A couple of the guys I normally jam with invited me out to their gig this afternoon because Milton Hopkins was sitting in for their guitar player. Milton Hopkins backed B.B. King for many years on tour and he's actually Lightnin' Hopkins' younger cousin. So after the first set the guys who invited me to come listen introduced me to him and we got to talking about things like gear, influences and guitar stuff in general. So out of the blue he asked if I'd like to come up and sit in with them! He doesn't really do that very much, and he doesn't go to jams anymore so most people don't get that chance. The rest of the band I've played with before at some time or another, but it's rare that I'm invited onstage with so many great musicians all at once. Usually I'm the stand in for the guitar player who had some last minute deal and couldn't make it. So anyway, I got all my stuff set up and I got to play with them for the remainder of the gig, a good two and half hours.
I have to say, it was really scary at first. After a while though I got more comfortable and it ended up being one of the most fun gigs I've ever played! We did a really, really, awesome version of Hideaway too. I'll have to post it on my purevolume page when I'm done splitting the tracks out.

After that gig I had another one with another band on the other side of town, so I'm really tired now. I'd be asleep already if I weren't still excited.

A couple of the guys I normally jam with invited me out to their gig this afternoon because Milton Hopkins was sitting in for their guitar player. Milton Hopkins backed B.B. King for many years on tour and he's actually Lightnin' Hopkins' younger cousin. So after the first set the guys who invited me to come listen introduced me to him and we got to talking about things like gear, influences and guitar stuff in general. So out of the blue he asked if I'd like to come up and sit in with them! He doesn't really do that very much, and he doesn't go to jams anymore so most people don't get that chance. The rest of the band I've played with before at some time or another, but it's rare that I'm invited onstage with so many great musicians all at once. Usually I'm the stand in for the guitar player who had some last minute deal and couldn't make it. So anyway, I got all my stuff set up and I got to play with them for the remainder of the gig, a good two and half hours.
I have to say, it was really scary at first. After a while though I got more comfortable and it ended up being one of the most fun gigs I've ever played! We did a really, really, awesome version of Hideaway too. I'll have to post it on my purevolume page when I'm done splitting the tracks out.

After that gig I had another one with another band on the other side of town, so I'm really tired now. I'd be asleep already if I weren't still excited.