I hesitate to write this because my acoustic friends are going to find out what I've been up to.  But I'll bite the bullet and come clean at the risk of alienating all of my acoustic friends.  As some of you know I've been frequenting  this local coffee shop.  I was first introduced to this place when a bluegrass group I was involved with did a show there.  Long story short the owner was less than pleased with our group's performance and booted us off the schedule.  But ironically he thought I showed some promise and asked me if I'd be interested in trying out some rockabilly stuff.  I had no idea what rockabilly was so I went home and did a google search and found out this definition on wikipedia:  Rockabilly is one of the earliest forms of rock and roll as a distinct style of music. It is a fusion of blues, hillbilly boogie, bluegrass music and country music, and its origins lie in the American South. 

I was pleased to see bluegrass music mentioned in the definition so maybe I wouldn't be too far out of my element if I gave this a try.   I have this mental image now of all my acoustic friends running away shreiking in horror that I have abandoned traditional music and jumped on the rock and roll bandwagon.  Kind of like when Bob Dylan went electric and alienated half of his fan base.   So anyway we formed this little rockabilly band with the owner of the coffee shop on guitar and a couple of younger guys - one on bass and one on guitar and I was elected the lead singer.  We have opened up a couple of times for various musical acts that have come through the coffee shop.  But I must admit we have never sounded very polished and a few times I have noticed the real musicians and a few customers exiting the shop while we played.  Not too good for a confidence builder!  Part of our problem is lack of practice and part of the problem is trying to combine people with very diverse musical backgrounds.

So to jump forward to tonight.  The owner of the shop has a good friend who is in a heavy metal band called Psycho Scream.  So we were the opening act.  Kind of like showing Mary Poppins at a movie theater as the opening feature before Friday the 13.  Actually the Psycho Scream guys are pretty decent folks and the drummer was nice enough to sit in during our set and help us out.    They are all actually pretty nice guys so I don't want to disparage their group in any way.  My only real problem with the whole night was the volume.  They had enough sound equipment to play a small arena.  I don't understand why music has to be played that loud to be good.  The volume just kind of ruins it for me.  I had to sneak outside several times to give my eardrums a break!

My biggest challenge is to convince my electric playing friends to play at a more reasonable volume.  One thing nice about playing with acoustic players is they understand dynamics and are kind of good at achieving a good balance between the voices and the instruments.  It's more of a challenge with my electric playing friends.  But it's not all bad.  We actually sounded ok tonight on a couple of the songs.

So there you have it.  I have come clean about my forays into the rock and roll world.  The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.  I admit it.  Some of the rockabilly stuff is actually fun to play.  Isn't it every kids dream to front a rock and roll band?  Although I think I'm about 20 years plus too late.  So to my acoustic friends please don't hate me.  I hope I'm still welcome at your jams.  Just so you know every time we have done the rockabilly stuff I have proudly played my acoustic guitar.  They have tried to tempt me with the electric guitar but so far I have been strong enough to refuse.  Plus I think I just look dumb holding one.  I also promise not to start wearing spandex and growing my hair down to my ankles.

I know it's only rock and roll but I like it, like it yes I do!  Err I mean Bury me beneath the willow, under the weeping willow tree...Somebody help me, I'm so confused!