well hello friends and welcome to
0:34
another Ask Zac
0:36
today we're going to talk about uh
0:38
gigging
0:39
six days a week and also uh
0:42
kind of answering of your question about
0:47
you know things that were helpful
0:48
learning resources for me
0:50
so that's we're going to talk about
0:52
today so
0:53
first off if if you've been enjoying the
0:57
show
0:57
please subscribe if you have already
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1:00
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what keeps it going
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all right so first off answering kind of
1:19
a
1:21
many viewers have asked about good
1:23
learning resources and I'm not
1:26
I I can only speak from my own
1:28
experience
1:29
and one of the greatest uh learning
1:32
tools i had
1:33
besides a good guitar teacher was
1:37
um you know the instructional videos
1:39
that started coming out
1:40
in the 80s and the one
1:44
that that means the most to me and uh
1:47
and i i just remember horribly fondly
1:51
is get that classic fender sound
1:54
by with Jim Wieder and it was uh
1:58
produced by uh homespun entertainment
2:02
homespun
2:02
studios in the uh in the late early 90s
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and it was on vhs and I bought it
2:10
and it showed up and it completely
2:13
hooked me
2:15
um you know one
2:19
he he takes all these different vintage
2:21
guitars and amps and talks about them
2:23
and then he also talks about the players
2:25
that used them
2:27
and he shows off their licks it's an
2:29
amazing video
2:30
it's still available i think you can
2:32
stream it or you can you know from
2:34
homespun and I'll put a I'll put a link
2:36
in the description
2:37
but uh what i played at the beginning of
2:40
the show which of course is
2:41
at Reggie young's part to Memphis soul
2:43
stew
2:44
i learned it from Jim Wieder's get that
2:48
classic fender sound video
2:50
and he used a Harvard of course I've got
2:53
a 59 I think he had a 55
2:56
and he had a real uh esquire custom from
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60. now this is my
3:01
jv tele but uh this is
3:04
you know this is in tribute to Jim and
3:06
uh I'm
3:07
I'm very fortunate that Jim and I uh
3:10
have
3:10
uh gotten to kind of know each other
3:12
some through email and phone calls
3:14
and uh and that means a lot to me
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because
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Jim's a hero I mean Jim you know
3:21
Jim's playing and and that video
3:25
it really got me down the vintage thing
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and also about the players that he
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talked about and so
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he played a guitar like this in an amp
3:35
in an old Harvard
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talking about a r b playing and
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he talked about Steve cropper and
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Cornell Dupree
3:43
and that's where i first learned about
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double stops which i play them
3:48
you know all the time you know
4:03
[Music]
4:05
so many things I learned from that video
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and uh
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it's a great kind of uh
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you know kind of intermediate level
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video and I I
4:15
highly suggest you check it out you know
4:17
by by today's standards
4:18
it doesn't have uh you know amazing
4:21
looking
4:21
you know video but it's it's great the
4:24
licks are great
4:25
the uh the stories he tells are great
4:28
and uh
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anyway I highly recommend you check that
4:30
out and I'll put some more information
4:32
on Jim Wieder
4:33
um on my website so I'll
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you know put together like a playlist
4:39
and uh
4:40
yeah just have some more information
4:41
there'll be a link to that in the
4:42
description
4:44
all right now the other thing that
4:46
people have asked about
4:47
is me telling stories about my uh
4:50
you know some of my gigging days when i
4:52
was you know
4:53
gigging professionally not teching
4:56
professionally
4:57
so i thought what better than uh
5:01
you know when i was playing the most
5:04
and playing in bars you know six nights
5:06
a week
5:08
so got to give a little bit of context
5:10
so
5:12
during my senior year at Belmont
5:14
university
5:16
I had interned at mca records
5:20
and capital records for a guy named
5:23
Johnny rose
5:24
Johnny rose is in the sales department
5:26
at mca and then when he went over to
5:28
capital
5:29
I went with him over there to continue
5:31
my internship and I interned with him
5:33
for uh
5:35
i think two semesters and Johnny was
5:38
great
5:39
and very tolerant of me because at the
5:41
time I was really unemployable
5:43
and because all I wanted to do was play
5:44
guitar and he was trying to
5:47
you know actually you know give me some
5:49
skills
5:50
and try to help me and he even tried to
5:52
give me a job he'd offered me a job
5:55
at capital capital records you know
5:58
would have been an entry level position
6:00
but i would have had a real job and i
6:01
probably would have actually learned
6:02
some real skills
6:05
but one I was just blinded by the fact
6:08
that I wanted to to play music
6:11
and the other was i had a horrible
6:12
tragedy happen and that was
6:14
my cousin named lee
6:18
he uh he died in a uh in a in a car
6:22
accident
6:23
and it was right before graduation uh I
6:26
was right in the middle of finals and I
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got a phone call saying that he had been
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in a car accident he had died
6:32
and uh he was like a brother to me
6:37
and uh I just kind of went in a complete
6:40
tailspin
6:41
and part of it was I had been in a car
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accident just a couple of months before
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and in one of those horrible tricks that
6:49
your mind
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does um I started thinking that
6:53
I should have died in my car accident
6:56
and then maybe he wouldn't have
6:58
I know it's completely messed up but we
7:00
do these kinds of things
7:02
um just out of out of grieving
7:05
and uh and uh yeah and if you're going
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through that
7:09
you know or have something like that
7:11
please you know get some help
7:13
but uh anyway so
7:16
and i tell you this not to you know be
7:19
modeling or anything of that it's just
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to tell you what this was my mindset
7:23
and uh I graduated from Belmont
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still kind of in a tail spin and I had
7:30
no job
7:30
had no gig I had nothing and my parents
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came up of course for graduation
7:36
and we went and they bought me
7:39
a bed and because I'd been living on
7:42
campus the whole time
7:44
and then I got an apartment with some of
7:47
my friends
7:48
and uh all of a sudden there I was
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with an apartment rent to pay and all
7:53
sorts of stuff and i had you know i
7:55
didn't have a job
7:57
well on a Saturday evening about dinner
8:00
time I get a phone call from a drummer
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buddy of mine
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that uh I had done some some you know
8:06
like demo sessions with and some little
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gigs some little recording things with
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and he said
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hey Zac my wife and I are
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you know we have a month's worth of
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dates
8:20
and our guitar player fell through
8:23
and wondering if you want to go and play
8:26
with us
8:26
we need to leave on Monday so that's in
8:28
two days or really a day and a half
8:30
really
8:31
and we're going to be gone for 30 days
8:34
well I don't think I even really thought
8:37
about it I mean I just thought it was
8:39
like well I need money and I need to do
8:40
something so I said yes
8:43
so the next day on Sunday we had a
8:46
rehearsal
8:47
that was more of you know kind of like a
8:49
get to know each other because I didn't
8:50
know
8:51
besides the drummer I didn't know anyone
8:52
I didn't know his wife who was the
8:54
singer
8:55
and uh I won't say her name but I will
8:58
say that the name of the band was
9:00
of course it was her name then hearts of
9:03
fire
9:04
so at one point I was a heart of fire
9:07
so I know I know you're all yeah eating
9:10
this stuff up
9:12
so uh I meet everyone
9:15
and the keyboard player um he had just
9:19
graduated from a religious university
9:22
and he didn't know anything about
9:24
country music and he didn't know how to
9:27
take a solo at all
9:29
so he was not helpful uh he so I had to
9:32
you know so it was a small band it was
9:34
just drums
9:36
bass guitar and keyboards and a lead
9:39
vocalist
9:39
and the piano player couldn't take a
9:42
solo and didn't know
9:43
any of the material at all and so all he
9:46
could do was kind of comp
9:47
some some rhythm so meanwhile i had to
9:50
play
9:51
every intro every every outro and every
9:53
solo
9:56
the bass player uh was was good he was
9:59
competent
10:00
uh but he you know he wore all black
10:02
leather wore black leather chaps had
10:05
white long white hair big you know
10:07
handlebar
10:08
you know mustache good player but it was
10:11
just kind of uh
10:12
you know we didn't really go together at
10:15
all so you had the
10:16
the keyboard player that had graduated
10:18
from a you know
10:19
religious university you had me that was
10:21
a basically a big guitar nerd you know
10:23
kind of a poindexter who was
10:25
you know I had a telly with a b bender
10:27
on it and a bunch of
10:28
stuff you had a a bass player that looks
10:32
like you should have
10:33
either been in a southern rock band or
10:35
the village people
10:37
and then you had a front woman you know
10:39
singer that had only performed
10:41
on cruise ships and she had never you
10:44
know fronted a band you know playing
10:46
country music and then you had her
10:47
husband that played drums
10:50
well you know we went through a couple
10:51
of songs and then we uh
10:54
you know we got some we all you know
10:56
went home got some sleep and the next
10:58
day
10:58
we took off for rallings Wyoming
11:02
and that's like you know at least a
11:04
20-hour drive from Nashville
11:06
so we left Monday morning drove all day
11:09
and all night
11:10
Tuesday morning we get to railings
11:12
Wyoming we have
11:14
to set up our pa we've got a minivan
11:16
with a trailer behind it
11:18
we set up the pa and we set up our gear
11:21
and I guess at this point I'll tell you
11:23
what my gear was I had two
11:24
twin reverbs I had a stock 1969 silver
11:28
face twin reverb and I had a
11:31
a heavily modified blackface twin with a
11:34
15 inch jbl
11:36
that brad paisley had gotten a guy named
11:39
mark Ferguson in Nashville to build for
11:41
me
11:42
and so uh you know this was all due to
11:44
brad he he made the deal
11:46
he told the guy what to do and
11:47
everything this is the kind of guy brad
11:49
paisley
11:50
he's a he's a great dude and uh so
11:53
anyway so I had those amps and then i
11:54
had a telly with a b
11:55
bender and I had a strat and a pedal
11:57
board and I had an ovation 12 string
12:01
that I used as a six string because it
12:02
was only acoustic i had that had a
12:04
pickup on it
12:05
and that was my rig and so we basically
12:08
didn't sleep
12:10
we got there in time to rehearse a
12:12
couple of because we have to play five
12:14
hours that night
12:16
and again we've never really had a
12:17
full-on rehearsal no one knows any of
12:19
the material
12:21
I had not played uh much
12:24
uh what I guess what you would call you
12:26
know you know female
12:28
you know country tunes because
12:31
i had mainly played with male singers
12:34
and so there are a lot of the stuff I
12:35
just didn't know because she was
12:37
doing bonnie raitt and uh
12:40
you know I guess that was more more rock
12:43
or adult contemporary
12:45
and uh you know Shania twain and patty
12:47
loveless
12:48
and you know Trisha Yearwood and and I
12:50
was you know I was more versed in brooks
12:52
and dunn and Alan Jackson and merle
12:54
haggard and George strait and stuff like
12:56
that
12:58
so we're going through these tunes and
12:59
somehow
13:01
we make it through you know the first
13:02
night of playing
13:04
and of course we had to do a bunch of
13:06
blues instrumentals to start off and end
13:08
every set
13:09
just because we only knew a couple of
13:11
tunes and uh
13:13
again this is rallings Wyoming and we
13:15
were staying at the gold
13:17
spike inn and you can
13:20
google it if you want to and uh
13:24
yeah so we basically rehearsed all day
13:27
and we played and you know when we were
13:29
you know because we and we had to play
13:31
five hours every night we started at
13:33
eight and finished at one
13:35
and uh and again you know there was no
13:38
help from the piano player
13:40
you know he was just comping some chords
13:42
otherwise I was playing
13:44
all the fills all the solos you know all
13:46
the intros all the outros
13:48
and it was a workout it was a
13:52
real workout and you know what
13:55
that was probably uh now of course I've
13:58
matured a lot since then with my playing
14:00
but as far as my chops
14:02
and how much I learned from that that
14:04
was amazing it
14:05
really changed me as a player and part
14:07
of what changed me
14:09
was
14:12
i got tired of my licks because you're
14:14
playing five hours a night
14:16
six nights a week you know we had to
14:18
play six nights that week
14:20
and all in the whole month that I was
14:22
out with them we played
14:23
you know six nights a week and uh
14:27
yeah it you get tired of yourself you
14:29
get tired of your licks and so you start
14:31
coming up with new things and so
14:33
even though we had played a bunch i was
14:35
still taking my telly or the acoustic
14:36
back to the room
14:38
which had not been updated since the 70s
14:42
and it had this clown
14:43
vomit looking shag carpet
14:46
and we were staying two to a room but
14:49
yeah anyway I would take my guitar back
14:50
to the room
14:51
and uh and I would be working on
14:53
different you know solos and different
14:55
things I could do
14:56
to try to keep myself interested you
14:58
know because it was like this was
14:59
getting boring
15:01
I mean there was the challenge of not
15:02
making a mistake but also it's like you
15:04
you you know you wanted to keep getting
15:06
better
15:07
so it was it was a great great
15:10
you know adventure and uh there were all
15:13
sorts of uh
15:14
crazy things that happened you know
15:17
you know getting you know some
15:21
American Indian gentleman uh asking for
15:24
a dire straits tune and
15:26
kept insisting on it until finally i
15:28
played sultans of swing by myself
15:31
and then of course he wanted to buy me
15:33
drinks and he wanted to
15:35
go smoke peyote with me and i told him
15:37
it was against the banned policy to uh
15:39
smoke peyote I said it's it you know
15:41
it's
15:41
sorry I can't you know break the banned
15:43
rules I signed a contract and
15:45
anyway he left me alone but uh
15:49
yeah it was a really fun and crazy time
15:53
and
15:53
most the time whether we were three to a
15:55
room
15:57
uh we weren't getting any type of food
15:59
at all so we had to go to the grocery
16:01
store we each bought an ice chest
16:03
and we would fill it with ice from the
16:05
hotel from the ice machine
16:07
and we would get the cheapest bread the
16:09
cheapest bologna and the cheapest
16:11
cheese and the cheapest milk and the
16:13
cheapest cereal and that's what we lived
16:15
on
16:16
and so once a week we would eat we would
16:18
eat out like something
16:19
like it pizza hut when you get the
16:22
little individual pizzas for like
16:24
you know five bucks and a coke and uh
16:27
besides that you know because we were
16:30
the money was terrible
16:31
and uh but it was a great experience and
16:34
i still look back on those days you know
16:36
fondly because uh you know i learned a
16:39
lot
16:40
and it changed me it you know taught me
16:42
things i wanted to do and things i
16:43
didn't want to do
16:44
but uh you know playing those bars and
16:47
entertaining people
16:48
and learning that you know you're there
16:51
to entertain people and sell alcohol
16:53
and you're there to to draw people in
16:55
you're not just there to
16:57
play a hot lick or something like that
16:59
you know not that it
17:00
certainly doesn't hurt but yeah i
17:03
learned a lot
17:04
from those days and i'm uh
17:07
grateful for that time and uh
17:10
and i still think about the fact that i
17:11
had two twins that i had
17:13
blaring you know i probably had you know
17:16
i probably had each of each of them on
17:17
four or five
17:18
and i had them kind of you know in a v
17:22
behind me so i'd be sitting here and
17:23
then i'd have the twin
17:25
you know each twin you know blowing out
17:27
into the audience
17:28
and uh and the reason i did that was
17:32
because they didn't have enough channels
17:33
on the pa
17:35
and uh so originally of course you know
17:37
i had two amps
17:38
as one as a backup but when they said
17:40
they're not going to put me through the
17:41
pa they're not going to mic me up i said
17:42
okay well i'll just use both amps and
17:44
blair won in one direction and the other
17:46
one in another and uh
17:48
everyone heard me so i'm sure i played
17:51
too loud
17:52
but anyway so yeah so those are
17:55
kind of six six nights a week playing
17:59
gigs five hours a night
18:00
there's there's no there's no way around
18:03
it i mean that's the way you learn how
18:04
to get better
18:06
I watched Daniel Donato play
18:09
with you know downtown Nashville
18:12
and when he first started playing you
18:14
know with the don Kelly band
18:16
and he was pretty good i mean he was you
18:18
know it was kind of like it was more of
18:19
a shtick because he was you know because
18:20
he was like
18:21
14 or 15 years old but
18:25
i okay i watched him again a year later
18:28
and again
18:28
he was playing four hours a night at
18:30
least four nights a week
18:32
when i saw him a year later completely
18:34
different player
18:35
completely different player so much more
18:37
mature uh
18:38
so much better so much better execution
18:41
there is no
18:42
way around it playing in front of people
18:44
is how you get better
18:46
and even though those things are hard
18:48
that's what makes you good
18:50
all right i hope you've enjoyed my story
18:52
today and uh
18:54
i'll see you next time thanks bye