Harp Tone Trouble and Diamond Rio?

Since our last show I have been a bit in my head about my tone and the way my harp is resonating in the sound of our band. My biggest dilemma is that I want a good crunchy Chicago sound on our blues songs, but for the others I need to maintain a more acoustic sound. I have thought about getting two different amps, one for blues one for more country, but have ruled that out as impractical. I looked into setting my amp on a very clean setting and then using some type of pedal to bring some distortion in. I used to play straight through a D.I. box running to the P.A. with a BOSS Blues Driver pedal for the blues songs, but that was never a very good sound. The Blues Driver with my amp just spikes too much feedback since it's essentially a gain maker. I looked into Lone Wolf Blues Company and their Harp Attack pedal, but don't think that will do the trick either. My rig I am playing through right now is as follows; Shure 545 S vintage mic to BOSS Harmonist octave pedal through a never used Blues Driver to my Hohner 5W Hoodoo amp. Right now I set the amp somewhere in between scooped and bright and use my hands and positioning to set the tone one way or the other. I cup tight for blues tone songs and the mic distorts great. I usually have an open hands approach for the acoustic tone and vary my distance from the mic so to not be overbearing in some parts. I also use a stand now for the mic since it helps a ton in all of this choreography for tone. I was hoping there was a simpler way to do it. It works fine for me right now, but eventually I would like to just carry the mic and not rely on the stand and all this hand and distance finagling. If you are reading this and have some good advice please leave a comment. I might have it better than I think and am getting manic over things, but I would love to see some suggestions on the matter.

In other news, I was just informed by our manager that we are playing this Saturday at the Midland County Horseshoe Arena opening up for Diamond Rio. The event is for the American Cancer Society and is their Roundup 2009 Cattle Barons Ball. I am happy to be a part of an event that is related to furthering our research in fighting cancer and whole heartedly support the American Cancer Society in all their efforts. There have been a few people in my personal life who have dealt with cancer and the terrible mess it tends to bring along. Live shows are fun, but live shows with good intentions are always better. We are the opening act before Diamond Rio goes on. Also, we will be the band playing for the after party once the formal concert is over. I have no idea what to expect for this one. The Horseshoe Arena is a big venue and sadly our sound equipment can't quite cover that much square footage. Will they provide sound? Are we borrowing Rio's rig? Are we just going to pump our P.A. to eleven and see how far the soundwaves go? No idea. We also don't know if we are playing on the huge stage or in a smaller convention area. I like shows like this where this is a lot to speculate about. It makes it more fun to see what turned out like you guessed in the end. I can't think of a Diamond Rio song off the top of my head, but I know they have a strong following. It'll be cool to see a larger band and sound crew hustling around doing their thing from the backstage perspective. I have never set foot in the Horseshoe Arena but I know it's the same place that many large touring bands play at when they pass through town. For instance Korn is playing there May 5'th. I've wanted to check the place out before but never had an incentive. The complex is a hundred plus acres and can accommodate an event for three thousand people or more. I think there are three or four different areas available to rent for an event like this on the grounds. For all I know, we could be playing on a couple of card tables in the parking lot. I really can't wait to see how all this goes down and of course, I'll let you know.


Something Witty......

Friday's show

The show this past Friday was a fun one. Jackson Lee Brooks Band opened for us to an enthusiastic crowd and set a good tone for the night. A great deal of their songs remind me of early Cross Canadian Ragweed stuff. The lead guitar had that same fuzzy distortion tone, that is prevalent in Cross songs. Tyson Kerby is the lead vocals for the group and does a good job steering the band through songs. Also taking part in vocals occasionally is Jarrel Brooks who plays rhythm electric for the band. He sang a good cover of Mickey and The Motorcars' "Twilight". The band as a whole is fairly new to the stage, but I could see that they were comfortable performing and had few serious hiccups. I'm sure they have enough staying power to be gigging for quite some time and will easily carve themselves a niche here in West Texas.


Our two sets were pretty vanilla in the spectrum of all the shows we've had. No one forgot any words or notes and the crowd was having a good time. I personally felt off for most of the second set. Some kind of funk settled in on me and it was hard to shake the mental block. I played my parts and solos fine, but I was a little lost in my head and kept finding myself really not liking my tone at this part or my phrasing in that last solo. Mental hoodoo is always frustrating and I've had those demons bouncing around in my head before on stage. It makes an annoying cycle where you keep being too hard on yourself while you're playing and at the same time can't really improve because you're focusing so much energy on your momentary flaws. I shook it off finally near the end with the help of the band's collective stage energy and was able to hop off stage, for the most part, satisfied.

There was talk about playing a show up near Amarillo next weekend, but I do believe that it never got hammered out all the way. The weekend after that we will all be celebrating Cody's engagement to his girlfriend Sarah and not playing any shows. The rest of May is going to be a busy couple of weeks sending us on the road to a few different places. I'm excited to have some more time to practice on my personal sound which has been bothering me slightly. Hopefully by the time I find myself on the way to our road shows i'll have some of those tone kinks hammered out.

On a harp side note I was thinking recently about buying a Harp Attack Pedal made by the Lone Wolf Blues Company. It is a tube powered pre amp pedal that gives a great deal of warm crunchy tone when used with a P.A. and some amps. I threw some e-mails back and forth to, I think the owner and builder of the pedals, and found sadly that it would most likely not be the best purchase for me. What was really cool though was that Randy, the man I had been talking to, was very helpful in telling me the pro's and cons of using that pedal with my rig. He had no problem losing a sale and giving the advice to hold off on buying one of his products since he wasn't sure it would provide what I was looking for. I really appreciated his honesty and good ethics. I urge any harp players out there to have a look at his products because they are bulletproof and are backed by a man with better intentions than solely profit.