. GC associates just don't take care of the expensive stuff and they're usually too busy (with no one in the store) to get one down for you if it's out of reach. I...