Growing up Bass Player (Sugar Mountain Part One)

 Yup, you’re right; I joined Sugar Mountain as their bass player. They called me after about a month and told me Sue had quit the band and would I like to join them. After putting a lot of thought into it (about 30 seconds) I said yes. I was playing again, life is good.

Joining an existing group is a lot harder than having someone join your group. I had to learn a lot of new song and practice, practice, practice. The hardest part was the drummer felt he didn’t have to join in on the practice session. It was just me, Bill, and Gary. Get a pencil and paper; no make that a note book. Now start making a list of all the things I disliked about this drummer. It’s going to be a long list. Number one on that list is he never came to practice. His feeling was that because he didn’t have to know the cords to learn the song, he didn’t need to practice with us.

After a lot of complaining I was told by the other band members that they put up with it because Glen, the drummer, owned the PA, owned the band trailer, booked all the jobs, and did all the driving. I was the newbie so I backed off. I kept hoping that I would be able to work with him and improve his drumming.

We all worked together for about 6 months and things were going along pretty good. I was able to get Glen to listen to some of my suggestions. Then Bill quit the band and moved out of town. He was an electrician by trade and found a better paying job in Wyoming. This really left us stranded because Bill did most the singing. We kept practicing (Gary and me) but we didn’t play for several weeks.

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