#ameliasmusic — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #ameliasmusic, aggregated by home.social.
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The instrument-amplifier cable for my bass guitar suddenly started getting very flaky this week. Wiggle it a bit & the sound would cut out like you'd unplugged it.
But, I am a handy woman. I grabbed some pliers & electrical tape, unscrewed the connector, and set about to figure out how the pieces fit together & where they were loose.
After 15 minutes of fussing, the cable connection is not flaky anymore!
It is completely disconnected.
And since I don't own a soldering iron, it's going to stay that way for a while. A trip to Long & McQuade is on the schedule for tomorrow, I guess. And my plan to limit all musical gear purchases to whatever money I eventually make from gigs is $20-25 in the hole. Ah, who am I kidding: $45-50 in the hole, since while I'm there I'll probably get that clip-on tuner I've been wanting.
Although now I also have a sensible practical reason to buy that cool $50 heat pen / soldering iron from Lee Valley...
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For those keeping score, the official high temperatures for Sunday-Monday-Tuesday in Edmonton this week were 19.2°C (with a rather stiff breeze), 22.7°C, and 20.2°C. So, Accuweather forecast was closer; the Environment Canada forecast was overly cautious.
I hope you all were able to get out & enjoy it. Because both forecasts agree that at least 3 of the next 4 days will have highs of 1°C or less. With snow. ☃️
I'm working on a new arrangement of Ian Tyson's "Springtime in Alberta". I played my current (country-folk) arrangement at the funk-etc jam on Sunday (where there is no patio, but they had the doors wide open to let in the warm air), then afterwards started to wonder if I could somehow turn it into a soul-funk song. I think I've got the tweaked vocal melody down, now just have to practice the bass line.
The lyrics remain the same: "Must be springtime in Alberta. Warm, sunny days; endless skies of blue. Then without a warning, another winter storm comes raging through..."
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RE: https://comics.town/@rooniecomics/116179269355605994
My feelings whenever someone talks about how "different" it is that I'm getting up on stage solo with a bass guitar. Or the person at the songwriter's circle who said I had such an "interesting" voice.
(I know they mean well, but it's so hard for me not to hear it as them struggling to say something nice.)
Extra alt text for quoted image: 3 panel comic, with a magpie (?) standing confidently on a tree branch & other anthropomorphized animals having a picnic below. Transcript in original alt text.
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What makes this extra annoying is that I skipped the chance to check out the (invitational) all-women jam across town this afternoon. How cool to see women leading the full jam with no guys playing over them!
But, I'd been working up some new songs & wanted to play myself (& not spend 2 hours on buses). I opted to double up an afternoon open stage (which went great) & this evening jam.
I probably made a bad choice for my first jam song, an original which has fairly simple chord changes but my bass line doesn't make them obvious. I'd talked it over with the other guitar player as we set up, though, and he might have figured it out if our affable host hadn't jumped over top.
But then for my cover of A Natural Woman (which I do a half-octave below Aretha), the human jukebox asked to start it with a piano intro. And threw me off. And then never paused to let me take the lead, just started riffing on his own.
At least Seven Nation Army went well. Loud angry rocker was about my mood by then. 🤷🏻♀️
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1st prize went to Griffin Lindal, who was much younger than his early-90s style had implied. But his alt rock tunes were confident & creative, accented by fancy whistling & hand cymbals tapped with his foot. Also, he'd brought a decent amount of friends to help with the audience vote, and that was apparently what edged him out over 2nd place winner OStella.
I'd known going in that OStella would be a favourite, based on her professional recordings & touring schedule, with the test being if she could recreate the upbeat rock sound when solo on stage. She did indeed, turning her acoustic guitar into a percussion instrument as needed to punch up the sound. And the stage experience was clear in her connection with the crowd.
3rd place went to one of my favourites from the open-stage scene, Francis Kavanagh. He's got great tunes & a relaxed style I can listen to all night.
The other acts were all great too. Only one really suffered from nerves and even he got going after a few false starts.
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I felt quite good about my set. The nerves were showing in my body language, and that spilled over into a few flubs on the bass, but I think I kept my voice confident in both singing and between-song chatter. Well, except at one point I realized how many people were carefully listening & maybe didn't hit some sexy lyrics with quite the right sass. I was also not quite as tight as I wanted to be with Seven Nation Army, which I'd been working up this week specifically for the show. However, a few folks commented on liking my arrangement, so it was worth including.
The judges gave feedback at the end of the night (which was nice) and one mentioned how it was nice that I was able to start things off with high energy & fun sound, and I felt that too. I set a bar — and then some other musicians jumped over it with very polished & relaxed sets. So I did not leave with more money than I arrived, but it was a great night. Keep doing this & maybe I'll finally shake off the last of those nerves!
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Morning-after #AmeliasMusic recap (since so many of you were encouraging, but none of you were there!):
Five & Dive is a nice venue (this was my first time there). Maybe going a little hard on the "rock'n'roll" decor (bras hanging from the chandelier?), but fun. The stage, positioned midway through a long wall, would be better a few meters over so musicians are facing the customers at the bar instead of the server's station & kitchen door. But the sound was great, on stage & off, helped by the small & attentive crowd made up mostly of the other musicians & their close friends.
I got the short side of the draw & was up first at 8:30pm. (Too bad I couldn't tell people I'd be up early. And that the winter storm warnings would blow over by 6. I might have got a few supporters out!)
They'd asked for a mix of covers & originals, with 25 minutes to play. With tight arrangements, I fit in 4 originals plus Al Green's Tired of Being Alone, The White Stripes' 7-Nation Army, & Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour.
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(quietly, in the background, you hear Amelia muttering fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, what have I done?
I'd sent an email Wednesday evening, while I was out playing & feeling confident & had just talked to the event host Adam Holm. But after not hearing from the bar manager for three days I figured it had gone to spam & oh well, Adam said they're planning to do this every other month, so I'll reach out again in April when I'll be that much more prepared! But oops, no, now I've got less than a week to prepare. And to remind myself that it's just like the open stages I've been doing, except with a longer set and the chance of money at the end! That's a simple equation, yes? I got this. Sure I do. 😅 Would love to see you there, though. 😁) -
🎇Important last minute addition to the February music listings 🎆
On February 26, the last Thursday of the month Battle of the Bands at the Five & Dive pub in West Edmonton Mall will be a Solo Act version. A Solo Cup, if you will.
Music starts 8:30pm (& goes to after midnight, 8 acts × 30 minutes each), no cover, 18+.
The venue markets themselves on affordable snacks & drinks.
https://www.fiveanddive.ca/battle-of-the-bandsBut that's not the important part.
The important part is that one of the competitors will be Amelia Byrd (👋🏻).
So, uh, if you've been curious about hearing what I've been doing & can get out to the big mall on a Thursday night, come say hi & help increase my audience enthusiasm vote! Note that I won't know what time I'm on until we get there.
(If you are curious but not near Edmonton, you'll have to convince someone who is in Edmonton to come & take a video or something.)
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PS, the final set list for my time on stage was:
- Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue on Black" (a song I learned at the suggestion of one of the guitar players from the Sunday jam, but with him not there it was a stripped down bluesy arrangement for voice & bass, minus all the guitar solos)
- Bill Wither's "Lean on Me"
- A sassy little number of mine called "Call Me When You're Sober";
- "Give It To Me", another original, a steady groove with accelerating lyrics which were heavily inspired by the fact that I was learning "Lean on Me" at the time.
After having played only at jams the past few weeks, it was really relaxing to just get up on stage & play my songs the way I've been practising them at home.
Revival is also a great place for an open mic on a cold, quiet night (and not just because it's easy for me to get there on the bus). The only people there are those really interested in the music, and everyone is so glad when someone new shows up!