Any one here get to play with high caliber artist?

[Louis]

Was watching the HIFI channel last night. Tina turner was on who I've seen twice in the 80's .She is now in her the seventies and does a heck of a job still.A one point she was sitting down and there was one guy on each side of her playing acoustic Taylor's. It got me to asking if any one hanging around here has played in this type of professional  gigs.

[cigarfan]

I play along with my CDs ... doe that count?   

[CodeBlueEMT]

 Was that Tina Turner sitting next to me? 

[PTC Bernie]

You mean like Ted Nugent (double entendre intended).

[briguysm]

I toured for 2 years when I was 18. I didn't play guitar back then, but I sang with some cool people...and some not so cool. I quit (the label let me out of my contract) before the band really went anywhere huge, but we got to meet all kinds of people.

I really get more starry eyed over meeting writers who wrote huge hit songs than to meet the "artist" that performs it, honestly. I sat with way more talented dudes in their basements in Nashville than I met talented artists on stage. Maybe that's why I never liked that whole thing (fame and all that)...there's just more authenticity in some places behind the scenes than there is on stage many times.

Maybe someone else can weigh in, but that's a vague snapshot of my experience. lol

[imorroy]

Election Eve 2008, Alexandria, VA.  My band played at City Hall, on the stage in the plaza outside.  At some point, my Congressman asked for the mic to introduce Joan Baez who was in the audience.  Ms. Baez came up on stage, and I asked her if she wanted to use my guitar.  She didn't, but didn't mind me playing while she sang Amazing Grace.  After the show, we had our picture taken with her, while she told us that she danced to our music (pop music with a Latin/Caribbean twist)!

[Louis]

That's interesting guys, I play with a super guitar player who played in Nashville  Vince Gill ,Steve Warner who's his friend and many more and told me Nashville wasn't what it' s cracked up to be and got more enjoyment just playing around and jamming.Some of them are really hard to play with he said.

[Guitar Rodeo]

I can drop a few names here. I have been extremely fortunate to have played with lots of superb players. In my halcyon youth, I played the Detroit Jazz Festival (1978) in performance with Lionel Hampton and Marion McPartland, and performed extensively with a legend of the thirties, Jabbo Smith. This was when I played guitar and banjo with The Wolverines Classic Jazz Orchestra. I played a lot of three finger bluegrass banjo too.  In the early seventies, I found myself with Jerry Garcia and Bob Wier at a music party and we jammed until dawn, Jerry on the banjo and Bob on the guitar. THAT was fun..... I performed with a couple of local guys (Peter Ostroushko and Mike Cass) quite a bit and we were the back up band and/or opening band for notables such as Vassar Clements, Frank Wakefield, John Hartford, Norman Blake, New Grass Revival, Country Gazette, etc. Tim O'Brien lived here in Minneapolis back then and I played with him a lot. Of course, to all you hot-shot guitar players, these names might not mean much, but these guys could pick. In the uber-folk bluegrass world, they were super hot. Jethro Burns, the greatest mandolinist of the twentieth century (true) used to come to town and we would get together with him after his gigs and play music until the wee hours. There are more names, too..... I had an unbelievably fortunate early musical life and playing music with the heavy weight players is amazing. They have nothing to prove and love to pick with competent players. It is an unbelievable feeling to have Vassar Clements in your little South Minneapolis apartment at 3 in the morning, standing next to him as he plays a Bill Monroe classic-oh, that would be the classic that Vassar recorded with Bill back in the 50's......

[Gutch]

...And another layer of the onion is peeled away, exposing yet one more wonderful and interesting facet of that complex and colorful man we know fondly as, "Jim"...   


Very cool stories -- Thanks for sharing!

[lmacmil]

Never played with anyone famous but I've played with guys that were so much better than I am, I wanted to burn my guitars!

[dmccrider]

.....In the early seventies, I found myself with Jerry Garcia and Bob Wier at a music party and we jammed until dawn, Jerry on the banjo and Bob on the guitar. THAT was fun.....

I've jammed with Jerry and Bobby too!!........ but I always hated the part where I'd wake up ha ha great story

[Louis]

Well Jim if you played jazz festivals and with Garcia you have to be a long ways from being a slouch . And yes IMAC if we let ourselve being intimatated on the talent we see on u-tube and some we get to play with i agree with you we'd burn our guitars .

[cigarfan]

...And another layer of the onion is peeled away, exposing yet one more wonderful and interesting facet of that complex and colorful man we know fondly as, "Jim"...   


Very cool stories -- Thanks for sharing!

+1 ^^  Good to know you a little better Jim!

Kinda makes ya want to buy a guitar from the guy, ya know?   

[briguysm]

Lol...I'm glad I didn't name drop at all. You guys probably would have laughed at the people I've been on stage with...as I have never even heard of a single name mentioned in this thread. Nor have I heard of most of the "festivals" or events or venues mentioned. We're in two different worlds.

I guess I refrained from name dropping because, while the people I've played with were probably more widely known and more famous than the people you all have mentioned, they are also embarrassingly less talented. I may not know the names of all the über talented pickers from the 50's, or the legends that still make young fools like me look silly, but I am acutely aware that music and "artists" today aren't what they used to be. I refuse to add to the disgrace that is today's "fame" by mentioning these people when there are stories like Jim's about REAL players who have a career based on musical ability rather than pop culture hype. Maybe I sound a bit cynical.

The only REALLY talented guy I've played on the same stage with recently was Michael Gungor. That guy is a freak of nature. Look him up if you've never heard of him. He'll admit he doesn't have the strongest vocals, but he can pretty much play anything that makes sound and some things that don't. He's technically a Christian artist, but his music isn't lame, as most CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) is. In fact, his one big quarrel with the Christian music industry is that people are surprised when his music is complex, well composed, and interesting. He absolutely rejects the idea that Christian music is expected to be boring or cheesy. Some of you will know what I'm talking about.

Incredible creative mind for writing and always thinking outside the box. Nice guy too.

[madx2]

The only "high caliber artist" I have had the opportunity to play with is someone you probably don't know but ask any big name artist in Nashville and they will know him.  His name is Carl Jackson.  Google him or look on Youtube.  He wrote two songs on the Garth Brooks album that sold 13 million copies, the song "Little Mountain Church House" made a hit by Ricky Scaggs and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and many others.

Let me be clear, I am a hack of a guitar play.   I buzz strings playing a "C" chord but Carl was gracious the whole evening while we (several friends and I) picked songs he has played with the biggest names in country music.  A super classy, down to earth man.

As luck would have it, he is going to be on The Joey and Rory Show sunday night (Jan 20) 9:30 pm central time on the RFD channel.  I think you have to have Dish Network to pick up the show.  It is on channel 231...at least it is here.