The Band...

Hello All,

As you can tell from Kari's recent postings, we have been pretty busy.  The kids are back today.  It is good to have them home. 

I wanted post something from last weekend.  SMITTYVISION had its annual reunion show as headliners for Edgebrook Fest on the North Side on Chicago last weekend.  For those who don't know, I used to play bass guitar for a group called SMITTYVISION.  Lead by Craig "Smitty" Smith, we had a pretty good run through the Chicago bar scene.  Without a lot of trying, we played a lot of great shows in some pretty great clubs.  Most notably, we were the house band for Goose Island for a few years. 

The original line up of Smitty on lead vocals and guitar, Paul Mulchrone on drums, Big John Sanner on accordion and keyboard and me on bass started playing together in late 2001.  Not long after, we were joined by Dr. John Flaherty on lead guitar. 

The core group of Smitty, Dr. John, Paul and me remained the same through 2007, when Smitty moved back to the simple life in Michigan.  Over that time, we were joined by Joel Barr on keyboards and saxophone and occasionally John Ling on violin. 

I'll be the first to tell you that I am no great musician.  I get by.  The rest of these guys, however are top notch.  All seasoned, intuitive and professional, these were the finest musicians that I have ever played with.  We had a great time but didn't mess around.  We knew what we needed to do and everyone was ready.  There was a chemistry that would have been impossible to replicate, even if we tried. 

We get together a few times each year to play, usually once around Christmas and once for Edgebrook Fest.  Even in these long absences, things completely click when we get on stage. 

Here are a few highlights from the show last weekend.  There was very little prep for this.  The recording is descent, not great.  Please take a listen to the tracks.  Feel free to down load them and pass them around. 

On stage, you will hear:

Smitty on rhythm guitar, electric guitar and lead vocals
Dr. John Flaherty on lead electric guitar
Paul Mulchrone on drums
Big John Sanner on keyboards and backing vocals
Joel Barr on saxophone, backing vocals and miscellaneous percussion
Me on bass

At the end of the day, we all love the blues.  This is one of our favorite tunes.  Sometimes it came out as a bullet in 3 minutes.  More often, this is a 10 minute solo fest.  This is Early in the Morning, a traditional blues song. 

Dr. John is the consummate musician with very broad tastes.  He would usually come into rehearsal with some new, obscure CD full of music.  Usually, we would all listen in rapture, sometimes not.  He always had lots of suggestions for new songs for us to perform.  About 5% of those actually made it to the stage.  Here is our rendition of Bruce Hornsby's The Way It Is.  This was driven and coached by Dr. John. 

This is one of our infamous crowd pleasers.  Big John, Paul, Smitty and I tried to make this one work in the early weeks of us coming together.  Smitty was playing slide guitar on an old resonator in our first attempts.  Dr. John joined the group and this one fell into place.  Here is our version of Lucinda William's Can't Let Go. 

Here's another oldie but a goodie.  This was more inspired by the Sheryl Crow version than the Guns 'n Roses version.  We wanted to keep it straight and light through the second chorus, then let it get heavy.  Here's our version of Sweet Child 'O Mine. 

Let it never be said that we didn't play a diverse set.  We covered everything from blues to rock to country to reggae.  Here is our cover of I Shot the Sheriff.  Again, another of our favorites.  We usually played this one more for us than for the audience. 

This track is a great example of how we used to end most shows.  You can't beat the Doobie Brothers lead into Muddy Waters.  Here is Long Train Runnin' and Mojo. 

Many thanks to Smitty, Dr. John Flaherty, Paul Mulchrone, Big John Sanner and Joel Barr.  Also, a hearty thanks to Pat Lyons for organizing Edgebrook Fest and for playing harmonica for the last few tunes.  He keeps asking us to come back so we'll keep playing. 

Last one... simple but fun.  Here's the Steve Miller Band's The Joker.