If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. ~ Charlie Parker
Duke Rushmore Band
What the Duke Rushmore Band is Up To: The Cover Song Playlist
May 16th
My band –Duke Rushmore — has been learning a bunch of new songs, working some into our set list (we have a gig next Friday), and it’s fun but difficult to learn new material. Just ask any student, right? Not all of these songs will make it to the final round of being part of our material, but we cast a wide net.
You can check out some of the songs that we are learning with this playlist.
Peace (in the music),
Kevin
Slice of Life: Rocking the House with the Band
Mar 17th
Our first gig was a success! My band, Duke Rushmore, had out first outing last night at a brewery in a nearby town, and about 175 people came out to, eh, “sample” fresh beer by the Paper City Brewing Company and listen to some music. We were a bit nervous, given that this would be our first time before a live bar audience (we did play briefly last year at a benefit concert at my school) on St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
But it was fine. No, it was great. We were mostly pretty tight, and the crowd got into it. We were handing out Duke Rushmore tambourines and shakers, and while the place is not designed for dancing, a few folks did cut the rug for a few songs. Most just held their cups and swayed to the music, and we got a lot of a good feedback from people.
I tried to set up my Flip camera, but I could not get it in a good angle. I’m not sure if we can salvage much of the video footage, but one of the bar dudes jumped up on some kegs and filmed a few songs for us, and then loaded it up to YouTube. The first song is my original song, which is really called “Champagne, Whiskey and the Rhythm and Blues Tonight” but we changed it to “Irish Whiskey.” The problem was that we kept forgetting to switch the words, so we had this funny exchange (you can’t see it on the video) between us singers, looking at each other, like, It’s Irish Whiskey, you fool, and then we were both cracking up.
The second song is our encore, which we hadn’t practiced all that much. The singer thought he would forget the words but they came back to him at the right moment.
Peace (in the rock and the roll),
Kevin
PS — that’s me on the saxophone, by the way.
Slice of Life: A Bit of Woodsheddin’ with the Band
Mar 12th
My rock and roll band — Duke Rushmore — has its first official “gig” coming up on Friday at a local brewpup. It’s a short gig, only two hours long, and so we are working to tighten up our two sets of music. We want to make a good impression, and we have invited the owner of another establishment to come watch us play, in hopes he will hire us, too.
Yesterday afternoon, we spent about three hours working on the songs. I have to say, I think we are as tight as we have ever been. The sets flow nicely, although we continue to make some adjustments, and there is nothing like a performance in front of a live audience to help a band find some focus.
I am the saxophone player, and a back-up singer, and we are playing one of my songs to end the night. We’re most a cover band right now, but I keep pushing for more original material. For now, we are just establishing ourselves as a rock and roll, danceable band, and I think we fit that bill pretty nicely.
Our gig is the night before St. Patrick’s Day in Holyoke, which has a huge concentration of Irish and pseudo-Irish people, and one of the largest St. Paddy Day Parades in New England. We suspect the brew pub might be packed by people flocking home for the parade (and needing a respite from being home with their family), and we have included a few mandolin songs and even renamed our original song from “Champagne, Whiskey and the Rhythm and Blues Tonight” to “Irish Whiskey and the Rhythm and Blues Tonight.” Have you ever seen that Blues Brothers scene where the band goes into a country bar and tries to play the blues? Yeah, we don’t want that to happen to us.
We have one more practice tomorrow night, and then we are rarin’ to go!
Peace (in the rock and in the roll),
Kevin
PS — if you are in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on Friday night, come on down to the Paper City Brewery from 6-8 p.m. The admission at the door gets you free beer and some rock and roll. And be kind to the band!
The New Logo for my Rock and Roll Band
Feb 28th
Isn’t this cool? This is the new logo for my rock and roll band, Duke Rushmore. The drummer designed this and then had it made into a drum head for his drum set. (I just wish there were a saxophone bell in there somewhere …)
Peace (in the music),
Kevin
Photo Opp: The Duke Rushmore Band
Feb 3rd
My rock and roll band — Duke Rushmore – is now gearing up to get gigs, and we have a few possibilities. But they want a photo. So, we took a few of the other night. We don’t look too bad! (That’s me, in the back, with the hat on and the saxophone in hand).
Here is a video from our live performance last year. We’ve gotten a lot tighter since then.
Peace (in the rock and the roll),
Kevin
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