In any case, the following week, she called me and asked if I'd head up a trio for a five hour October 20 corporate job (I sing lead too, but like being a sideman). It would be 3-4 sets, plus two 1/2 hour "shows" with the dancers and fire juggler/eater. It paid $300/musician, and to be honest, although the dough was good, I was reluctant to take it, as I didn't really know ANY of those Hawaiian songs, nor did I speak any Hawaiian. I would also need to put together a 50-60 song book of old standards, too.
Charlie couldn't do it, and she needed someone to sing the tunes, and lead the gig. I would play the rhythm guitar, and a Hawaiian gentleman by the name of Richard Sanft would play steel. We would also have a drummer. Oh yes -- we would also need to learn to play Tahitian percussion for that portion of the show! Fortunately, I played percussion in high school too, so that didn't concern me as much as being the band leader on the gig. I personally LIKE playing sideman.
Dick was employed by Disney, and worked at the Polynesian villiage at Disneyworld for 20 years playing steel in a trio in the restaurant He is now retired, and living here in the Tampa/St.Pete area.
Well, I'm now REALLY glad I accepted the challenge. We did the Hawaiian job yesterday (large corporate affair, complete with Tahitian drums, fire juggler/eater, and hula dancers). It was a total BLAST! Dick played my '56 T-8 and sounded FANTASTIC on it. He really swings. We did lots of Hawaiian standards, old 50's era country, big band swing tunes, etc., and the people loved it. I played alternating bass/rhythm guitar through my bass amp, and it did a very passable job of sounding like a bass player with rhythm guitar on the upbeats. Dick just wailed on my steel, and the drummer made it swing with a lot of great brush work.
Anyway, just wanted to share. The lesson I learned most of all from this is, even when the new musical chanllenge looks HUGE, and maybe even insurmountable, do yourself a favor and TAKE IT ON. I now have about 50 new tunes in my book, a WAAAAY better understanding of singing in Hawaiian, and many more networking connections. To top it off, the event coordinator was THRILLED with us, and has many more bookings to talk with us about, for more BUCKS!
Like they say, NO PAIN, NO GAIN!
TJW
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Todd James Weger/RD/RTD
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (Amaj9, C6, A6); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6) through an old Super Reverb or Deluxe; Melobar SLS lapsteel (open G); Chandler RH-4 Koa semi-hollow lapsteel (A6)
