No longer a virgin

[billeyler]

Tonight I called my first tip with a live band...with virtually no rehearsal!

For the first time in probably decades the NM Central District Dance featured a live band...Bill Bailey and Country Classics. They had a VERY long hiatus in playing for square dancing...Bill B told me during a planning meeting a month ago that they had played for some of the earliest Nationals in the 50s. I'm sure he and his wife had to be somewhere in their 70s.

In any case, almost all the callers in the central district got to call a tip...except that the band was over-LOUD, it was nice to have them there. I did a patter call to O Lonesome Me, and a singer to Oh Baby Mine. Nary a breakdown on the floor.

Yehaw!

Comments

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Once in my career I called to a live band (in a western store parking lot). The main thing I remember is they were way too loud. They would also do little embellishments - like a triangle hit whenever I called "ping pong circulate". It was kind of distracting.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

It's very easy to see why for MWSD, live music faded out by the end of the 50s. So much more economically feasible to just have a caller with some records, than dealing with the logistics of multiple musicians. Plus the caller really would be in control of the dance.

I love the live music for contra dancing though...gives it very much the flavor of the dance.

This group last night played for the first nine Nationals, until live music went away...most of them were well up in years.