1986-1989
There’s not an awful lot I can say about this band. We called ourselves “Live Band” because that’s usually what it said out front of whatever dive we were playing in. We never actually had a name. We did briefly consider calling ourselves “Free Beer”, but figured we’d be less likely to get our asses kicked with “Live Band” because, well, it was at least partially true.
This “band” was mostly a phantom. Carl Weisner would occasionally line up a gig and then put together a band to play it. While there were different configurations, for the most part the people I’ve listed were the mainstays. And, well, I can’t remember the names of some of the other people who played with us.
Whatever songs I didn’t play in Legend I played in Live Band, which pretty much represents the width of breadth of my experience with Country music. I learned quickly that once you know about three different patterns, you know at least 80% of the Country songs ever written. At least as far as bass goes.
I enjoyed playing with Live Band. It was a good excuse to occasionally get out of the house. We never practiced and had only minimal equipment. So it was low stress. We never really made any money. But we’d often get free beer. Which is a good thing. Otherwise, there would have been no point for me.
In the end I stopped playing these Carl Weisner gigs because the $20 or so I’d make from it just wasn’t enough of an incentive for me to go out and play a bunch of songs I didn’t really care for. I think I realized very early on that whatever lessons I might learn from playing Country music I had pretty much learn in the first three or four gigs.
Still, I value the experience of playing with Live Band. It actually set the stage for several years of my development to come, when I would play with a dizzying array of different bands and musicians, often without ever knowing their names. Jumping into the deep end with Live Band, playing hastily arranged gigs with literally no practice, hearing songs for the first time often as I was playing them live on stage, gave me a soft introduction into a world of improvisation that would server me so well later.
However I might minimize the importance of Live Band in my overall development, I sometimes wonder if I would have otherwise had the nerve in later years to walk on-stage with people I literally met an hour before a gig.
Members
- Danny Bridges – guitar, backing vocals
- Wicasta Lovelace – bass, backing vocals
- Carl Weisner – drum, vocals
