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Post subject: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:55 pm
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It’s a familiar story. I was going to be a star. Got my start in a local band during the late sixties and early seventies. Rock covers, mostly, with a few heavy blues jams just for fun. I wasn’t the most competent of musicians, but volume and fuzz (with a modicum of wah-wah) can cover a host of technical inadequacies. Talent aside, I had the look. Long hair, hip-hugging jeans, a carefully cultivated aura of indifference. Most of all, I had the burning desire to stand up on stage and bathe the masses in power chords. Good times.

Too good. My pipe dreams, and the lifestyle that came with them, drowned out my first attempt at higher education like bad feedback. A degree in mathematics couldn’t hold an incense stick to Guitar Godliness so in three quick semesters I was out the university's back door, a coiled cord trailing behind me. No big loss. The only calculus I needed was the derivation of twelve bar progressions and integrations on the five positions of the minor pentatonic. Newton dug the blues.

But the band flamed out in a blaze of personality and the girlfriend became the wife, then the expectant mother of my child, at a pace that was truly terrifying. Adulthood reared its perverse, ugly head. The Strat and the stack were sacrificed on the alter of domesticity, pawned to pay tithe to the working stiff’s holy trinity; Carolina Power and Light, Southern Bell, and the blessed Piggly Wiggly.

Decades passed.

I must admit that I’ve not been completely fretless. Over the years I’ve been bestowed a pair of acoustics, a gift born of love and a bequeathment steeped in sorrow, and I cherish them each dearly for their origins. But I've played them sparingly, all this time, as I have always been more moved by their emotional resonance than their tonal. They've been strung with my heartstrings.

But for all of their unplugged joy, I’ve missed the hot smell of over-driven tubes and the crunch of Jensen paper. I’ve missed low action necks and sustain lasting for days. I’ve missed being coaxially tethered to enough raw power to rattle your bones and pop out your fillings and make your ears bleed. I’ve missed the noise.

So, not getting any younger, I finally gave in to my neglected Fender fantasies. Beautiful things. Just the boogie-woogie kick in the pants I’ve been craving. Sure, my having this rig is like giving the keys to the Ferrari to Grandma, but goddamn it feels good.

It's time to shake the house once again.

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Mike (lower left, circa 1972)
Chatham County, NC

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 10:25 pm
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Rawk da haus, Mike!

Your bio is by no means unique but your prose in its presentation is as entertaining as it is enlightening.

Welcome to the forum.

8)

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 7:00 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
Welcome to the forum.

Arjay


Thank you, sir. Happy to be here.

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 10:46 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
Rawk da haus, Mike!

Your bio is by no means unique but your prose in its presentation is as entertaining as it is enlightening.

Welcome to the forum.

8)

Arjay


^^What he said^^

That was good read!

Welcome to the forum.

Jerry

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 1:49 pm
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Welcome


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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 4:16 pm
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Welcome to the Forum Mlke. Cool first post, great photo's of your rig and band.

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 4:56 pm
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Thanks, all. I'm excited to be plugged back in.

Mike

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2015 8:04 am
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CC Blues wrote:
It's time to shake the house once again.

Hit it C.C.!! :lol:
Welcome.

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 1:50 am
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You're definitely in the right place, CC. Great introduction.

FSB

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 10:52 am
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As mentioned, your story is quite common ..... but you do have a way with words.
I enjoyed your writing.
With a scientifically oriented brain, considerable life skill, a dash of humility and a few stories of former glories you will fit right in (and I predict possibly even become a valuable asset to) the forum.
Welcome.

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Post subject: Re: Time to Shake the House Once Again
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 11:15 am
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BMW-KTM wrote:
With a scientifically oriented brain, considerable life skill, a dash of humility and a few stories of former glories you will fit right in (and I predict possibly even become a valuable asset to) the forum.
Welcome.


HA! Hope that that's true. I certainly look forward to the exchange.

Thank you for the kind welcome.

Mike

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