Went out last night, for the first time in a long while, and caught Big Smith at a bar in Dickson St. We caught their happy hour set, which was very fine. They’re a bluegrass band, of sorts, and they did great versions of some gospel songs that I remember from my youth, including an amazing version of “I Feel Like Traveling On” and a decent take on “Roll in my Sweet Baby’s Arms.” They also did a great cover of “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” Their bassist plays upright exclusively, and he’s very solid. When I was playing in The Tares, we opened up for Big Smith once in their hometown (Columbia, MO). But I think they’re a bigger draw here in Fayetteville.
Seeing people play music so well makes me want to do more of it myself, though I don’t know how I’d manage that right now. I’m still looking forward to doing some home recording. So far I have the software I need, and I’m getting a preamp. But the cool part is, thanks to Vicki, I’m going to have a new laptop that I can use (which saves me having to bum one from the office). I’m very excited about customizing it and installing all of my recording and web design software on it.
This weekend I’m doing revision of thetares.com since the boys are going to be on MTV’s The Real World (we still don’t know how much air time they’ll get, but they’re definately supposed to show up at least for a sec, and that could translate into some real traffic. I have a whole CD of pictures to add and I’m going to add a guestbook and some other interactive niceties. We’re still looking for an ecommerce solution (to hock CDs). We’re now using blogger to do the news page, which means the boys in the band can update things on their own from anywhere with a web browser. (Fresh content is a beautiful thing).