Solo gig coming up 9/14

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Treeline

Treeline

New member
and I'm nervous as a long tailed cat.

A friend of mine does a local 4-H bluegrass concert / BBQ benefit every September. There's usually a stellar bluegrass lineup, and I'm usually sharing the stage with a "finish it off, boys, it's not dead yet" open mic jam at the end of the evening. It's gotten to be a ritual of sorts, with about 500 - 1000 people showing up during the course of the evening. Great time and raises some serious cash for a good local cause.

Due to current events (my buddy is running for Governor) there are likely to be a few more people this time. Well, maybe a lot more people. So now there's a second stage, a sound system and so forth, and I've been booked to fill about an hour or two of it. I usually play with other people, but this time, they're all doing other gigs. So I'm all over the telephone, and slowly realizing that I need to have a solo setlist up to speed. Haven't done much of the solo stuff lately... I feel like I just got on the rollercoaster.:eek: :rolleyes: :D
 
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Treeline,
I've been solo for about 12 years now and most times prefer it, but it was hell the first couple of times.
When you are on your own make sure your instrument is at room temperature before you start, it's a proper bastard it you tune up then go into an aircon venue and the string tension changes, or vise versa. You will be the only person in the entire place to notice but it will kill you.
Give your instrument half an hour to settle in if possible then tune it again.
Relax........... the audience sees you as a seasoned performer. Be one, don't hurry, for chrissakes don't hurry, or you will have your entire set done in 20 minutes with a couple of hours to go.(done that too)
Talk to the crowd, it fills (wastes) time between numbers and people relate to it. Apply your recording principals- less is more, you don't need 30 other instruments behind you. People will accept your sound as it is, the biggest hurdle to overcome is inside your head, believe me I've done it. Enjoy it, smile, it comes through and it is contageous.
Good luck mate, when you are a solo it doesn't matter if the drummer has had a fight with his wife and arrives an hour late, or the bass player has got stoned during a break and slows down the whole set while he smiles at the world, you're in charge go have some fun, get drunk after.
Clive
 
Awesome post , Clive.

I've done my share of solo. There's nothing more challenging than entertaining a crowd armed with nothing other than your acoustic guitar. I don't sing, so it made it even that much more challenging. In addtion to the great tips by Clive, I'd suggest going over your set with a fine tuned comb. Peaks and valleys and where they are in your set are very important to the solo artist. My first mistake was putting all of my best tunes at the start of the first set. I was then left scrambling to fill the rest of the evening with attention grabbing, jaw dropping stuff. Another thing that is handy to do is to keep some good tunes in reserve... that way you can gauge the crowd and maybe deviate from your set if you feel that you're losing them. Drop a cover tune on them that no one expects. Or maybe do something with a little more humour to it. Anywho, hope that helps. Best of luck.
 
Thanks

Thanks for the encouragement! I've been playing for a while and spent more than a few hours on the stage from time to time, but almost never has it been just me and an otherwise empty stage. Usually there's someone to hide behind.

I'm approaching it just as you suggested, and it's actually a lot of fun to figure this stuff out. I'm going to try and start out the setlist with a new tune (yeah, I'm a dummy) that, if it works, could set a nice mood for the rest of the set. It's a bit of a stretch, but I'm working out a solo chordal version of Accentuate the Positive after having listened to Dr. John about a thousand times. Take away the killer piano, the New Orleans gravel in his voice, the wild horn and big band sections, and the ohmygod percussion, and you still have ... well, a hell of a good tune. So there's that.

Then the list shapes up something like this, with mostly a raggy fingerstyle / bluesy / swing thing going on:

Sitting on Top of The World
Louis Collins
Summertime
Georgia (instrumental)
Walking in Jerusalem (this really needs a couple of baritones for the chorus)
Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Broonzy style)
Summer Wages
These Days
I Feel the Blues Moving In
Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar (move to flatpicking)
New River Train
Wayfaring Stranger
Red Haired Boy (instrumental)
Beaumont Rag (instrumental)
Walking Blues (finish with an open G slide set)
A Strange Affair
Louise
Rollin' and Tumblin'



Think I can get away with lyric sheets?:D
 
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Re: Thanks

Treeline said:
Wayfaring Stranger
Click to expand...

Wow, weird... I was listening to a live version of this song while I read your post. The version that I'm listening to is by Papa M (David Pajo) from a concert that I bootlegged in January. I rarely listen to it, and I rarely read posts that mention bluegrass (no offense :p). So that was a cool coincidence. :)

Sorry, I don't actually have anything to contribute to the topic. But good luck, and try to have fun! Oh, and don't forget to have a friend record the show. :) Bootlegs are what it's all about!
 
Hey Treeline,
I forgot to ask, let us know how the gig goes.
Clive
 
Quick update

It's beginning to look really good. I'm scheduled to start with a 20 minute solo set, then I've got three (great) musicians coming on stage with me, and we finish the hour off doing mostly stuff from the setlist I put on this thread. Two guitars, a mandolin, a string bass and harmonies galore. Better yet, these guys play as a band themselves, so they have the deal down. Neat stuff, like Valley to Pray in G , lots of gospel style building harmony, but each refrain and the song itself ends on D without resolution - and we're wrapping up with a let'em loose slide version of Rollin' and Tumblin'. Two of the guys joining me are then scheduled for the next slot, so the acts moves fast. We've got all the evening booked like that. Should be a killer!
 
Treeline,
I'll be doing a solo on Saturday night too, due to time differences I'll be finished and asleep before you wake up for Saturday, I'll do a couple for you in my gig. Good luck
Clive
 
Treeline,
How did your gig go?
Mine was good but I ended up with really bad cramp in the fingers on my left hand, which apart from hurting like hell, just locked them in a "fingers down on the palm" position.
So I stopped, it was practically midnight anyway.
My own fault, I was dehydrated, we live in a weird climate, most of the time, like 8 months of the year the temperature is 38oC to 44oC (100oF - 111oF) and yesterday was a normal winter/spring 30oC (86oF), so being my usual dickhead winter self I didn't drink much water. Voila, cramps.
You'd think I'd learn but I don't.
Hope yours was better.
C
 
Well, I didn't get a cramp and I survived it. But I did blow a verse a couple of times at the beginning, forgot a capo setting, and so forth. Good thing it was just me and a few other musicians in the place.:D

Actually, it went really well. All that stuff did happen, but it didn't really matter. I was first up of an evening of sets, in an overflow venue ("the second tent") and more and more folks were showing up with plates of food. So when I started, the audience really was other musicians coming on next. I started with a new tune and kept remembering all the way through it why it might not be a good idea to start with this one. All my pyrotechnic ideas morphed into grateful first position chords. Then I got into more familiar territory as people started coming in. Upstate Steve ("ThatUpstateGuy") had taught me a tune that turned out to be a real kicker.

As my friends joined me for the second half of the set, it stopped being work and started being fun - stayed that way for the rest of the evening for a pretty full crowd. We had five different acts (other than my intro), each doing 45 minute sets. I heard some incredibly good music.

The wind was blowing like crazy, the walls were flapping an oddball percussion beat, a huge gust had ripped the tent roof from wall to peak, and we kept on going. Had a blast.
 
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