Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 17

Eugene met us at the back door when we got to the Wild Cat. I assume he had some kind of camera set up and I do remember his office being pretty close to the back, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

“Charlie, good to see you.”

“Hey,” I said, shaking his hand. “This is my friend Hanna. She wanted to watch us practice and see the show from backstage. She’s going to college in the fall for talent management, and she wanted to get a sense of what this kind of thing was like.”

That wasn’t really true, but I figured it would be easier explaining it like that than just asking if she could be backstage. Eugene was nice and might have allowed it anyway, but there might have been insurance or some other reason he would have said no if I said she was just a friend who wanted to watch.

“Really? That’s exciting. Sure, come on and watch. Charlie, the band’s already set up and ready to do a quick rehearsal if you are. People will start coming in at seven and we need to have the curtain down by then. We’ll get you all a bite to eat from the kitchen and then you go on at seven-thirty.”

“Sounds good. And thanks for having me. Really, I know you’re going out on a limb, giving someone my age a shot.”

“Nah, you killed 'em last time, so I’m not worried. Besides, you’re not the first kid I’ve given a shot to. You think Chef Tang’s the only one takin’ in strays?”

I hadn’t realized he and Chef were acquainted, but I should have. Two bar and restaurant owners who had live music an hour apart, both of whom gave Willie stage time, it should have been obvious.

He led us down the hall towards the stage, although he probably didn’t have to, since it wasn’t that complicated and I remembered it from last time. Of course, I hadn’t met the band, so he probably also felt like he needed to introduce me to them.

“Guys,” he said when we stepped up on the stage. “This is the young man I told you about, Charlie Nelson.”

The stage was already set up for us to play, with a full drum kit, a keyboard, and a bass guitar along with amps, mics, and wires going all over the place.

“Charlie, this is Rodney Hunt, our bass player, Seth Byrd, the drummer, and Marco Manning, the keyboardist. You didn’t have any piano parts in your songs, but the covers you were thinking about doing and Willie’s stuff did, so I asked Marco to come anyway.”

“If we have time, I had a few thoughts of how I could transpose the main guitar over and join in the other stuff, though,” Marco said.

“Sounds good,” I said, pulling my guitar out of its case and putting it on the open stand. “This is my friend Hanna and she’s going to be hanging back and watching, if that’s okay.”

“A groupie. Cool,” Rodney said.

He sneered and gave her a look that suggested all kinds of things in the worst way, and it made me immediately dislike him. I was trying to be professional though and take charge like I’d seen Willie do in the past, so I ignored it and tried to stay all business.

“You guys looked at the music I sent over, right?”

“Yeah,” Seth said. “I really liked Hush. Reminded me of some bad relationships I had when I was younger.”

“I think we’ve all had those relationships,” Marco said.

“Not me, man. I leave all the chicks I date first. Always leave them wanting more is my motto.”

Seth rolled his eyes, so I knew I wasn’t alone in hating this guy at least.

“I liked the eighties-rock feel of Cherished to Death. It had that angsty, angry feel to it, like what you heard in the early days before metal became a thing.”

“I’ve made some changes to it,” I said. “It’s pretty close, but I’ve pulled back a little on the guitar. Let’s do it first, and y’all can just follow my lead.”

We played through it once and they followed my lead pretty well. These guys didn’t have the intuition quite like Willie’s band, but they’d been playing with Willie for decades and were able to predict his moves through sheer personal experience. Overall, I was still impressed.

“I like the changes,” Seth said when we finished. “It’s still angry, but not as metal, you know.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was going for. It sounded too metal to me too.”

“I don’t know, I think you guys are discounting how good metal can sound, and this isn’t really even that far into it. Besides, I think it might have gone too pop and it’s missing some of the angst for me, you know,” Marco said. “Can we do it once more? I think if I do something halfway, but still in the rhythm you have now, we might be able to make it have that same angst. I know we’re just practicing and this is your stuff, but you hadn’t really put in keys, so I’m just extra anyways.”

“I’m all for experimenting as long as we don’t spend too long on it. We still have a bunch of stuff to get through.”

We tried it again, and I could see what Marco was going for, and he did a pretty good job of putting the two versions together and finding a middle ground on the fly. He was actually pretty good and I could definitely see some options for when we got to Country Roads, which would work really well with keyboards added.

“Not bad,” I said, trying to find a way to tell him I didn’t love it without coming off as an ass. “It’s still a bit too hard for what I was going for. I think maybe there are a few things there, but I’d need to think about how to incorporate them. It wasn’t bad; I just don’t think it quite fit for what we’re doing.”

“Hey, no problem. It’s your song; we’re just here to back you up.”

“Okay, but keep the input coming. It’s really useful and I play with the same guys every week, so it’s nice to hear other points of view.”

“Sure man, don’t worry about me.”

We played through Cherished to Death a few more times to make sure we were all comfortable with it, although I pulled back on my vocals a bit to save my voice, since it required a lot more than anything else I normally played. Next, we practiced Hush,and Seth surprised me when he came in on the chorus, harmonizing with me one octave down. I was a tenor, although I could get into most of the baritone range without sacrificing too much. Seth, who was shorter than me and wiry had a bass that, while on the high end of the range, was still surprising coming out of him.

His harmonies played against my vocals in the chorus amazingly well, and really was what the song was missing. I’d been playing with the idea of taking it more country, because I wasn’t getting the longing that I was really looking for, but this did it so much better than that. Modern country was more sad than wistful and I was going for an acceptance of things changing, not a sadness for the things lost.

“Man, that was awesome,” I said when we finished. “You surprised the hell out of me.”

“Yeah, Seth does that,” Marco said. “No one ever expects him to be all low and rumbly when he looks like a sentient wet noodle.”

“Keep talking. I’ve got your wet noodle right here.”

“Dude,” Marco said, giving it a beat for Seth to realize what he’d said.

He then burst out laughing, saying, “Okay, maybe not.”

We all joined in. The fact that he was able to laugh at himself made him go up a notch in my book. In high school, everyone was so worried about reputation and what others thought of themselves, they were completely incapable of taking a joke. Honestly, it made me want to get out of school and just do this full time if that was even possible. This didn’t even feel like work, although the show hadn’t started yet, so maybe things would change.

I was right about the keyboard coming in on Country Roads. It fixed a lot of the issues I had with it, too. It was becoming clear that I really needed a band to play with, instead of just doing things by myself. For Willie, it made sense being a solo artist, which he was even though he had a band he played with normally at the Blue Ridge. Blues can be all about the vocals and lead guitar, with everything else adding just a little color. Sure, there were great blues groups that were more expanded than that but, like folk and some forms of country, it wasn’t needed. It could work well just on its own.

Rowan had nailed my sound pretty well, and the combination of classic rock, blues, pop, and country really needed a band to work. It needed harmonies and dueling melodies and the full sound that you can only get from multiple instruments and voices blending and working together.

The covers didn’t take long to work out, since they were all songs they’d heard before, and some they’d even covered before backing other visiting musicians. This allowed us to circle around and play with my music more, making changes and small additions.

Rodney didn’t really have anything to add, and the few things he did suggest the rest of us agreed didn’t work, but Seth and Marco really got what I’d been trying to do, and helped tweak it to make it so much better.

We finally shut it down so they could seat the house and give us a thirty-minute break before we went on for real. Eugene brought us some food from the kitchen, including a bowl for Hanna, which was really nice of him.

While we ate, I brought up the thought that had been sitting in the back of my head since the first song we played.

“So, I know we just met, but I have a question. I have a talent scout from MAC Records coming to hear me play in a few months, but I really need to get a band together, since they’re looking for a group and not a single artist. I started looking for people a little while ago, but you guys seem to really get what I’m trying to do on my songs. How would you feel about playing together more often?”

“You might want to look around more,” Seth said. “I mean, I’m flattered, but we just play gigs in a small market. You really should have someone working with you, a manager or something. At least run a decision past someone you trust first.”

“Why?” I asked, not that I disagreed, but I wanted to hear his reasoning for it.

“You just offered guys without any real prospects a shot at being heard by a record label. That’s a big jump for us. Some guys wouldn’t hesitate to take you up on it and then burn you later when they got what they wanted, or even try to pull aside the scout and try and cut their own thing. We’re all having fun up here, but this can be a pretty cut-throat business, especially if they think you’re young and inexperienced. They’ll see you as an easy mark.”

“Dude, shut up,” Rodney said. “I think it’s a great idea.”

I gave Rodney a glance, but ignored him. I honestly was only thinking about Seth and Marco, since we meshed so well. Rodney had been rubbing me the wrong way the whole time and I couldn’t imagine playing with him regularly.

“Seth’s right,” Marco said. “You just threw out some big bait that some guys would kill for. Think about it before you make the offer for real.”

“Sorry,” I said, trying to backpedal. “I wasn’t really saying what I meant well. I more meant are you guys free if this works out tonight. I’d have to get y’all to come up to Wellville and play for Willie, who’s been advising me. If he thinks it’s a good fit, then we’d go from there. I can’t promise I’ll have all that many gigs for us right away, since I can only play on weekends and can’t travel far, at least for right now. I guess this would be more of a start.”

“Let’s see how this goes first,” Seth said.

Hanna waved me off, so we went to talk. I saw Rodney lean in and start talking urgently to the other two. He was probably trying to convince them to just take the offer and run. The fact that they hadn’t just moved them up another notch in my eyes.

“Is that a great idea,” Hanna asked. “You just met these guys. I mean, they seem great and all … well, mostly, but you don’t know anything about them, and they don’t know anything about you. I mean, I’d be just as worried about it if these guys just up and said yes to joining a band run by a fifteen-year-old, just like that.”

“But they didn’t. You heard them. They suggested I talk to people I trust first and make sure I knew what I was doing before I just offered up a spot on the band to them. Besides, it wouldn’t be that weird. I know my dad would have jumped at a chance to play for a record scout again. Those kinds of shots don’t come around every day.”

“Maybe. I still think he’s right, you need to talk to someone you trust first.”

“I know. As soon as he pointed that out and told me his reasoning, I realized my mistake. I just got excited to be working with real musicians. It’s why I said I needed to get them to play with me in front of Willie. Hell, I haven’t even talked to him about that yet, although I’m sure he’d do it. I was mostly just buying time.”

“Hey, kid,” Rodney said, coming over. “Don’t listen to those guys. You’re gonna need people with some real-world experience. Screw them, I’m in. You and me, we can find two other guys and get this going. Hell, give me ten minutes with the scout, and I’ll make sure we get some action.”

“Thanks. Like I said, let’s see how this goes and then I need to set up a session for us to play for my friend up at the Blue Ridge in Wellville.”

“Hey, you don’t need to go through all that. We all worked really well in practice and …”

“Let’s see how this set goes first,” I said more firmly.

“Sure, kid. Sure.”

I noticed both Seth and Marco watching the exchange, and both gave slight nods of approval as I put him off. I probably should have just told him no and shut him down, but I didn’t want to cause issues for the show tonight.

Hanna and I rejoined the rest and we talked until it was time to go on stage. Things went well. Although we hadn’t had a lot of time to rehearse, I’d sent them a list of the songs I’d wanted to cover in addition to my music, with a few notes of ways I planned to play each of the covers. They’d either known them or practiced them, because our rehearsal had only needed to get our timing closer in sync and work out a few things I hadn’t explained well.

The only real hiccup in the show was on one of the covers there’d been a little guitar riff at the end after the lyrics finished. It was too short to be called a guitar solo, but I’d been looking forward to it, because most of the stuff the guitar work was a little reserved. I finished the last lyric and repositioned my fingering to start the riff and Rodney jumped in, switching it to an awkward bass solo that went way longer than it should have and sounded out of place with the rest of the song we’d played. The audience noticed it, from their looks. It was a fairly well-known song, so they probably recognized it as being different, which wasn’t all that unusual, since covers were often altered to make things fresh. Their reaction was more that they didn’t like it than surprise at the change. Thankfully it was early on, so we had time to get the audience back on our side before the set was done.

There was one fun moment. We’d finished up and were taking our bows, and the curtain closed. I could hear everyone clapping and was feeling pretty good about myself when Eugene came strolling up.

“Last night, the band came back and did a little encore. Some of the folks out there are asking if y'all are going to do the same thing. I know we didn’t have it planned, but do you have one more song in you.”

We’d played everything we’d rehearsed, but this was my first real gig and I didn’t want to mess it up. I did a quick mental checklist of some of the songs I played at the Blue Ridge and which ones these guys might know.

“Do you guys know Dispatch and Yesterday, Tomorrow?”

Dispatch had come out late last year and had been on the top forty until a week or so ago, so I thought there was a good chance they knew it. Yesterday, Tomorrow was a few years old, but it had been number one for months, so I was pretty sure they knew it.

“Sure,” Seth said. “Are you sure though? Dispatch has that monster riff before the second verse.”

“Yea, I’ve played it on stage a few times,” I said, before turning to Rodney. “You need to stay on script.”

“Hey, I was just trying to bail you out. It was too much for a …”

“Rodney,” Marco said in warning, clearly annoyed. “He played it in rehearsal just fine and you jumped in before he was even supposed to come in. Plus, the whole thing sucked.”

“Screw you,” Rodney said.

I put my hands up, “If we’re doing an encore, let’s do it. Just let me have the solo before the second verse. Clear?”

“Sure, whatever.”

“Fine, let’s go,” I said, giving a sign to Eugene. “Raise the curtain.”

I was putting my guitar around my neck when the curtain went back up. Everyone was still seated, which made me think that everyone had expected an encore. Maybe Eugene was trying to get a little more bang for his buck, extending the set and playing it off as a favor. It didn’t bother me, although it was a reminder that, no matter how friendly someone was, they were always looking after themselves first.

“It sounds like you folks would like a little more before we call it a night. Hopefully, you know these songs. They both went high on the charts, so I think some of you will like them.”

I wasn’t trying to do stage banter but it felt weird to just come back out and start playing without any kind of comment. It felt awkward, but I just rolled with it. The best shows I’d seen while traveling with Dad, were where the musicians had done more than just play. They told stories and had a little banter with their bandmates. It helped break up just the wall of music. Some of the audience seemed to enjoy it, especially when the musician had a good sense of humor, and those who didn’t used the time to run to the bathroom or get up and stretch.

I’d also noticed that they’d at least discussed the banter and stories and the whole group had an idea of what to say. I hadn’t really tried it at the Blue Ridge and I didn’t know these guys well enough to do it here, but it was something I wanted to try to work on.

We did Yesterday, Tomorrow and it went pretty well. Seth kept the rhythm steady and we managed to stay on rhythm pretty well. It wasn’t a challenging song and the best stuff was given to the drummer, but the audience seemed to like it. Things went much better on Dispatch. I’d practiced the guitar riff a bunch of times and felt really comfortable with it.

The band that had written the song had one of the best guitar players in the business and he really shredded on it, so while it was challenging, it was also a lot of fun. It was fast with a lot of finger work including some fairly difficult chord changes, but I nailed it. When we got out of the solo and on to the second verse, the clapping and cheering was loud enough to drown out the vocals a little bit. It was the first really hard guitar riff I’d played so far tonight, and the audience here was big enough that when they all made noise it got pretty loud.

They took me by surprise and I stumbled on the first line of the second verse, but I recovered and we finished out the song.

I gave my closing spiel again, since I didn’t really have anything ready to say after an encore, and the curtains came down. When we finished the main set, I’d felt pretty good, but the reaction to the encore had been amazing and I felt like I was going to bounce off the walls.

“Holy crap,” Seth said as soon as our mics were off.

“Dude,” Marco said. “Where the hell were you hiding that? How do you write songs without that kind of thing in every one? You can fucking shred.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I just write what feels right for the song and what I’m trying to say.”

“You really need to add more of that to your music. You were almost as good as Tommy Yates, and he’s a god. You should do something like that every set.”

“Don’t blow too much smoke up his ass,” Rodney said. “It was only okay.”

“You’re joking,” Seth said.

“Whatever,” Rodney said, unplugging his bass and walking off.

“Well, thanks for playing with me tonight. Do you guys need help packing up this stuff?”

“Nah,” Seth said. “The drum kit is Eugene’s and the next band is going to use it, and so are all the amps. We just need to pack up Marco’s keyboard and we’re gonna jet. Eugene has guys that’ll put everything else away.”

“All right, well, it was fun,” I said, giving a half-wave and walking off stage to where Hanna was standing, holding my guitar.

I was putting it away when Seth came jogging over.

“Hey, about the tryout for your guy. Is that still on? After what we saw, Marco and I both would like a shot.”

I looked at Hanna and she gave me a look. I knew what she was thinking, and I knew she was right.

“I just want to be clear; I’m not saying it’s a sure thing. We worked really well together, but it really depends on what Willie thinks.”

“We get it. We just want a shot.”

“Okay,” I said, and realized there was one other thing. “Second, I don’t want Rodney. I don’t know if you guys play together regularly or whatever, but I can tell we won’t work well together.”

“We only play the gigs here together. He and Marco were in a band for a while, but it broke up,” Seth said.

“I’m fine with it just being Seth and me. You’ll need a bass player at some point though.”

“I think I might know a guy if you don’t have a prospect,” Seth said. “I haven’t played with him, but my roommate was in a band with him and they did okay.”

I gave a glance at Hanna and she shrugged, leaving it up to me.

“Sure. Give me your number and check with him. I’ll set something up and give you a call. Do you think Eugene’s going to have a problem with this?”

“No. He doesn’t keep a house band or anything, and just calls musicians he knows when he needs people. Until he put this together, me and Marco had never played together.”

“Okay, I just didn’t want him to think I was poaching.”

“I can talk to him,” Seth said. “I’ll let you know if he has a problem, but it should be okay. We won’t be the first guys to work together outside of the Wild Cat after meeting here.”

“All right. It was good meeting both of you,” I said, extending my hand.

We said our goodbyes and headed out, stopping by to get my payment from Eugene, who seemed happy with how the evening had gone so far.

For my first solo gig, I don’t think it could have gone better.