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Tears on your Anorak

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There was this tune called Tears on your Anorak that was not a real big hit on the charts in the 80’s, but I loved it none the less. It was one of those songs that kept on looping through my mine!

I admit that it’s not a very difficult piece to play on an electric guitar but, baby when you try to pull this off on an acoustic, then it’s a whole new kettle of worms! It’s a bit more difficult to let those strings ring out while attempting to play other ones all at the same time. Anyways, it was also the only song from one of those British one-hit-wonders that still ring out in my mind today. Humm, I wonder where they went to?

This song Tears on your Anorak, brings back so many great moments in my life! I use to play this song acoustically with a dear olde friend of mine Allan S. We played it everywhere we played! Bars, backyards, in trees and even elevators! I also played it on electric guitar with Dom., Eddie and Big Jon P. For the life of me, I’m not sure if we played this version live? Hopefully, one of them will get back to us and comment on this post about it.

So over the years from time to time, I’d start a search for these guys and of coarse, I’d go off onto another tangent and never get back. Does that sound familiar to you? Then this afternoon, with nothing else to do, I was eager to find an answer to where The Drivers went to and I found my answer on this particular blog!

Now as it turns out, they transformed themselves into the Cutting Crew! They were a B.C. band that had a couple of hits and disbanded in the mid 90’s. Never to be heard of again … until now!

Keep on Jammin’





The Indaba Musician Networking scene

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The other day my beautiful wife was searching through the net when she came across this musical networking site. This site is called Indaba Music. They state that it is basically a on-line studio that anyone can upload their songs and let other musicians join in to play on it, that’s pretty awesome!

I can see real potential for musicians using this type of exchange/forum. Especially when they are looking for that elusive missing bridge or maybe an end to a chorus you just can’t finish. The opportunity for the real distinctive exchange of ideas for songs and their individual sections are endless! Remember that old saying, like minded people tend to gravitate towards each other. Really!

The networking aspect is great. Indaba stresses to Be Yourself, which has that nice warm, fuzzy feel to it. Like the atmosphere in your favorite coffee shop. The site seems to be set up for the average musician but, there is room for those diamonds in the rough to be found. You never know who you might find on here.

It must be nice to be a musician now a days because of the internet. I distinctly remember having to listen to a drummer over the phone, YES OVER THE PHONE, to determine if it was worth my while driving a fair distance to jam with the guy, to see if he would cut it being in a band with me. In today’s faster evolving musical world, specifically with advent of the internet, no phone is require for band auditions!

The best aspect of this site is the on site forum. You can learn a lot about looking at forums. Upon quickly skimming it, I found that the techies are hard at work. They seem to be answering almost all questions and it seems very active!

While searching through it, I found this psychedelic, Pink Floydish tune called Vibrate, check it out. There is also a list of those who helped out on it and you can contact them if you wish to invite them into your study on a certain song you have in your profile. On this one, there is a female vocalist who helps bring out a beautiful aspect to the song, that was missing in the beginning.

All though I haven’t signed up yet, I think it might be worth the gamble. I might even find someone on the site who is looking for that certain style or sound, that they might require to fill out a song. That’s where the fun of it is, for me that is!

Has anyone out there tried a site similar to this one? Better yet, is someone out there currently using this service and can shed some light on it for me/us?

Keep on Jammin’

Who watches the Grammy Awards

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The Grammy Awards are coming up this Sunday Feb. 8th. Are you going to be watching? Do any of the nominations float your boat? Do you like this kind of thing? Me … not really.

If we do it would be because of some of the acts that will play there on stage. The likes of U2, Radiohead, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (well maybe?), Coldplay and Paul McCartney will team with Foo Fighters singer Dave Grohl. Other then a few other things, nothing really makes me want to check it out.

Over the past couple of years, I have found events like this to be way too self serving. This type of phenomenon is all about fluffy stuff. I feel that it’s for people who love being in the limelight, plus as far as I’m concerned, it shows their true strips! Another thing came to mind about this topic, it appears to be something that the cool kids in school would do to promote themselves while the REST OF US are thinking what the hell was that all about?!

Ok, I can accept that we need some type of celebration of music but, this event goes beyond mind numbingly boring!!!

In some parts of the show, there are too way many diva’s up there kissing each other on the checks for the cameras. The fake oh I missed you so hugs drive one to think, why/what are they doing this for, if clearly they don’t want to be there? I love when they get a close up or an off camera shot of some of the celebrities there and you can tell that in their eyes they’d would rather have another hole in their head, then being up in front of the audience with some phony musician for a that promo photo opt!

On the other hand, there are some musicians who show up and they just roll with everything. They stand out in the crowd like a sore thumb. You just gotta feel sorry for them. They are the ones that you’d like to have a pint with and just chat.

The only one in recent memory that I enjoyed, from a musician point of view was Corinne Bailey Rae, John Legend & John Mayer in the 2007 Grammys. I felt that the song, while a little wimpy, held itself in the category that I hold in high esteem, real love for the music!

I understand, to some degree, of why my wife says that this type of music is sappy but, to honestly pull something like this off live, you have to be pretty good honey! We get into heated debates about music once in a while. My wife leans towards the Punk/classic R & R/Metal scene and I am all that, with a few more styles sprinkled in!

So what is your thoughts about shows like this? Should we love watching them, hoping to find the true musician in the mix OR just not watch them and go with the flow? You be the Judge!

Keep on Jammin’

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