My Continuing Music Education

As a lot of my close friends know, I've been very active in a modern rock band called Buzzfuel for the last year. It gave me a chance to play bass guitar on a regular basis again, and really push myself to learn a lot of new material.

Now, let me set this up. I'm at least 10 years older than the rest of the band (but, I've also got at least 10 years more experience than them too). It took a month or two for all of us to get comfortable, but after the "probation" things really fell into place.

I found a role in the band as Chief Engineer. They had great equipment...they just needed a little help integrating it all together. So, after a bit of work we get the setup time down from around 2.5 hours to about 45 minutes. Hey, more time for everyone to drink beer, right?

Throughout the rest of the year, I found myself for the first time in a long time practicing on a regular basis. And after a few months of that, I found myself being able to play some ridiculously complicated stuff...things I hadn't been able to play since the 70's.

And then I noticed that I had re-learned to listen critically, and isolate different parts of a song to learn. All of the players in Buzzfuel were held to a pretty high standard...close enough was usually not close enough. It then became a game for me...how close can I nail a song to where the band leader has nothing to complain about. I probably put in way more time learning some songs than I should have, but it made me a better player...no doubt.

And with Buzzfuel, I have now gone through something that (amazingly) I never have in all of my decades of playing...and that was deliberate break up. All of my previous bands either just drifted apart, or made an ugly split. This was neither.

Unless you're The Rolling Stones...no band lasts forever. I guess I've been spoiled by playing guitar with The Rhythm Dawgs for 11 years now, but every band has a shelf life. And unfortunately, Buzzfuel has reached that point. There was no fight, no disagreement, no drama. No one got fired for drug abuse or sleeping with someone else's girlfriend / wife. Nope, just some of the members decided they had other things in their lives that were more important. And in all justification, a couple of them have had rather large changes of recent.

So, now I'm searching for what I'm supposed to be feeling right now. Buzzfuel is going to be a hard band to walk away from. The players were all top notch, we got good venues to play, we were very well equiped, and we all genuinely liked each other. I'm really going to miss playing with those guys, because everytime I did I learned something new.

And so to my brothers in Buzzfuel, I must take the time to thank each of you.

To drummer Larry Horvat...you got it. You understood the "marriage" between a drummer and bassist. You hit hard and played your heart out ever gig...whether there were 20 people or 500. The two of us formed a rhythm section that could turn goat piss into gasoline.

To guitarist Mike Bedard...you always brought this understated intensity to the performance. You understood the space around the notes. And when you put your guitar down and picked up the mic to sing...you were bundle of directed insanity and energy...I loved it.

To lead vocalist JD Stumph...you brought a confidence that wasn't overshadowed by ego (unlike 99% of the front men out there working today). You took command of the room, but always remained approachable. And you always brought a full on performance.

And to lead guitarist and ring leader John Cortell. You have done more to shape my playing in the last year than anyone in the previous two decades. You set the bar high and held me to that standard. You saw in me ability that I didn't realize I had. I'll always be indebted to you.

And so...now what to do. The Rhythm Dawgs will continue to be an important creative outlet on guitar for me. But I've got all this cool bass gear....it would be a shame for it to just lay around now....