The Henhouse Roosters met at The Rumpus Room on May 1st for practice. The new tunes are really shaping up! How do we know this?.... Suzie hollered down the basement steps: "That was REALLY great !!!", after our first genuine effort at Tull's "Locomotive Breath".
We must be doing something right...
Ed launched into a song I'd never heard before: "Alberta, Alberta", and I liked it. It's a blues tune, but with a different kind of chord progression- something we want to keep in mind when adding new blues. We're both very conscious of falling into "Chronic Sameness", a malady suffered by so many blues bands. We are a bit germaphobic about this..
I think "Alberta, Alberta" was by John Mayall's Blues Breakers, key of C. I picked up my Low F and it seems like a tune we may try out.
Delighted to be trying to add some more Led Zeppelin tunes. Zep was a HUGE influence on both Ed & me... when we went to different schools together!!
We went down the playlist of Physical Graffitti and gave "In The Light" a spin. I immediately turned on my green DigiTech Synth-Wah, Mode III, and cranked the delay/echo effect way up to show Ed that I was perfectly willing to take on John Paul Jones's synthesizer intro to the song. When he realized that I was copping some of the same licks in the song on my juiced-up harp setup, I could see it on his face, but he said " That sounds really good!!!" Seems an unlikely Zep song to try, but Ed broke it down into its blues-basics, as he is so good at, and we may actually feel that we've got a respectable handle on "In The Light".( Guitar Tech notes: Capo 5, A/E chord shapes- code word: "boom boom thwack") D harp w/heavy effects
Also picked around at "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down" Am/D (Ed to confirm) Rest In Peace, Levon Helm..
An old Yardbirds gem "But I Ain't Got You" sounded good too- key of G/C- Probably a GO on that one- good beat/easy to dance to (Rest in Peace Dick Clark!)
Not long ago, Ed mentioned turning The Good Doctor Suess' "Green Eggs & Ham" into a blues number!!! What Fun!! Though it's true.. I do not LIKE green eggs & ham... I LOVE this idea!!! I like it in a box. I like it with a fox. I like it ... well.. you get the idea.
Finally- It was mutually agreed that beers no longer be casually tossed to one another. Don't even ask what led to such a decision. Suffice it to say that we're both getting older, and that our reflexes are nowhere near what they used to be...
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