I haven't seen anything here yet on the death of Dave Roe, a Nashville bassist for many big names and great raconteur. He passed away a few days ago after a long and successful career. I recall a great rant he wrote for Bass Player magazine several years ago about how younger players would diss older ones for their appearance and age and how stupid it was. RIP
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death of Dave Roe
- Thread starter Bruce Calin
- Start date
So I'd been in Jacksonville watching all the country artists and bands on The Nashville Network for several years. I was playing in a hot local band, playing a lot of the tunes I was watching the artists perform on 'Nashville Now' and other shows, thought, 'well hell, I can do that' and moved to Nashville in the summer of '90.
I started going 'round to Writers Nights, Open Jams, anywhere I thought I might get heard, and things were starting to move just a little. But I still needed a day job, so I applied and got hired at Gibson.
I start working on the line, and meet this guy who said he also played bass. Introduced himself as Dave Roe, and I didn't know him from anything, figured he was another guy like me. He was in a flat spot between his two rounds with Vern Gosdin, had played in Jerry Reed's band (you had to be SERIOUSLY accomplished to play with Reed), Chet, etc. He never said a word. We worked together for a few months, then he went back to Vern.
I called him a while later, and he was a Carvin endorser back then. Said to come over, there's Carvins all over the place (first six-string I ever saw), and he let on he'd had a few endorsements . . . . wanted to know if I needed strings, took me to a closet full, and told me to get five or six sets. YikeS ! I often think we'd hang out as I never tried to ego him up or ask for anything.
He showed up at one of my gigs to check on me, was so nice of him to take an interest. I was over at his house again a few weeks later, and he tells me about the Cash gig, and that he'd never played upright, but he was going to give it a go and hope for the best. . . . but he had to buy an upright !
I was in a very difficult marriage, got real depressed, figured I was never going to get anywhere in Nashville, and sold everything. When he found out about it, he sold me a very nice bass for very little, and was insistent I needed to keep playing, I was good enough. I never forgot this.
He was an exceptional, play anything player: Any style, 4,5,6 string, fretted, fretless, upright, a complete natural who'd never taken a lesson. And an exceptional man who encouraged me and took an interest in me when he could have just blown me off as a wannabe.
After Cash and the rest of his life, we drifted apart, I quit playing. We'd talk occasionally to stay in touch, and he always had something going, but something encouraging to say.
I'm sure I was hardly alone in guys he helped, and this town will be way poorer without him, and so will I.
I started going 'round to Writers Nights, Open Jams, anywhere I thought I might get heard, and things were starting to move just a little. But I still needed a day job, so I applied and got hired at Gibson.
I start working on the line, and meet this guy who said he also played bass. Introduced himself as Dave Roe, and I didn't know him from anything, figured he was another guy like me. He was in a flat spot between his two rounds with Vern Gosdin, had played in Jerry Reed's band (you had to be SERIOUSLY accomplished to play with Reed), Chet, etc. He never said a word. We worked together for a few months, then he went back to Vern.
I called him a while later, and he was a Carvin endorser back then. Said to come over, there's Carvins all over the place (first six-string I ever saw), and he let on he'd had a few endorsements . . . . wanted to know if I needed strings, took me to a closet full, and told me to get five or six sets. YikeS ! I often think we'd hang out as I never tried to ego him up or ask for anything.
He showed up at one of my gigs to check on me, was so nice of him to take an interest. I was over at his house again a few weeks later, and he tells me about the Cash gig, and that he'd never played upright, but he was going to give it a go and hope for the best. . . . but he had to buy an upright !
I was in a very difficult marriage, got real depressed, figured I was never going to get anywhere in Nashville, and sold everything. When he found out about it, he sold me a very nice bass for very little, and was insistent I needed to keep playing, I was good enough. I never forgot this.
He was an exceptional, play anything player: Any style, 4,5,6 string, fretted, fretless, upright, a complete natural who'd never taken a lesson. And an exceptional man who encouraged me and took an interest in me when he could have just blown me off as a wannabe.
After Cash and the rest of his life, we drifted apart, I quit playing. We'd talk occasionally to stay in touch, and he always had something going, but something encouraging to say.
I'm sure I was hardly alone in guys he helped, and this town will be way poorer without him, and so will I.
