Just spent 5 days in Detroit area. Went out one night to Bakers Piano Lounge, corner of 8 mile Rd. and Livernois, on edge of city--decent neighborhood w/pkg.
Famous venue...Miles played there...lots of others in past 80 yrs. Had a wonderful night out w/ gf...2 sets of music, plus great dinners and drinks, plus pkg.---the whole deal came to $63...and I had about 5 beers.
Heard a great group, Sandy Bomer (?!): string bass, electric piano, sax/clarinet/flute and male/female vocal duo...very very enjoyable...Eric Lindquist (sp?) on the horns was very, very capable...musicians who LISTENED to each other and played off of each other...4 ft. in front of the bandstand but the volume was fine---had a blast.
A few nights before I was in upper central MI for a "country music fest" and the contrast was stark...large setting with a band that was overwhelmingly loud...a Fender bass and a drummer that was so SQUARE (boom, boom, boom, BOOM)--this was pure rock and badly played...honestly I thought I was back at the junior high dance...a good honky tonk band, Buck Owens, western swing, bluegrass...you name it---they are not being killed by a bricklayer drummer and a bad bassist....to be fair, the 2nd band was not bad, but still not what I'd call a country sound...no steel players in sight and just a bunch of rock-ish sounding players doing their own bit, without any interaction...I was 100' away from the stage, and couldn't take it...went over to the sound engineer, and said I thought they were too loud...he fiddled some knobs which probably didn't do anything...OK it was a large barn-like setting and very difficult technically to get a good sound level, but the audience was just cowed and overwhelmed by the volume...no energy at all...anyway, the contrast was stark and stuck in my mind.
On the 12 hr. ride home, I listened to the George Strait boxed set probably 3 times through...some damned fine playing and musicians, esp. the Western swing influenced stuff. Had never listened, really, to George S. before, but he surely covers a whole boatload of country styles in a great way...some of his songs, esp. ballads were kind of fair to middling, but overall I can see why he's enjoyed great popularity...the music even when it was not exactly my favorite style was well done, and respectful, if that's the right word to the traditions it came from, whereas the live "country" bands I heard were not.
Bakers Piano Lounge, Detroit---highly recommended
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Peter Wojnar
- Posts: 5
- Joined: 8 Oct 2014 11:28 am
- Location: New York, USA
