tag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:/blogs/just-saying...just saying2021-10-04T21:25:35-04:00John Sterlingfalsetag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/67662032021-10-04T21:25:35-04:002023-10-16T10:44:42-04:00Rockin' Leesburg<p>Silver Lining had a wonderful time at Black Walnut Brewery, Friday, Oct 1. Everyone was so nice and we really hope we'll be back in there. It's outdoors, though, so it's going to have to wait until spring. Look for announcements and we'll see you then!</p>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/49215372017-11-06T18:17:28-05:002022-02-07T10:39:35-05:00Focusrite Scarlett 18i20<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width:700px;"><tbody> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/57336/314eac931c053251ea490e3795fc13d2e62c818b/medium/18i20-product-page-img1.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></td> <td> <p><span class="font_large"><span style="color:#c0392b;">Nov 6, 2017</span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><span class="font_large">Added to the arsenal is the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 with 8 mic pres and a total of 18 inputs and 20 outputs. This now gives me the mobility to take the mulitrack recording to the band. I'm very much looking forward to recording Cargo and the Heavy Lifters at rehearsals along with Silver Lining and Wildman. </span></span></p> </td> </tr>
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<p> </p>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/39065932015-11-01T14:08:42-05:002017-01-14T10:58:21-05:00Silver Lining on the move!<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width:850px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 75px; vertical-align: top;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/57336/5cd0623eba1ac418c898e969f6411a8fa8877314/medium/11149535-1072757399413572-3245742582132451384-n-1.jpg?1439511534" class="size_m justify_left border_" /></td> <td style="text-align: left; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color:#B22222;">November 1, 2015 - <br> <br> <strong>Silver Lining</strong> is really starting to pick up steam. After the<strong> Takoma Park</strong> concerts, we were mentioned on Channel 9's news broadcast as a good example of the kinds of cool things happening in <strong>Takoma Park</strong> all the time. We are very grateful for that mention - although none of us actually saw the broadcast, it was described to us by people who did see it. <br> Bass player <strong>Bill Seeger</strong> did a great job of working a booking at <strong>Velocity 5 Sterling</strong>, Friday, November 13th and we are extremely excited about this gig. We of course are hoping it materializes into several more shows there coming up in 2016. We've been steady adding new material, great songs and all with our own, original arraignments that breathe new life into wonderful music from the past. <br> Also, <strong>O'Shaughnessy's</strong> in Alexandria has asked up to play Saturday, November 28 - the week end of Thanksgiving and we're very excited about that. This is a wonderful, comfortable bar off King Street in Old Town that is starting to become the flagship live music venue in Alexandria. <strong>Silver Lining</strong> is very proud to be a part of that growth. <br> So, mark your calendars, and plan to have a lot of fun. <strong>Silver Lining</strong> is a very special band, a very special combination of musicians, talent and experience. The band is far different than what most are used to seeing in the D.C. Metro market. </span></td> </tr>
</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/38228452015-08-17T17:59:08-04:002017-01-14T10:58:21-05:00Silver Lining live in Takoma Park<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width:800px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 300px;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/57336/5cd0623eba1ac418c898e969f6411a8fa8877314/medium/11149535-1072757399413572-3245742582132451384-n-1.jpg?1439511534" class="size_m justify_left border_" /></td> <td style="text-align: left; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color:#B22222;">August 8, 2015 -<br> <br> Silver Lining at the Old Town Gazebo in Takoma Park. It was hot, 92 degrees but nobody felt it at all. In the shade of towering trees and under the cover of the old 1920's gazebo facing Carroll Ave, the band ran through a lot of it's repertoire. What a wonderful afternoon! The band really sounded great. Volumes were in the right place, the mix on the bandstand was perfect. Bill son Chris was out in the audience and had a lot of very positive things to say about the sound out front. Scores of people stopped as they walked by stayed to listen. We were very happy about the gig. How it sounded, how each of us played, and how the performance when. We will be back there again int September and again in October and we're really looking forward to it!</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 350px;"> </td> <td> </td> </tr>
</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/36658412015-04-19T10:12:44-04:002017-01-14T10:58:21-05:00The Deacons at Paradiso, 4/18<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 750px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 25px; vertical-align: top;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/57336/f7b4a270f3b3460e30033cf2f291a59f9ef24d16/medium/limo1-1.jpeg?1428710691" class="size_m justify_left border_" /></td> <td style="vertical-align: top;">
<span style="color:#cc0000;">Full House! All gigs are good. Some maybe better than others, some not so much. But there's fun and learning in every gig. Last night there was a huge amount of both. Having the room filled with wonderful friends and music lovers, makes playing exciting and worth all the effort you have to put in to be proud of what you are doing. And that is nothing but fun, man. Our friend <strong>Randy McCargo</strong> sat in for two songs, one of which was a <strong>Chris Polk</strong> staple "Feels Like Rain" (<strong>John Haitt / Buddy Guy</strong>) I've heard Randy sing before, but this song means something to him, and of course means something to me too. Both of us play that song like we're playing it for Chris. Randy tore it up. That song turned magic. I'm so glad Charles captured it on recording and I can't wait to hear it. A wonderful and delightful singer friend of Charles',<strong> Ann Todaro,</strong></span><span style="color:#cc0000;"> came up and did two songs, one of which was "You Can Have My Husband But Please Don't Mess With My Man' which is a total favorite of mine. Ann tore it up and the crowd loved her. I'm sure we be seeing a lot more of her and her band coming up at the <strong>Zoo Bar</strong>, <strong>JV's</strong>, <strong>219</strong>. <br> I took the chance and brought my<strong> Blues Deville</strong> amplifier on this gig. I'm getting the feeling the problem I'm getting with the squealing comes from the reverb tub that I replaced a while back. The tub is fine but there's something going wrong with the circuitry in the amp and I can't isolate it. At home I disconnected the reverb and used and outside reverb pedal, <strong>TC Electronic's</strong> <strong>"Hall of Fame"</strong>. The verb sounded great and guess what? No intermittent squealing any time during the gig! Maybe I'm on to something?</span>
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</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/36632512015-04-17T12:30:17-04:002017-01-14T10:58:21-05:00Silver Lining releases a 6 song demo<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 675px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 30px; vertical-align: top;"> <div class="captioned justify_left"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/57336/487eb92b7e4530d35822ccb7214e63914b88eade/small/front-cover-cropped.jpg?1428709813" class="size_orig justify_left border_" /><p class="caption">Silver Lining's 6 song demo</p></div> </td> <td style="text-align: left; vertical-align: top;"> <span style="color:#cc0000;"> <strong>Silver Lining</strong> has released a new 6 song demo CD, available for free at live shows or mailed upon request. Songs include: Born Under A Bad Sign, Congo Square, Just A Little Bit, Stone Free, Feeling Alright and Chevrolet. Drums were recorded at <strong>Mike Terpak</strong>'s studio in Great Falls, Va. Guitars, Bass and Vocals were recorded at John Sterling's home studio and <strong>Eamon Loftus</strong>' studio in Fairfax, Va. Final mix and rough mastering were done by<strong> Eamon Loftus</strong> as well. The band thanks Mike and Eamon for all their work and wonderful talent that they put into this project. Silver Lining continues to work in the studio with several new original songs as well as some new creatively re-vamped covers. The next release, targeted for Spring of 2016 will include these 6 songs and 7 or 8 additional songs as well.</span>
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</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/34200232014-12-19T18:06:54-05:002014-12-19T18:06:54-05:00The Deacons at Colonial Tavern<span style="color:#33ccff;">After a highly successful debut at the Tavern in November, The Deacons are all set to go again Saturday, Dec 20th for the Christmas show. 9:00, at "The Home Of The Irish Brigade" in old town Fredericksburg. </span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/27589782014-03-17T09:33:48-04:002017-01-14T10:58:21-05:00The Shure SM-27 for sure, for sure!<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 675px;"><tbody>
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<span style="color:#800000;">3/17/14: </span><br><span style="color:#800000;">Just picked up a great new microphone from Musician's Friend. It's the Shure SM-27, a great condenser microphone I plan on using for vocals on all my home studio work. The frequency response is amazing - so much better than the mic I have been using - a no name condenser mic made in China on loan to me from Charles Mitchell. The 27 was recommended to me by my friend and audio engineer Eamon Loftus who said he has two of them. It's great, I'm glad I bought it but the problem is, now that I can hear every nuance of my voice I don't like my voice even more! It's a good thing I also acquired some new high powered EQ plug-ins for my Reaper DAW and I already have a nice pitch corrector plug-in that I probably should'd tell people about!</span>
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</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/20186642013-11-09T11:12:14-05:002017-01-14T10:58:21-05:00Silver Lining Demo getting closer!<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 750px;"><tbody>
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<td style="width: 50px;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/57336/f0dfb1a7da13de974ec714883c39c2efd97ba6b2/medium/reaperview.jpg?1384009922" class="size_m justify_left border_" /></td> <td style="text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom;"><span style="color:#800000;"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11/9/13: <strong>Silver Lining</strong> is making great progress with it’s 6 song demo CD: drum tracks are recorded, bass is finished in all but two of the songs. One more night of tracking and the bass is done and we’re all ready to lay down the guitar and vocal tracks. <span class="font_regular"> </span></span><span class="font_regular">Even now, when I line up the new</span> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>Morgan Norris</strong> drum tracks and the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>Bill Seeger</strong> bass tracks lined up with the instrument scratch tracks I did earlier,</span></span></td> </tr>
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<td colspan="2"> <p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="color:#800000;"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the songs with the preliminary scratch tracks sound almost good enough to release now! But those tracks were recorded by me, with some amplifier modeling software and some other computer plug-ins. When I re-record these tracks with a great microphone up to my actual rig I know the guitar tracks will really pop. Eamon Loftus, the production engineer that is overseeing the recording is truly a wizard at this. I can’t say enough about how much his work has raised this recording to a level I could never have gotten it to. And the total learning experience is priceless. As I’m saying to everyone involved, this recording and producing is not going to end with this demo CD. It’s just the beginning of numerous productions of not just <strong>Silver Lining</strong> but original projects with all my friends from the <strong>Deacons</strong>, <strong>Wildman</strong>, <strong>Full Mesh, </strong>and more. </span></span></p> </td> </tr>
</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/9051382013-06-09T11:53:19-04:002013-06-09T11:53:19-04:00Full Mesh at Wounded Warriors Benefit Festival, The Plains, Va<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153);"> 6/9/13: Full Mesh had a great time yesterday at an outdoor festival in The Plains, Va to benefit the Wounded Warriors. This was the second annual festival out there and it was a wonderfully run beautifully managed festival. We played third, after two very fine music acts on the stage. I had to bring my Marshall, which was a little large for this purpose but that’s ok - it sounded awesome! And I needed the wattage it turns out, to get “on top” when I needed to. We only did a 45 minute set and hey - I kinda liked that! Except right when you’re feeling like everything is finally dialed in, the set is over but other that that it was cool. Before we started playing at 1:00, I had time to some great BBQ from a family out in Brandywine. Wonderful country spice sausage and North Carolina pulled pork. The I had a cicada go down in my shirt at the most inopportune time... let’s just say it was a good thing the porta-potty was well stabilized! At least it didn’t happen while I was up there playing...</span><br>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/4918372013-04-09T00:00:00-04:002017-01-14T10:58:19-05:00Dogfish Head Alehouse <table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 750px;" width="450"><tbody>
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<td width="50"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/57336/b42cae0e56cabe47c01fba8f534182798646d67c/thumb/DFAH-Logo.jpg?1380557237" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="72" width="125" /></td> <td style="text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom;"><span style="color:#800000;">4/9/13: Dogfish Head Alehouse on Saturday was a wonderful night! We had a little more room and time to set up compared to the last time we were in there. And a lot of wonderful friends came out to see us. We had a great time. The Marshall was cranking, Morgan was in top form.</span></td> </tr>
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<span style="color:#800000;">A guy from the audience came up and was raving about how good he thought Morgan was. Real nice to hear someone say that. I did feel a need for some different material in places. I have a good idea of what I want to add. This means back to the mp3 player, write a few arrangements and rehearse some new songs for the list that will be specific for Dogfish’s crowd. That’s the fun of doing this stuff. Learning new material, putting it together with everyone’s input and making it new and fun. </span><br> </td> </tr>
</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/3408402013-03-04T09:00:00-05:002017-01-14T10:58:19-05:00Wildman Transformation<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 800px;" width="450"><tbody>
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<td style="width: 100px;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/57336/ecc96ae514e8af0e32b18a45d2250bd9f896d968/thumb/085-Painting-copy.jpg?1380557237" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="83" /></td> <td style="text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153);">Long time friend and bass player for <b>The Deacons</b> (The Blues Deacons, Reverend Jake and the Blues Deacons, etc.)<b> John</b> <b>O'Connor</b> (aka Reverend Jake) is teaming up with <b>Charles Mitchell, Geoff Holdridge</b> and I to consolidate the two bands, <b>Wildman and The Deacons</b> into a whole new project of quality Americana music. Coming with him also from <b>The Deacons</b> is <b>Jim Wilson</b>, (Keys, guitar, slide guitar and vocals) to add a fifth player to the mix. The working name right now is <b>“</b><b>The New Deacons”</b>. In two rehearsals we’ve built a list so far of</span></td> </tr>
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<td align="left" colspan="2" valign="top"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153);">more that 20 songs, which is testament to the abilities of this group of elite musicians. Our “quality control” test of music selection is to very rarely repeat material we already do in the other two bands, <b>Wildman and The Deacons</b>. Most of this list so far is new stuff - and we’re having a huge amount of fun putting it together and hearing it for the first time. we’ve started preliminary booking inquiries already, and hope to start playing as early as April or May. Announcements will be made as to upcoming events as soon as they materialize! See you soon!<br> </span></td> </tr>
</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/2809592013-01-15T06:55:00-05:002022-01-01T18:40:47-05:00"Now we know..."
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1/12/13: Saturday night. Dogfish Head Alehouse in Fairfax. Silver Lining’s debut gig. This is the one we’ve been getting ready for, rehearsing for. If we get through this one, if we get this behind us, well then we’ll know. We’ll know if we can hear each other on stage. We’ll know if we can handle someone making a mistake. We’ll know if the crowd is going to even care about what we’re trying to do. The place was packed. And for some reason,</span></td>
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<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153);"> I was not the least bit worried. Or even nervous! We – Morgan Norris, Bill Seeger and I were so hyped up to play we couldn’t wait. Yes, we had to squeeze through a crowd of partiers to get our gear up there, yes we had to string cables all over the place in a big hurry, and yes we started playing the second we were done setting up but it was all good – we played great I think, and the crowd was really loving it! We had a blast! It’s all about fun, and that’s what we had. The band was rockin’, the room was rockin’ and we played and extra half an hour. We are so ready for the next one! It’s done now – the first one – and as Bill says “Now we know”</span><br type="_moz">
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</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/2197782012-09-25T14:40:00-04:002017-01-14T10:58:19-05:00Wildman in Rock Mode<table width="400" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"><tbody>
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<td width="200" valign="bottom"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">9/23/12: The day after the gig at <b>Cafe Mezzanotte</b> with <b>Wildman</b>. My usual workhorse amp for gigs, the<b> Fender Blues Hot Rod DeVille</b>, has not been acting right lately. I think I’m losing the preamp circuit... as if it keeps cutting in and out. And when it does, it has a high pitched whine that is totally not needed!</span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">So while I’m clearing out some room in my schedule long enough to take the amp into<b> <a href="http://www.vikingamps.com" target="_new">Viking Amplifier’s</a> Eric Summers</b> for repair, I decided to use the<b> Marshall</b> for this gig. Now, this is a lounge so it looks kind of funny going in there with a<b> Marshall</b>. But I use a 2x12 speaker cabinet, not a 4/12 like people are used to seeing. I did hold the volume down a lot (this head is 100 watts) but I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded! I may use it a lot more! I was worried it would be too “rock” sounding but I was wrong. It cleaned up very nicely. Maybe it was the <b>Celesion Vintage 30s</b> <b>Eamon Loftus</b> helped me put in, I donno. I have a <b>Full Mesh</b> gig coming up in October - I’m going to use it for that gig and see if I like it for the radio rock kind of stuff those guys do. I have a feeling I will. I’ll let you’all know.<br>
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</tbody></table><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); "> </span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/2005632012-08-16T08:40:18-04:002012-08-16T08:40:18-04:00Silver Lining is out of the starting gates!<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); "> 8/11/12: Well... we did it. And loved it. <b>Silver Lining</b> cranked up in front of actual people at <b><a href="http://www.spankyspub.com/" target="_new">Spanky's Shenanigans</a></b> in our very first show since this big idea first came up. Rehearsals, song selections, equipment purchases, practice locations, music charts, promo - a million pieces all trying to come together to get the first one under our belt. Good News: We had a blast, and it came off very well! A lot of people came up to us afterwards and told us they dug us, when they really didn’t have to. Bad News: We played like it was our first gig. So we are looking forward to our 5th or 10th or 100th gig because we’re only going to get tighter and tighter!</span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1714642012-05-22T12:15:00-04:002017-01-14T10:58:19-05:00User friendly monitor mixes
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<td><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">5/22/12: <b>Full Mesh</b> at Lion and Bull, Haymarket. Funasallgetout! I got there too early - that’s ok. That gave me a bunch of time to mess around and set up. This gig, there’s a house sound system and a tech, real great guy and wonderful sound technician named Matt.</span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">Matt likes to put a plexiglass shield around the drums, then get the guitar players to turn down to almost nothing, then pump everything up in the mains and monitors. That’s fine - and what ever is good for the room is good for us. As long as the room is happy, yaknowwhatimean? The thing you have to watch out for with this strategy is it’s easy to end up with all the instruments in the monitor mix, which is fine if you are playing in a room large enough for your own separate monitor mix that you can customize for yourself. With small P.A.s, there’s only one mix - everyone hears the same mix. If the sound guy tweeks the mix out for the drummer, who is behind a plexiglass shield remember, what we get out front is a face full of guitars. In my perfect world, the only thing in the monitor mix is vocals. Only. I have a perfect monitor for my guitar right behind me. It’s a Fender Blues DeVille Hot Rod Black Face with 2- 12” speakers, 60 watts. Turned way up high on just a hair above 1. Not even on 2. I’m just saying, I think the vocals - and I’ve said this before - the vocals have to be on top... Not in the mix so the guy singing has to scream all night until his voice is totally blown out but <i>way</i> <i>up</i> on top of the mix. Can’t do that when there’s two guitars and a bass all in the monitor mix all night. It was definitely a good sound we had, and the band was tight as all get out. Can’t wait to get back in there - hopefully soon! <br type="_moz"></span></td>
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</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1683742012-05-15T06:51:22-04:002017-01-14T10:58:19-05:00Kept in the dark...<table width="450" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"><tbody>
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<td><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">5/15/12: Mushroom Musician. That’s what I am. I don’t even care anymore! Sunday I had a gig with <b>Wildman</b> at a new, great place for us,<b> The Water’s Edge</b> in Occoquan, Va. Right on the Occoquan river at a marina restaurant/bar with a beautiful boats, a great two tiered outdoor deck and three bars. Really cool gig right? </span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">The thing about it was, nobody in the whole room, nobody that worked there - not even the interim manager - could figure out how to turn on the lights to the inside bandstand where we were playing. We played from 4:00 to 8:00 (remember Sunday was Mother’s Day) and by 6:00 it was getting pretty dark up there. By 7:00 I defy anyone to see any band in the room at all playing. That’s ok, we don’t need to “see” to play. There was a time when that would’ve bothered me, but you know what? I don’t even care anymore! Funny thing was I noticed none of the other guys had a problem playing either. I thought that was cool. I mean we were all shaking our heads and there was quite a bit of eye rolling going on, but I guess we’re to the point that we don’t even complain anymore about this stuff. Every single gig has it’s own little cutesy nuance, why should I think this one should be any different? It’s all fun! Next gig, <b>Full Mesh</b> at <b>Lion And Bull</b> in Haymarket. I know they know how to turn their lights on!<br type="_moz"></span></td>
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</tbody></table><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); "> </span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1598832012-04-22T16:45:00-04:002017-01-14T10:58:19-05:00Standing Room Only<table width="450" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"><tbody>
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<td><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">4/22/2012: I was just thinking about last night, <b>Wildman</b> played at <b>Cafe Mezzanotte</b> again. I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve played there now but the thing is, the number of people in the room for our shows are getting greater and greater. We were told last night that the room had to turn away a number of parties due to the lounge being filled to capacity. I’ve gotta commend the management there - most rooms just let ‘em all in, and </span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">hope the fire marshal doesn’t write them up for over capacity. Well if it is true that they were filled, that means the business formula is working! They pay us minimum wage, and all the profit from the booze and food checks go straight in their pockets! That’s ok, It’s up to us to fill our calendar with gigs that pay better, then we can attrition out the lower paying rooms. When you see <b>Cafe Mezzanotte</b> fall off our calendar, you can figure that’s what happened. We still love to play the room. We love the people - the management are great guys. A lot of the band’s pay is a result of the size of the room they have to work with. They can only get so many people in there!<br><b> Wildman</b> is doing a huge amount of bantering back and forth about getting additional rooms and doing a big push for booking. I go out of town for a couple weeks to visit family, but as soon as I get back <b>Wildman</b> will be pushing very hard to pick up three or four additional rooms by mid summer.<br type="_moz"></span></td>
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</tbody></table><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); "> </span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1583502012-04-17T13:25:00-04:002017-01-14T10:58:19-05:00Good Room, Good Band<br>
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<td><span style="color: #666699">4/17/12: Band update. <b>Wildman</b> rocked the 6 or 7 people at the American Legion Post Number 10 in Manassas, Virginia on Saturday night! Just kidding - there was 20 or 30 people there and all of them were the nicest people one could hope for. The thing about the room, though, was it was a great sounding room. </span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: #666699">Maybe it was the low acoustic ceiling tile or maybe it was the combination of the ceiling tile and the ceramic tile floor, the size and shape or the room, or all of the above, but up on the bandstand we all could hear each other extremely well and no one was too loud and it all blended beautifully. As a result - we were hot. I say this all the time in my “John Sterling, The Lecture Series” - when the band sounds good to you as you play, if you can hear everyone well and not too loud, then you start making music, start playing off of each other and playing to the very best of your ability. And when the whole band does that... look out. Next Saturday night, we are back again at Cafe Mezzanotte in Severna Park, MD. That’s another great sounding room so I know <b>Wildman</b> will be totally rolling. I really am looking forward to it!</span></td>
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</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1506362012-03-23T02:47:09-04:002017-01-14T10:58:19-05:00Guitar Jonesin’!
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<td><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">3/21/12: Just got back from a beautiful ski trip to Lake Tahoe, while I was there 2 to 4 feet of snow dumped on the mountain. Did I say snow? I meant to say “champagne powder”. Did I mention Lake Tahoe, the most beautiful place on earth as seen from freshly snow covered ski resort looking down at the lake from 10,000 feet? And the thing I kept thinking about the whole time I was out there was I wish I had brought a guitar to play. I was detoxing from playing and that is rough, man. <br type="_moz"></span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">When you do something every single day, and you spend a great deal of time focusing on this one thing, you can really tell when it’s unavailable all of a sudden. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just a major diversion to your thinking process. I have five minutes to wait for someone to get ready for something? Oh wow... no guitar. TV show is totally boring? Wait... there’s no guitar here. 11:00 at night and you’re not sleepy yet? Damn. Guess what. I can’t practice that slow dreamy lullaby thingy I have been playing and sort of writing for the last year until I practically fall asleep sitting on the couch with my Les Paul in my hands and my head hanging down almost to my knees and snoring. Maybe that’s the value of going on vacations. It forces you to actually think of something else, something you haven’t already programed your mind for, some new experiences that makes you think. And when I got back - guess what? The first thing I did was pick up what ever guitar was closest and went on auto-play for like an hour. Putting my skis and boots away out of the middle of the living room can wait.<br type="_moz"></span></td>
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</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1364212012-01-28T07:20:00-05:002022-02-07T10:40:40-05:00New Toys! Knobs to turn, buttons to push!
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1/28/12: It’s a little after the fact I know, but I was just thinking about my last gig with <b>Full Mesh</b>, Jan 21 at the <b>Carpool</b> in Herndon. The cool thing about this gig was it was the first gig with Brad’s new sound board, the <b><a target="_new" href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/presonus-studiolive-16.4.2-digital-mixer">Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2</a></b>. The 16.4.2 is a digital mixing board that can be used as a live sound reinforcement mixing console or a studio work station for a DAW </span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">(digital audio workstation). This thing is pretty awesome in how easy it is to customize monitor mixes and save room EQ’s for future use. Brad and Eamon set the whole thing up, tweaked out the room, and saved all the settings for the next time we do <b>Carpool</b>. And after the first couple of songs, when we got it tweaked out, I don’t know too much about how it sounded out front but from where I was standing on stage right, that was one of the best mixes I’ve had playing in a long time. Many, many thanks to E and B's friend Jay for his expertise in mixing us out as we played. Coulda used more of my vocals in the mix - but then again I coulda moved the monitor closer to me too and I didn’t. Next time that will happen. Remember monitor placement! And I think there was more room to pump up my vox in the monitor mix also but I didn’t ask. Guess I’m so used to screaming my vocals all the time that I just thought it was normal, I donno. Next gig, February 11 with <b>Wildman</b> at <b>Occoquan Inn</b> in Occoquan, Va.</span></td>
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</tbody></table>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1322832012-01-06T13:50:00-05:002017-01-14T10:58:18-05:00Checking, one... two...<br>
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<td width="200"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">1/6/12: Now this will be real interesting! I picked up a <a target="_new" href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/tascam-dr-07mkii-handheld-digital-recorder"><b>Tascam</b> <b>DR-07 mkII</b></a> yesterday at <b><a target="_new" href="http://stores.guitarcenter.com/Fairfax">Guitar Center</a></b>. This is a hand help recorder that has 2 gigs of memory chip in it and will hook up perfectly to my JamHub. The plan is to record all these rehearsals. All of them. There’s a LOT of real good music being played at these rehearsals that no one ever gets to hear again.</span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">Never again will this stuff get lost. Unless I want it to! The real reason is I can make some nice quick recordings of the band, splice the best parts together using ProTools and hopefully come up with a pretty decent tracks for promo and booking. Of course - anything really good will be posted to the web site for free download!<br type="_moz"></span></td>
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</tbody></table><br type="_moz"><br>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1279712011-12-11T12:50:00-05:002017-01-14T10:58:18-05:00Jam-frickin'-Hub Baby!!<table width="400" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"><tbody>
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<td width="500" valign="bottom"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">OK, it’s <b>JamHub</b> time! This is the coolest invention, I wish someone had come up with this a long time ago. Today I used it for the first time even though I’ve had it for months. With my drum pads, and the <b>ME-70</b> guitar effect set up, mics and headphones for everyone, we had a full blown rehearsal today basically silent.<br type="_moz"></span></td>
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<td colspan="2" width="500"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); "> Well, except for my singing and <b>Morgan’s</b> drum pad pounding. Hopefully my neighbors heard nothing (not that I care). But under the headphones <b>Bill</b>, <b>Morgan</b> and I heard pretty much a regular rehearsal. Only we got to turn down whoever was obnoxious without hurting any one's feelings! The good part is no body was the least bit obnoxious! IT WAS KICKIN’! <b>Silver Lining</b> is going to be a great project. Great band. With great music and great musicians. I am pumped! Three or four more rehearsals and we’ll be all set to start booking. Right after the first of the year. I am officially declaring <b>Silver Lining</b> at about 80% ready for the road! <br type="_moz"><br type="_moz"></span></td>
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John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1269192011-12-06T12:30:00-05:002017-01-14T10:58:18-05:00Wadda ya do when there's nothing to do?
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<td><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">Here’s what I always get worried about but I really never need to worry - I won’t have anything to work on when the bands take a hiatus. Both <b>Wildman</b> and <b>Full Mesh</b> deliberately took the months of November and December off, and that actually is perfect for me too.</span></td>
</tr></tbody></table><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">I have a million songs to learn for the <b>Silver Lining Blues Band</b>, six or ten new songs and compositions to write, mega guitar techniques to practice until my fingers drop off. Just for the new band alone, I have rehearsals to arrange, equipment to configure, phones calls to make - all kinds of footwork to do. I will be so glad to do that first gig after New Years - Jan 7 at <b>Cafe Mezzanotte</b> with <b>Wildman</b> - I mean it will feel so good to play, but I really needed this time to put to good use. I’m sure by the time the off-season is over, I’ll still have thousands of things I’ll still need to do, but oh well, the show must go on!</span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1238182011-11-17T05:25:00-05:002017-01-14T10:58:18-05:00Screaming!<br><table width="400" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" align="left"><tbody>
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<td width="150" valign="bottom"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">11/17/11: Last night - and this is awesome, with <b>Eamon</b> <b>Loftus</b>’ help we loaded two <b>Celestion</b> Vintage 30s into my <b>Marshall</b> 2x12 cab. We took out the <b>Peaveys</b> someone had loaded in there before I bought it at <b>Guitar Center</b>, used, like about 4 years ago.</span></td>
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<td colspan="2"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">This is the cabinet they told me at the time was loaded with <b>Celestion</b> 12 75s and then three months later I noticed the back had been taken off so I frantically remove the back to reveal... gasp... someone had kept the <b>Celestions</b> for them selves, put in the <b>Peaveys</b> and sold them to <b>Guitar Center</b>. That’s ok, I mean they sounded fine - they just weren’t what they told me were in there. Did Guitar Center know and lied to me? Did Guitar Center not know and the people that sold them to Guitar<b> </b>Center lied to them? Well anyway, Eamon gave me this incredible deal on two speakers he took out of a 4x12 he is selling and we put them in my 2x12 cab and you frickin’ gotta hear that <b>Marshall</b> now. I had <b>Eric Summer</b> at <b><a target="_new" href="http://www.vikingamps.com">Viking Amps</a></b> rework the head just last year with all new <b>Tungsol</b> tubes and everything. THAT”s the <b>Marshall</b> tone baby! It SCREAMS now. I’m still going to run it with the <b>Fender</b> - the two tones together will cover everything I need for tone. It will be a hellofalotof equipment to cart around, though. I’ll just have to play only huge rooms!</span></td>
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<td valign="bottom"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">Friday night, over at Charles Mitchell’s house he had his annual - what I call the “Same Date Party”. This year it was 11/11/11. Really just another excuse to hook up with just about every musician that we can possibly coax into coming and jamming our butts off. <br type="_moz"></span></td>
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<td colspan="2" valign="top"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">We had the whole WildMan band there, also Charles’ second group was there in full doing some very outstanding Grateful Dead jams and we all we totally in the zone. Bo brought his hand made electric/acoustic jazz guitar that went perfectly with a bunch of the jams we were doing. I was very happy to meet Allen, superb guitar player that really made “Hot Tamale Baby” kick! Charles whipped up a batch of his world famous red beans and rice and what a great time! We have one more year for this, but I insist - Charles if you are out there reading this - we come up with some reason why we need to do this much more often. Every year there are more people showing up. Every year the music is better. Every year the food is better. And as I have said many times before, this is what playing music is really all about. Connecting with each other, shared experience, shared emotions, shared memories. See you ALL next year on 12/12/12. Rock and Roll!<br><br type="_moz"></span></td>
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</tbody></table><br>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1208222011-10-30T13:38:00-04:002011-10-30T13:38:00-04:00Rockin' 11/11/2011<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); "> Charles Mitchell, the drummer for Wildman has a party at his house whenever the dates all line up. This next one is 11/11/11. He had one for 10/10/10. and 9/9/09 and so on. Everyone is invited, I’m told I can bring as want as I want with me over there. Of course, there’s always a jam with who ever is over there and can play anything at all, they are invited to join in. Last year, ex Deacons guitar player Bruce Middle came ex Deacon bass player Bo both sat in with me and Geoff Holdridge and it was awesome. Bruce is mile ahead of me in proficiency, and his solo in Appalachian Rap, an original instrumental written by Geoff, absolutely blew me away. Wildman plays that song but when I hear Bruce’s version I must applaud. If there is ever an occasion that Bruce could join Wildman for a gig, or I could join Bruce for any reason on stage, that would be magic and something that just couldn’t be missed. Hopefully Bruce and Bo and all our good friends can make it over to Charles’ that night, 11/11/11 this year. Looking forward to it!</span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1179192011-10-09T08:40:00-04:002017-01-14T10:58:18-05:00Cafe Mezza-NO-tte
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<td rowspan="2" width="50"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">Oh oh! Well it happens, you know? Every 2 or 3 years, you’ll drive all the way out to a gig and PRESTO! There’s a-whole-nother band all ready there setting up. This time, thankfully I didn’t even make it all the way out to Cafe Mezzanotte for last night's Wildman gig. I got a call from Charles while driving in time to turn around and go home. I guess in all about 120 miles round trip - forgetaboutit.<br><br><br></span></td>
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</tbody></table><br><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">The thing about it is, in the old days I would’ve been mad. I would’ve said something. It would’ve been a bad thing in my book. But as you live through this business, and stuff like this happens to you, after awhile you learn that things like this is just what happens sometimes and it goes with the turf. Miss-communications over the telephone. More than one person on the club end handling the calendar. Booking agents... you name it, with so many people involved it’s a wonder gigs actually go right sometimes. The thing about it is, I was REALLY looking forward to playing! I had carbed up and had a lot of energy, Wildman had had a very good rehearsal Thursday night - all the stars were lining up for a real good Wildman gig.<br>
I went home a played guitar for 2 hours.</span><br type="_moz"><br>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1167602011-10-01T07:20:00-04:002011-10-01T07:20:00-04:00The Fabulous Truckeroo Festival<span style="color: #666699">What a great gig! Yes, the festival had a huge attendance, it is a very popular event. And the “roach coaches” turned out to be all gourmet food. We had the Cajun gumbo – awesome! Straight from Louisiana. Bill the sound man was a real cool dude, totally knew what he was doing. We played for over two hours and I was having so much fun that I didn’t even feel it. I think we got a little loud though, at least up on stage it was. We’ll have to watch that. I played the Les Paul all night, never switched to the Strat and Eamon borrowed my 2/12 cabinet – which is good because he can give me very educated feedback on the tone of the cabinet. He said it sounded awesome on rhythms and comping, a little hard to break the speakers up on leads, though. That’s those Pevey speakers somebody put in there before I bought it from Guitar Center. I think the next Full Mesh gig, which is Sully’s on Oct 28th I’m going to run the Marshall or probably both the Marshall and the Fender Hot Rod Deville. The Fabulous Truckeroo Festival</span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1163772011-09-29T04:23:48-04:002011-09-29T04:23:48-04:00When is a band not a band?<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); ">When it's a caravan! Friday, 9/30 is the Truckeroo Festival gig for Full Mesh. There will be four vehicles leaving Eamon's house at 4:30 or so, to snake around in DC - lost - one right after the other for hours trying to find the load in spot for this festival at Half and M ST, SE. I mean we all know where the stadium is, but nobody has ever actually DRIVEN there. This is going to be a TOTAL TRIP! Hahaha, That's why we're leaving, like, 3 hours early!</span>John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1159442011-09-25T12:50:00-04:002022-02-07T10:41:29-05:00Wildman Gig at Cafe Mezzanotte Wildman is made up of great players. Charles, Geoff and Jay are some of the most skilled of all the players I work with. But we live far apart from eack other. I'm in Burke, Charles is in Rose Hill, Geoff is in Bowie, Md and Jay is way up in Clark County, Mt Airy, Md. That makes it difficult to readily put rehearsals together. It's usually fine, we've been doing most of the songlist for a long time now, but on the new stuff - the stuff we just put together one or two gigs ago, going into a gig with out a recent rehearsal can be dicey for those songs. That proved true at tis last gig, I think, for a couple pieces we do. "Man Of Constant Sorrow" could have been done much better. "Willing" wasn't too bad but people were forgetting the arraingment we decided on and you sort of had to stay on your toes because you never knew who was going to come in when. There were a couple more also. I'm thinking two things: If you're in a band that has limited opertunity to rehearse, don't complicate th arraingements. And, if you don't have a oppertunity to hook up between gigs, maybe the new song ought to stay on the "reserve" list until you can hook up and go over them. John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1138722011-09-10T15:45:00-04:002011-09-10T15:45:00-04:00Silent Rehearsal 2 Wow! The session with Bill went really good today. The bass lines Bill is putting to the stuff is kickin'! This is going to be some really awesome music when this all get together. I can't wait!<br><br>
We didn't use the <a target="_new" href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/jamhub-bedroom-5-section-system">JamHub</a> though, we didn't need to without the drums. Because Morgan wasn't here<br type="_moz">John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1137792011-09-09T15:10:00-04:002011-09-09T15:10:00-04:00Silent Rehearsal Ok it came in the mail today, the <a target="_new" href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/jamhub-bedroom-5-section-system">JamHub</a>. I got the low end model, the "Bedroom". It's the low end one I know but I can plug in up to 5 instruments 5 mics and 5 seperate headphone mixes so with my drum pads, I can rehearse like a whole band in my basement without amps! I'll be trying it out with Bill Seeger this Saturday, but I'm really looking forward to using it with drummer Morgan Norris and Bill next week when we start the formal Silver Lining Blues Band rehearsals. John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1134282011-09-08T07:56:55-04:002011-09-08T07:56:55-04:00Sully's Spoke with Jay Nedri yesterday, we have two dates now for Full Mesh. 10/28 and 11/26. And hopefully we'll be addind more in 2012. Mainly because Jay really thinks Robb is a great singer. And he's right of course. I'm really looking forward to playing guitar at Sully's for a change!John Sterlingtag:jsterlingmusic.com,2005:Post/1132822011-09-07T11:45:00-04:002011-09-07T11:45:00-04:00Let's get startedOK, I'm always thinking this stuff up and trying to explain it to myself, so maybe if I just start writing it down eventually it'll start making sense.<br>
Even if only to me<br>
I'm hoping to write something about every gig. There's ALWAYS something that happens really cool at every gig that you gotta be there for. If you can't make the gig, we miss you man, but you can come here to see if I'm running my mouth about it the next day. I am totally convinced that I learn something new, or at least confirm something I thought I had learned at every single gig. One time it was don't stand on the wet ground in the hot summer sweating when the p.a. and your amp are on two different circuits and touch your mouth to the microphone! I still don't have any feeling in my A chord finger... OK, I won't do that again, and my other little secret - never put a drink on an amplifier. That's just gauche...John Sterling