Glen Worf Interview

oh cool all right lined out together where'd you grow up I grew up for the most part in Madison Wisconsin that's what I think of as home I was born in 1954 and lived the early part of my life out in southwest Kansas for a few years and then my dad eventually caught on with the University of Wisconsin in Madison so we moved there in 1962 it what did your father do he's he was a professor he's retired now but he yeah he was essentially a plant doctor if you a plant pathologist he researched plant diseases had nothing to do with music played it played a bit of flute and a bit of piano okay and and the radio is he used to like to say so you uh so how old were you when you picked up bass or I was I believe I was 14 and I know I know it was 14 because I had it very yeah it was 1968 and the reason I remember this so clearly as I had a real epiphany okay my parents carried my brother and I down to San Antonio Texas for the I think they call it the hemisphere HemisFair hemisphere show something like that okay anyway no I was just like a like a like a fair a big affair and but I mean I was into music at that point I've been playing guitar you know for a couple years and had my hand in a couple little little teeny bopper bands of that era uh-huh we didn't have a bass player just seemed like everybody in my neighborhood played guitar or drums yeah that was it you know anyway long story short we went on this family vacation down to San Antonio and and went to this day-long fair and I saw an ad for a live show that was gonna be done at that afternoon I thought well I want to hear this it was it looked like kind of a poor man's Herb Alpert and the Tijuana brass okay well and so my brother and I went to the show and and sat right down front little outdoor amphitheater and his fate would have it I set right in front of what turned out to be the bass amp although I didn't know it at the time I just thought it was the biggest amp on stage I said I want to be in front of that so I sat down and the the band came out and the bass player played and I'd remember that again my epiphany was that every time he hit a note my ribcage resonated just felt it and I thought that is for me - people that the Beatles and Ed Sullivan wasn't the cue well I mean I believe me I was in on that I love that stuff but I could say I still wanted to be a guitar player at that point but well I'm not kidding when I heard that felt hell did that bass I thought that's and here's the funny thing about that story I told that story years ago in Nashville to a group of players I was doing a session with and the drummer at the time was a buddy of mine named Tommy Wells we did hundreds of dates together back in that era and I had known him for quite some time by then anyway so I'm telling his story to the guys and Tommy's jaw dropped oh he's the best one he was the drummer oh and that band so it was partly his fault yeah I was getting some concussion from the kick drum - now did you play yeah you were product of the music program did you well we'll have a jazz band or they didn't have a jazz band that I did play in kind of missed the boat and if they had a great Orchestra program but there but I wasn't into snobbery I was not into it all I wish I had but my school has a very strong music program in Chicago here it's called New Trier and in order to be in the Jazz Band yeah you had to be oh cool my senior high school had three periods of the day were music chamber orchestra wow we're sure in jazz now final days I'd have a bass lesson yeah it was great yeah I mean that would be I don't think I played a lot better than I should but it was great so that's clear school I had a program and you were well like I said I mean I mean every public school in those days obviously had em you know the band or choir or Orchestra and then there were the extra-credit of which you know activities of which the jazz band was one yes so I had a little Kalamazoo that's it that's it exactly except I was candy apple red but that's the that's to have it actually it's a real thick dirty yeah oh yeah I had an old I had that bass and I bought a yeah I guess it would have been a 67 probably a 67 basement because I remember was it was the blackface okay the 212 cabinet that was the big cabinet made it look like something really big they were just I'd be worried that that bass would launch speaker's itty much dip which is what I loved about that's a big mud bath you know again you probably had to change a few speakers in the basin ah no I should have I don't like I ever did that's great okay now did you learn to read music in high school I did just a little bit because of the Jazz Band program when I was in my sophomore year up to my sophomore year I had always played drums like in the junior high band never never kid but just rudimentary snare drum all that stuff you know anyway I learn to read rhythms through that you know but then so I stuck with that through my sophomore year ironically I had a little bit of a dispute with my band director who was also the jazz band director and I flunked high school ping which I didn't care about time I was happy to walk away don't you know what oh yeah yeah yeah and I won't name names but he tried later on to take credit for my my mom was a school teacher and in the same school system and so they would regularly run into each other and he would always tell her you know I knew Glenn had it and I really tried to help him you know and he liked it he liked to take credit but the the bone fact was I went to him be what set up my falling-out with him as I went to him in my sophomore year for the career guidance counseling thing that they offered and I tell him it said I don't know how people do this but I want to learn how to be a studio musician I want to be one of these guys that plays on people's record records right and he just shot me down he just said you can't do that he said I have a doctor a doctorate degree in music from Berkeley and I wasn't able to do it there's no way you could do that sounds like it was a personality thing it was a personality thing he had a big ego and I mean that just you go into a session of that kind of ego and you'll never be yeah and well and the unfortunate thing in his case I'm don't mean to make a monster out of him I'm sure he was not a monster but yeah a huge ego mine and he wasn't a very good player well this is he was a bass player really was a bass player he was dreadful I mean I remember the the the choir director was actually a very good bass player and he after my falling out with the other guy he kind of said to me forget that guy he said you've got a lot of talent he said you need to work on this you need to work on this right laid it out for me give me little tips and he actually started calling me and sending me as a sub for him oh it's good yeah pick up band society bands great polka bands whatever you know so when did you graduate high school in 1972 okay did you go to college not immediately but I wound up going back to college I went to the University of Wisconsin you know Claire Wisconsin and the reason I went there my family really works there now how cool so they had a firm rates of music they had a really strong music program and so is it did you pick up up right there yeah it was that was that's the back end of that story having gotten an F on my high school band and and then deciding I wanted to get you know to get some real education music education and and I had never studied with anybody had never never played up or I had never had any classical training or any training really of any sort apart from a few guitar lessons of course when they saw my transcripts had to meet with the head of the music department you look at that is that glaring F on my resume said you know something like what makes you think you want to do this for a living you know that's exactly the very point-blank said I'm gonna break the rules and I'm gonna let you in here but you're on probation and you're gonna have to pick an instrument one of the classic instruments and take lessons as part of it did you do this Emmanuel method I did I did I got through the first 13 pages in four years but yeah I still work out so I'm gonna have a French or German yeah the guy that I know well I think they they don't either way I think they technically the the books that I worked with were Frederick Zimmerman's okay version of that and he played German well I remember they showed that and my teacher played German both so that's what I was taught but it's the semantics itself works even with either with either now did you enjoy our history I I enjoyed when we were actually doing a concert I enjoyed some of the rehearsals but I was such a rank begin and everybody else we had a brilliant future hang named James clue who is the at the time the principle basis with the Minnesota Orchestra lovely guy brilliant player great teacher I'm sure I was the worst student he ever had because I don't think he ever taught beginners everybody else yeah they'd had years of private training plus you and me did you spend a lot of time well I didn't and I wish I had is one of the regrets of my life because I just wasn't I just wasn't into it at that point I actually a little sideline career part-time career few guys I was really into pedal steel guitar that really like yes my favorite instrument after the bass yeah it was mine as well and is deadly serious about that so that got all my attention really apart from my music theory classes and that kind of stuff and he was one of my favorite things because I got to play they you know nobody knew what a steel guitar was in that not matter you know I'm not an academic circle standing right they knew and all the little redneck bars where I was playing that was I was right at home there but but I remember playing in in percussion ensembles marimba ensembles even doing the occasional big band gig where I would sit there with my steel and play you know grab the alto sharp or something and just play along yes thank you sax you got to be a good reader obviously decent not great with a decent you know and but anyway back to the string bass his late in life has become my favorite thing of all it is it really speaks to me now but as a as a kid back then I remember you know bar on the bass that they had assigned me and I would take it and do like dinner theater gigs and things like that and actually played a lot of little jazz quartets and quintets but I always played electric and that stuff because I wasn't right to do it and when I left school which I did after about two and a half years of study uh-huh I kind of always had in mind that I would go back but I never did so when did you get back in and really dig into it into the operational break um I kind of on a dare and I guess that would have been it was literally almost a dare from a buddy of mine he phoned me up we had another band we were playing in and he said man I want to start a like a really traditional blues band and I would love you to be in it but I'd love you to play string bass and I was like well so anyway all right I accepted the dare not knowing what I was getting into and it just kind of launched a real whole new chapter for me to get well that's the first in when I played an orchestra on high school and that would you know you'd rehearse like three months for the concert you just every day knock out but I found it really enjoyed then listening to the tracks of you know the parts that I played in high school and I really loved it yeah yeah well I get the impression at least in national or I live all probably like every other school system in America every other public school system that the funding is not there anymore and I think a lot of those schools they've just completely eliminated I'm using it just doesn't exist in the public schools or not everywhere but certainly not like when we were kids which is criminal yeah all right so the Kalamazoo what was your first real bass uh well I'm not to the discount oh you know no no no it was great still is for what it is huh little mud bunny like I say but I bought a used Fender Jazz and it was a 63 candy-apple red real original oh yeah yeah yeah and then but but you gotta remember to that was about nineteen probably that was probably bought in 1969 or 1970 when I bought that so it wasn't a big deal right and I remember magic no I did not have the matching head stuff but but what I remember about the day that I bought it I'd saved my money up cutting lawns and shoveling driveways in the winter and all that kind of stuff and I my dad took me down to this used music store and I bought the bass for $150 yeah and and I remember going home slightly dejected because they have another Fender Jazz I don't remember what year it would have been but I was bummed because I had to take the one that had the old brown case instead of the one that had the black kid out as the dumb I was yeah unfortunately I don't the truss rod broke in the neck and nobody around my hometown at those days and even how to fix it we just kind of deemed it DOA and replace that well actually I got that would have been about 72 I think when the bass when the neck broke and the local music store ordered me a replacement so I've got probably a 72 jazz neck probably not unlike the lawsuit sports there uh-huh and I never made friends with it it just didn't feel wrong yeah very glossy and yeah so I've parted ways with that and then about that same time though I bought a stripped 63 precision okay finish down to the yeah well somebody took it to the bare wooden and shot at black you know and and and I still have that bass and as it turned out I've had it refinished uh-huh in the years since is probably the best sounding P bass I've ever owned and you want to take that out I don't I did take it out one tour and I thought you know they were it doesn't have a lot of collector value obviously right although it's all original apart from the finish but I thought you know if this one got away this would be just for sentimental reasons would be irreplaceable don't travel with that one let's talk about what you do travel with so you got that red one yeah should you hold that if you don't you're gonna take a look at it so that tell us about that bass well there's not I don't have a lot that I can offer on this thing it's obviously it's a 68 Telecaster neck and a reef end 68 P bass body and about the - about two different bases and basically put these together they just seem to the neck seem to want to talk to and with this body they resume dagger together huh and it is we were playing this you guys were passing around the room and it did before we started this interview obviously it's a big oh it's a big old ball bat neck but and ordinarily don't necessarily like that but this one just got a great feel to it and and I wanted to usually want to come out and do these tours with with Knopfler I usually bring a couple of fenders and and a rudi pensive five stream and that's what i saw that yeah what colors it's that one is is is is just a natural stain that's the gentleman that made guitars for mark exactly yeah we did he did not that particular base but he hooked me up with Rudy okay in 1996 and Rudy made a five string bass for me music yeah yeah Kerry Lakeland yeah no in Peru yeah he's a great guy great I'm very very passionate about they don't know her he knows his stuff he really knows what strings you have these I'm not even sure I'm guessing these are probably libelous but I couldn't promise that anyway they're just big flats flats and like a real stiff flat not terribly I mean these are probably medium gauge one of the things I find myself doing is is I often have a just a bit of a bra going play and I'm not even conscious of a glass sometimes look down realize it's not nerves I'm just you know it seems like it kind of helps it sing a little bit which is not what you would ordinarily pick flatlands for anyway for sustained when we're done I want to I want you to check out these pyramids I love that way oh yeah yeah oh yeah I've got I've got an old Hoffner Club base like this it had occurred forever fantastic yeah remember what they call them you just said there's a shiny ones yes they didn't have to worry about that very much you know but uh so what so what else you see these the five-string I do I don't use it that much joy playing fibre you play because you have to you know I enjoy it um and they were talking to lease klar years ago and we were both having a little laugh at ourselves about the fact that there's both you know for anybody like ourselves that grew up playing a four-string if there's inevitably that moment somewhere along the way where you're up the neck and you're doing a nice with you what you hope is a nice feel and you come down and hit the big downbeat and you're on the wrong Street there's no feeling quite like that in the world yeah but anyways yeah I did I resisted five strings for a long time when they first started coming out I used to I had another Fender bass that I kept strung with heavy gauge strings starting usually with like a low seed you know and and I've been years and years ago do you on your string I don't on this one but I was gonna say I used to do that when they came out I just the early five strings I just was not convinced I mean I heard records that were guys got great sounds out of them but when I would try them out the B strings doesn't seem like it's a natural part of the as well it just I'm not my complaint was just it seemed like those early issue five strings that the B string itself didn't seem solid it a lot of that meant a lot of that's because three four inch scale yeah I think of 35 inch works better I think so too now that people resist it they don't like that again yeah but if you if you have to play five and you want it to sound good and consistently I recommend a 35 inch III generally due to the one exception to that are these couple bases that I have by Rudy pensa he still has it he may make a 35 now I don't know but the ones I have are 34 right for whatever reason he was a very solid pitch down there but I remember again the other ones I would try they you can make them sound okay in a track but when I would solo it or when I would just be plugged in to headphones loosen myself every time I went down you know anywhere on the B string particularly down the low register it sounded like a different base I heard that the harmonic content was not the same long story short so I mean I resisted but eventually I bought a I guess would have been an 87 I bought a modulus graphite I like the last ring I've still got his just 55 it does one it's a you know the the bolt on neck before they start going to exotic woods it just has EMG jazz pickups in it it does one thing and one thing only you can I mean you can't use it in a like an acoustic track it's just way too aggressive sounding but well in a rock and roll band or somebody where you need to really carry the bottom that thing will do that what basis at silver town blues yeah that would have been of probably my old 63 P bass just tuned down just tuned good then hits a da yeah yeah okay yeah and like I said now I did that for many many years and still do it to me there's there's a different sound just a Fender bass with a drop D on it is it's a different sounding D than on any five string that's the fax one of the other part I don't know it just seems more defined and just got got a bigger ribcage on it I don't know how to describe it but one of the bases that I always bring out with mark my alternate base apart from the pensive five-string is always a Fender with it with a drop d-did you use that the other night I used it on once all the colors yeah it's kind of again it's a reef and it's it's kind of like a blonde slash white finish what here is it it's a 64 okay and rosewood fingerboard yeah mm-hmm I used that on Hill farmer blues okay and and sometimes some other songs so that we're not doing them in this particular tour very cool amplifier what is your stage right now well my stage am I've got a pair of old SVT's new face blackface no there they go blue line there once a thick ones is 7d and the other I believe is a 69 they're both tubed up yeah great yeah yeah you know little yourself I don't carry myself yeah that's right home if you do a gig Bluebird or do a clock what do you bring well it depends I mean it's an electric game yeah if I mean a lot of the gigs I don't do that many live gigs anymore unfortunately kind of have have not by intent have kind of let go of that I hope to get a couple live things put together so just get out my pals are getting out with Mark oh yeah yeah yeah it's a lot of it but at home well it depends I mean I've got a nest of these old ampeg B 15 s that have gathered up through the years oh sometimes oh I probably have I'm sure I've got four of them make a maybe if those I think they're great sounding and they do well in recording but depending on this well it depends on not on the stage five sometimes what I used to do when I was a kid I had four of them and I played in a little trio this was back in Madison before I went to college or any of that and and the guitar player in the band had like a pro reverb or something like that and he had a matching extension cabinet look I had these for b15 which was what 30 watts each with a whole lot of water but together but you know it's set to be 15s on one side of stage and to on the other and really and he's Pro reverb in army and we weren't the loudest band we weren't going so much for bond but boy it moved it's a lot of hair yeah so all these years later upon occasion if I know I'm gonna be playing like a singer-songwriter gig or something like that where it's not gonna be too loud sometimes I'll take two of those okay you know but past that I've got an old SWR rig I've had red and rebel I know it's it's one of the they call SM for hundreds you know that oh one of their first with the gravity of the pyramid yeah yeah I've got that in the 410 cabinet and yeah it'll still keep up with OSHA most of those things yeah sure but if it's you know like most of my live work tends to be more in a way of maybe the odd TV special or something like that and then generally they will just supply you with elsevier to supply it or they will let us use our cartage companies and help bring my rig out for that yeah yeah well that's the difference - if I was hauling this stuff around myself no way I'd be throwing a hundred pound svt head in the car so you went to school you said for a couple of years and then so we had her on 75 somebody said yeah yeah up through the I went through the summer of 75 okay and then and then I decided I I realized apart from like about a six month period after I graduated high school before I went back to college to start college I realized I just didn't know very much about music and and that's why I went chose to go to a music oriented college and study but apart from that little interim period there there was had never been another time in my life to that point that I'd been a full-time musician and I thought it's kind of running out of money and it's kind of hitting the more academic and of the college curriculum ie or they've teaching how to be a band director and things like that I knew I didn't want that wasn't gonna do that all those combination of things plus realizing that I'd never been just a full-time musician you didn't have your cavern club I thought oh it's time to pitch out and you know become a full-time musician so I I quit school and got a got a road gig with you know like a top 40 band that cover band just cover bands yeah and did various incarnations of that different bands living well at that point it was but but I was never home and maybe the holidays you know because they were full time traveling bands I mean I don't know if that even exists anymore in the sense of cover bands yeah but that's that's what I was doing at the time and I can't say enjoyed it terribly I'm I enjoyed some of the musicians I got to work with I certainly enjoyed seeing the country you know but a lot of the band size with quite frankly were pretty meager so I did take us when did you get to Nashville well after about four years no yeah it would have been close to four years of doing doing that top 40 slash country band circuit I find a sound I've got to make a stand somewhere I can't do this the rest of my life and so I took a hard look at several towns of New Orleans and Los Angeles even Minneapolis but Nashville seemed to be the one that made the most sense to me and I wound up committing Nashville I'm guessing that country music is probably not your was it your favorite type of music it it actually is among my favorite types of music I mean when I was a kid in Madison probably my face was blues Chicago blues is what I I played more of that then I played anything else but the little trio that I played with most of my high school years we played a lot of country music we you know we were into Gram Parsons and the birds and and all that stuff we do we thought this is this is cool this is it wasn't you know as I always say what wasn't your daddy's country music oh yeah it's funny because I asked Joe Osborn recorded two tracks with Gram Parsons in 67 on the international submarine whatever they could call the record home at last or safe at home anyways but I asked Joe I'm like it's Joe didn't spend a lot of time in Nashville and I said I want to know the difference between rock and country rock and he we were listening to the Gram Parsons track that he was on and he would step up to the fifth or come back down to the fourth not the formula not the Nashville formula right and basically explained to me country rock gives you more freedom and yeah in the way you move up to the note or back down video yeah it made a lot of sense yeah and I remember again with these buddies of mine we were all into it and we basically I remember going to see Merle Haggard for the first time my dad took me and I had only read about him I didn't know anything I've never heard any of his music right I kept hearing all these rave reviews and I went to this show and and while he was singing I was I mean my jaw was on the floor and I just remember thinking this guy's singing the same thing at Muddy Waters it's singing about it's its life it doesn't sound like it but it's the same subject matter you know and I thought this is this is just another form of the blues and and in that moment and I still believe this but in that moment I remember thinking this is every bit as valid as any other form of music in the world if it's done right right if it's done from the heart and done emotionally I I mean I I remember that's one of the things I liked about the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield they had those little elements of country music but they weren't totally respectful of it and to the to the degree of with the left hand he would take chances with ya they would you know the drums were loud or they you know the the bass was all over the place compared to the the more organized quote-unquote professional Nashville records were in all of which appeal to me as a kid and still does right well Joe also he got frustrated in Nashville because the producers didn't really want you to step out at least this would be mid 70s to I think he gave up around 1980 because they just you know they wanted to hear a certain thing and yeah his thing well there were there are a handful of producers that totally understood what Joe was about and hired him for it and then there were a lot of guys that didn't yes yeah II was figured out yeah Joe can't play with his finger yeah yeah I mean he you know Joe was such an iconic player such a beautiful player I mean you know he was he was an artist ripen to play the bass and you know so asking an artist to do something that constantly yeah yeah it got to him yeah drinking one didn't help either no no I'm sadly not when you when you record you normally record direct Mike damn or combination the bulb that my preference is generally not always with my preferences usually to have both both and then choose between the two yeah when you record do you prefer doing the the rhythm tracks live or overdub or is it again just the well music I I always my first preference would be to play live with a live rhythm section in the moment yeah and that's one thing that Nashville is kind of held on to we've had some waves of experimentation when I first started doing sessions which would have been the early 80s there were a few particularly some jingle accounts that I got into where you know they'd have a guy program the drums and then they put me on and build the tracks up and I just remember thinking man if this is how we're going to make records I don't want to be a recording musician it was so boring I mean there was a there was a freedom sometimes you know because you weren't bound by anything you could try a lot of different ideas not so much in jingles playing record date but it just to me was not a completely joyless way to go about it but not as joyful as that thing is making music yeah and and I've always said half of the the greatest music of all time or least in terms of pop music certainly not symphonic but in pop music music you got to believe that I say half but a big percentage of those those things have got you know the great moments sometimes come about out of a mistake right or somebody hits a bum note and it's everybody says wait a minute that's a better note let's do let's let's make that the harmony you know right and those kind of happy mistakes I think are often will they make it a little bit interesting versus they do and Daryl and everything perfect yeah and I will say too that you know one of the things that I I mean I've spent you know I guess almost the last 30 years playing to click track because somewhere along the way people decided that was a good thing I'm not convinced it is no integration the old-timers again this Joe and I've heard him talk to Dave on gate they hate the clip yeah I mean they they want to choose where where they want to be and well that's just exactly it I've always said you know every use them I mean if you're making a dance track fine if you just want absolute brutal consistency if that's the that's the desired commodity then yeah trying to click on you know if you've got a dodgy rhythm section sometimes a click track will help pull it on the other certain degree but but I always think of rhythm tempo rather as being as it's one of the most emotional components of making music you know you don't ask a singer to sing every note at the exact same intensity you don't you know you don't ask a band to play the verse as big as say the chorus you know so if you take volume out of the equation dynamics does that not greatly strip down the emotional content to me the same thing you know there's nothing wrong with there being a little lift going into that chorus there's nothing wrong with the course being a little bit faster or perhaps a little bit slower if it's a ballad and then come out of the chorus and they're back into verse and that should have its own place I'm not I'm to be clear though I am not advocating for timekeeping right you have to be able to play great time to be able to manage those things with some grace you know another difference another aspect is I think using a bass that might have a little distortion to it we might have a little single coil home or yeah or something a lobby that people are too tuned into just they want it perfect and I think having distortion or something like that yeah adds to the character oh absolutely one of the things that a couple pals and I we've started a little production company we've got a couple country records that we've done and one of the things one of the happy accidents we've stumbled into we were doing a record a couple years ago and I had my B 15 I had it set where it was pretty clean you know just a good solid fundamental sound I had brought in this little I don't even know what it is as a student model bass amp that you can't I mean the speaker's probably blown I mean it just farts on every note and I plugged into it at the same time as the B 15 and we decided to make it up and I'm telling you the two of them together not on every track there's a how much that little amp contributed to the overall sound and you can't necessarily and there might be a moment or two where you you would catch a sonic glimpse of that and hear but for the most part you never know that it's actually a very distorted signal mixed in with with the gluten but you take it out it's a significant difference in the sound and we decide for for some of these records it's a good addition do you have some do you have some producers you work for who are a little more you know looking to try to find these sounds and better sound definitely definitely they spend do they give you some time to try to dial in yeah you know I think we're talking earlier you know because record sales CD sales are not what they once were in the profit margins in general or not what they once were for the labels every producer is faced with an ever-decreasing budget with which to make his or her record so the little the decreasing amount of available time does tend to kind of shut down how much chance you get to explore look for new Sonics and write arrangements but that said my favorite people that I work for not just in Nashville anywhere in the globe are the ones that still put a priority on yeah let's not just do the obvious let's let's try something different you know and I've witnessed a very dramatic see change in Nashville that way because in my early years has a hired gun bass player there one of the reasons I caught on was because I was essentially a quick study I could read it I could hear it I got my part together very quickly and I got a reputation that I wasn't terribly proud of but I got a reputation as being a solid guy that would you know you weren't going to be waiting on me to get a record done that wasn't really what I wanted a reputation built on though you and I had a fretless steinberger maybe the guy that works on my basis in Nashville thinks it maybe was the first one that they made Joe Glaser Joe Glaser very very early model so so early that they put the the dot markers on the side in the wrong place you can't you can't look at those dots and put a UV way out of tune anyway there's a great sound bass thankfully I still have it and I started using it where I could and there you know some of the young songwriters whose demos I was doing back in that era they were all for they it was something new to them and they liked it and little by little some of those song demos were heard by the guys that were doing the producing the records of that era I'm talking about mid 80s early to mid 80s and I remember getting a call from a guy who was a wonderful guy on a great producer but very traditional country records he had huge records back in the day and he called me up and said I have been told that this is a bass that you're playing but I thought it was a synthesizer this before jock or oh no this was well after jock oh okay but the way I'm the way I played the bass the fretless bass was nothing like Chaco I mean I adored Jaco I spent a couple years like everybody else trying to figure out what in the world he was doing but but my attitude with playing fretless was at that point and still is I only wanted to occasionally give away the fact that it was a friendless I liked the fatness of the sound just the sound itself sure it was more the deal than a lot of glissandos you know right anyway this producer is kind of Ditka T was gonna say he called me up and he didn't know what it was he had never seen a fretless bass he was an old school country guy you know and and I could say he thought that it that maybe it was a synthesizer sure but when people said no well that's Glenn wor from this fretless bass well he he took a chance on me and and called me specifically to play that bass on several very very traditional country albums at that time what year I'm guessing about 85 okay maybe six a lot of friendless work I did a ton of it okay yeah very I mean it was it was kind of became one of my you know one of my calling cards but I guess I think of like Peno who made her very oh yes absolutely yes you're a little more yeah well this and this was a long time ago too I mean and again I was involved to a large degree in a kind of music country music of that era was still quite traditional you know and and and therefore quite resistant to a lot of new sounds but they did like that it was a it was a change for them and then there were other bands other projects that I did where I greatly exaggerated the fact that it was fretless so you know well you know I'm gonna get a list from you before yeah I leave today well go back and hear some of them I point out all this I guess is that you know I recognized at some point I wanted to have I wanted to give people a reason to call me a part from the idea he's just five he's dependable or he's fast or he doesn't make a lot of mistakes and there's open that's all well and good but that's not kind of what you want your career to be backed on as though as I began to explore some of these other things and tuck in some other alternatives about that time the the producers themselves kind of a younger generation of producers began to take the wheel and they were ever so much more receptive to the idea saying yeah let's try this let's try that whatever you know whatever you want to do and those thankfully there's a handful of those guys that I still work for quite a bit they still have that beautiful curiosity and willingness and I think that's why they're still viable producers actually noticed you know seeing you play the other night you you use your fingers you use your thumb and you pick if someone had asked her you have fingers or pic player what are you primarily or oh I'm gonna be all debuff I'm primarily a fingers player I mean that's what I remember whatever and I remember well alternating fingers sometimes if in the early parts of a song or soft parts I'll just kind of brush with the side of my thumb just try to get that I needi sound I don't play steel guitar anymore haven't for many years but I do have a hold over you know steel guitar you generally play with a thumb pick and write two or three finger picks well I don't used to fix any more but I'll often do some kind of a rolling thing or you know sort of a it that's a holdover from my steel guitar days you know but I mean all these things you know a pick or a different set of strings or a different instrument different amp I tend to think of myself when I'm when I am hired on as a bass player what my preference is is that it's gonna give me a chance to sort of get into character if you will much like a character actor would do okay because I'm not making my record I'm helping somebody else make theirs and it his or her songs or what we're playing they're not my songs about my record so that said I like to think if I were in this person's band what would I play right you know and sometimes to the degree if it's if it's a young artist and and again I'm thinking about being their band i'm i think both right here's a young artist and if I'm in the band I'm probably a young bass player I probably only own one bass or maybe two and I'll try to pick one or two bases for that record and I know we're splitting here we're splitting hairs here sonically obviously but I think those things are important because I think it helps in view a trademark sound or something or at least not a trademark sound but a a bit of an identity it helps sometimes the artist to have that at least that's my take on it sure sure we talked about mark permit sure okay how did you get well it's a funny story in fact like the late 80s certainly well all through the 90s I was just buried alive and session work thankfully absolutely working as much as I could physically get what you're doing you're doing between 30 and 50 no it wasn't it was it was if they matters is that the absolute peak of of the record business basic in terms of sales you probably work in some days oh we could easily done it I mean I eventually got to where I quit working some days and then eventually took Saturday's out of the calendar just trying to have a little bit of time with my family you know anyway in the face of all that though I was also kind of losing my mind because so much of the music I was doing well it was great paying and and and very very steady work was grateful to have all that he didn't do a lot for my soul it was kind of sometimes felt like I was playing the same three songs every day every day every day different artists but same three songs and so anyway I had always kept my hand in some of these little part-time local bands usually with singer-songwriter friends of mine and you know I played several nights a week with with each of these four or five different bands and one night I was playing the Bluebird Cafe with a buddy of mine named Kevin Welch and and he was wasn't is a great singer songwriter we always had a packed house every time we play with him and it was very cutting edge for country music of that time yeah definitely more of a rock and roll Sensibility I was playing the fretless a lot in his band and we we were and we were we were not the least bit interested necessarily trying to get on a radio though we did a couple records with him but it was much more about just trying to play honest music and going for it anyway long story short one night were playing down there and and Marc happened to come my office Mark Knopfler and he was seated up at the bar and finished the first set and I walked back past the bar and I was called off center so this big mitt stuck out and on the other end of it was Mark Knopfler and he introduced himself it's very complimentary and I was just I was just knocked down you know this was probably 92 okay I think probably late 92 if I remember right somewhere around there and you know we exchanged compliments and and and I didn't want to guram him so I didn't I didn't speak to him more in a couple minutes and a few months later early 93 I suppose it was I got a call from his co-producer asking if I would be interested in playing on a track when he came to Nationals absolutely you know and that was sort of the beginning of it for he and I I mean that that was the beginning stages of his first solo record and which that was well it was called golden heart was the name of the album that wasn't the song we could we actually cut a song called Speedway at Nazareth the first time I remember it's not on that record and that version never lived see the light of day we cut a completely different version of that song years later and I think it's one of the coolest songs he ever wrote and that's available that's available I think that's on I'm remember I look it up yeah his eye it's it's on one of his earlier solo records but not not the first one okay but anyway that that led to the beginnings of a friendship and and a year or two later I got called to play on another round of songs with him at that point he had he had cut with several different rhythm sections in Nashville and New Orleans and some Irish musicians in Ireland he was just kind of literally all over the globe trying to capture what was in his mind as a as a now solo artist first time ever without his longtime ban dire straits and it just worked out very fortunately for me and for several of us that we connected with him on some level who was the drummer the drummer in that that well and there were several drummers again I played on that record but the one that I worked with is a batch of songs that I did was Chad Cromwell oh yeah yeah we met Chad he was here with McNeil yeah yeah he's a great guy one of my dearest friends and and anyway that that kind of became the core of Mark's new band after after he had made that record he kind of went back through and I guess made up his mind who he wanted to pull from these various rhythm sections right put together and and put together a touring band for that record golden heart and so we toured together in 1996 which had with Chad richard Bennett on guitar guy Fletcher with his longtime collaborator and dire straits and I don't believe I think that mark offered the piano chair to a couple of different guys from Nashville but neither of whom were able to take the tour on and several of us recommended a buddy of ours from LA that we had worked with a brilliant session guy out of LA named Jim Cox he came onto that tour and then basically became that became Marc's band there for quite some time and we've had a few personnel changes Chad's no longer with us the guy that took his place is no longer with us now we've got a brilliant drummer named Ian Thomas he's kind of a British know he's British yeah he's a Welshman and he's he's probably the my guess would be he's probably the top call in it's just a monstrous player and yeah it makes time to go on tour oh yeah well you all see them we do I mean I don't know how much advance warning he gives you cuz I mean oh we we know well in advance it's not it's never a drop of a hat right thing I mean for instance we know and have known for some time that we will go out and do a tour of Europe next year and we know what the starting date of rehearsals are we know right with what the last day of the tour will be we know we've it's already booked they know exactly where we will be they probably booked all the hotels yet but they're you know way they operate way way out and trying to be clear a he's your first priority absolutely yeah and and because of the fact that I just so adore his his musicianship and his songwriting I'm a song guy I'm not a technical player per se I don't have music store chops nobody's gonna be blown away by anything I do on the instrument my thing is not my one and the only thing is I live for a great song a great lyric right and if somebody gives me that and that that gives me that opportunity to bring mark I think my best game and Mark the market they're like getting a history lesson you know well it is yeah yes great yeah silly to Philadelphia won my favor of all time did James Taylor come in and sing and bam Morrison and those guys were you with them I was there James came in sang with us yeah in Nashville and actually it was kind of a I think a double-edge thing that mark when he wrote sailing to Philadelphia he said he he very clearly pictured James as being the the high voice that partner on it so so when we actually recorded it James was there and then we wound up in the the day or two after that we cut a couple tracks for what was going to become James's record oh yeah and Mark was going to produce that but sadly it wound up we did this couple of tracks and then Mark just got so busy finishing up his record getting ready for the tour that he just between their schedules they never got that record finished much much to my regret because I'm a huge huge James Taylor family does he bring in bass parts does he let you step out or how does that work well it's a it's a blend he and his longtime co-conspirator guy Fletcher who was a great musician and a great engineer they lately the last few records we've done at mark studio the two of will will sometimes record the you know the guts of the track I mean it'll be a keeper guitar part on Mark's part sometimes keeper vocals and then they'll flesh it out with either keyboards or other instruments sometimes mark will put other guitars on and guy is a wonderful bass player himself mark plays great bass at least in this he wouldn't tell you that but I think he doesn't in the sense of coming up with great notes and straits recordings mark on bass I don't think he ever physically played it but I guarantee you he was involved in that he was involved in the creation of every one of those baselines yeah well to some degree I mean you know and like say there's no definite way that we go about things he always presents if he's got these songs already fleshed out he will generally tell us this is what I want to keep and it's not yet been the base part he's always been like you know and some of them have been just great I'm acid man I'm happy to play it again but what you've got is great but he always makes me play again and it always winds up usually I guess anyway that that becomes but that's not always the case I mean some some songs he brings in and pretty much their raw state he'll just sit there with his acoustic guitar and play them down to us and then we start from scratch on those both of those things I really like doing again because he and guy have such beautiful ideas when it comes to a bass part I will often just just shamelessly steal from them and then just find my own way to kind of learn in the corners here they're different which they give me so much freedom to do you know but you know you've said something earlier and this may be a good time to actually I don't think I ever answered it this might be a good time to answer when you were asking about do I prefer recording with a live band or overdubs I do enjoy both those things the advantage of doing it just doing a session just as an overdub you you have time to think you have time to be very specific about it you have time to try different things all of which I really enjoy doing the downside of overdubbing I always feel is that it's a bit like trying to take part in a conversation that has already happened because one of the things I'm always conscious of and I swear I hear it on a lot of records where I'll think you know that's a great bass part if he or she had played that part live I mean with the rhythm section the drummer would have given him something back or the piano player would have leaned in and voiced a chord to go with it he would have been that call-and-response things and that you don't get I mean you can you know if you're very clever about it you can write the illumination yeah yeah that's that's the difference between there's no no right or wrong but that's the difference to me um if it's okay the all music guide on the Internet either there was recordings and things just a short list you've got Chris Botti Alan Jackson Vince Gill George Strait Rodney Crowell Martina McBride Bob Seger blutter Loretta Lynn Joe Cocker Mary Chapin carpenter Brooks & Dunn Jimmy Buffett Mark Knopfler Reba McEntire Winona Emmylou Harris LeAnn Rimes Elvis Presley yeah well I wouldn't put that up there I mean it's technically true but it's a duet yeah he's one of those things where somebody thought it'd be a good idea to play yeah to do I think he did I could do whets album of some contemporary country singers with Elvis and maybe is a Christmas album I can't honestly remember what it was but whatever was the idea being they had come up with the technology where they could massolit him they could mask the instruments on his original tracks well they did it too early yeah well yeah yeah that's a whole yeah about is Tim McGraw Marty Stewart Faith Hill Jim Lauderdale Merle Haggard The Chieftains Willie Nelson Richard Marx Clint Black Peter Cetera Dena Carter Toby Keith the Mavericks Keith Urban Travis Tritt Pam Tillis Alabama mark chestnut Kenny Rogers many McCready Lorrie Morgan Hank Williams jr. Jeff Foxworthy Dusty Springfield Conway Twitty Bellamy Brothers Randy Travis Suzie bogus Jerry Douglas Chet Atkins I wish I could tell you I remember each and every well that's quite a that's quite a repertory out of you I'm very pleased you know I I mean it's it's one of those things that my wife and I talked about how lucky we've been because there has definitely been you know a decline in the music business it's not when we were kids there just weren't that many options that you know the three major networks went off the air at midnight TV network so there were sports and TV and you know movies all that kind of stuff but obviously no internet no video games and then of course with a change in technology where people could you know scream or download without having to pay all those things let up yeah all those things have combined to bring about a sharp line of music but you know yeah I don't know if music is important to kids it's important to kids as it is for our generation I don't think it can be because just because there are so many more options available just when we were kids there weren't that many options so yeah yeah you know you could be into whatever you were into but music was one of the few options available anyway one of the things I was gonna say is that my wife and I talked about it I was very fortunate that my rise if you will through the the hired gun session player ranks of Nashville kind of course bonded with the the boom all right CD sales and so for quite a few years there there was literally more work than anybody could get to and they would book you sometimes a year in advance just to be sure that they had a particular rhythm section in place reminds me of Motown when Jamerson and the Funk Brothers have gone on tour they closed up shop yeah a record right and I imagine that similar to what's going on well now now it's but now it's very because now there's you know there's a generational change in place there are a lot of beautiful young players and Nashville young producers there will soon be if there aren't already some young record execs you know it's it's an ongoing thing it it changes hands you know and I don't try to stay as busy as I that maybe you I'm coming back on November 15th I wanted to be book sixteenth and you know you do that now or do you well because of this this co-production venture I've got with these other two buddies of mine we can steer a good percentage of how busy we want to be just in what records we actually take on what you tell me about this well first I should tell you my partner's are brilliant absolutely brilliant producer slash publisher music publisher in Nashville named Frank Liddell just a he's just a genius and I don't use that word lightly and my other partner is he's a brilliant engineer named Chuck Amy who also has been Marc's co-producer for many years this guy is there is not a better engineer on the planet I mean again absolute genius and so anyway we become very close friends through the years I had been friends with both chuck and Frank they didn't know each other they're not kept saying you know I'm not gonna get you guys together you would like each other that did that they instantly hit it off and we just finally decided let's just take on a couple projects ourselves because we liked each other personally and we knew we had shared music instincts so we've done a handful of records we've only been doing this I guess but we we've got Miranda Lambert's new record is one that we did and we did an album on young man named David nail wonderful singer named David nail we've got one finished on lee Ann Womack who in my book is the greatest living country singer cool period are you playing it all that or if you have a talent mm-hmm what about if you're if you're out of town is that if I'm not available those guys to date they've usually waited till I would be back in town if it was something they were going to produce just the two of them or either one them by themselves if they can they'll wait till I get back and be a part of it but but we don't have an ironclad rule it says we don't we don't have to work with each other we just like to you know but anyway so that helps me steer a percentage of how busy I am obviously I'm not involved in but maybe four or five days worth of tracking on any one of those records but then all the overdubs and background vocals and all that stuff of course takes endless hours so that occupies a lot of my time and I still have very strong loyalties to a number of producers and artists in town that have used me for many years if they ring up no questions asked to honor I'm there the only time I'm not there is if I'm now with mark I could say now one of the things that's changed now because the record sales CD sales have dropped the budgets don't exist like they like they used to and back when I was running all the time thankfully the town the business was just awash in money so the labels were signing anybody they thought they could have a shot with you know now they've had to really clamp down the valves and they and they they sign people to kind of more the way it used to be I suppose we're going back to more like a singles business where they're not going to put the money up necessarily for a full album they'll cut a few sides put them out there see if they get a reaction if they don't get a reaction they unfortunately usually cut them loose and on to the next one my friends in Nashville my session pals if you will that that stay busy nowadays stay busy by doing anything and everything they can get demos any demos Tomczyk demos and local what they call low-budget records where they're just you know they just don't have the money so they just say we can pay you this at scale that's all it is and you know there's still a fair amount of that work but again I'm not to sound like an old lion wandering off back into the woods but I've done so much that I'm grateful for it but one of the things that I want to do with what's left of my so-called career is I just want to play the best music I can get in on mark fits the bill mark is is chief among that and and I can't imagine anything coming about that would change that you know I've uh it's two more questions than would be done can you tell me of all-time who are your favorite bass players I've been asked here of people that are still alive so let's go all time and they can still be alive okay well of all time my first big influence I didn't really even know who he was when I first began to become aware of him was Willie Dixon and to this day the stuff he came up with and just as a songwriter and a bass player on that yeah I should know more about it well all those great Muddy Waters renner John Berry he would have been on some a Chuck stuff yeah upright bass upright bass but just lose oh man and what a player and just a just you know the right note always the right note you just had it and of course everybody's favorite favorite Jamerson just killed Joe Osborn one of my favorites Paul McCartney obviously Jaco you know all the usual suspects I mean but but there are other guys that I really loved - there's a guy actually became friends with years later his name is Lance hoppin and he played in that band called Orleans back in the days and they had several hits he was another one of those guys I bought their records and I fell in love with his big playing because he was one of those guys that could hear the alternate note not just play you the obvious no he came up with great line a lot he's still alive I hope he's still playing haven't talked to him in years but I hope and trust he is a beautiful player great player very soulful great sound everything I always loved am record II he was one of those guys that had such great imagination love yeah yeah you know and Jerry Scheff obviously you know it just goes on and on there's so many great bass I love David hood from Muscle Shoals also today donning nicest guy you'd ever absolutely complete sweetheart complete I'm going to get him up here oh you should you'd love him and they would look he's a holdup he's using one of our the Lakeland Basin yeah records now how great we listened to what he played on and just well and you know I have to have to mention two other names too in Nashville my friend Michael Rhodes I just so adore his playing but and I will apologize to you Michael as I say this because it's what I've always said though the King Kong daddy in my book in Nashville is David Hungate okay yeah I mean I always have I've said it many times I was able to work a little bit with day well Dave is one of those guys he's such a consummate musician and he was one of those guys who always I so loved how he would play such beautiful fundamental Ray's and then he would find one little spot yeah yeah just give you one little spot where you go oh my god dad a master I got a chance to hang out and watch Dave Hungate Joe Osborn trade stories that would be oh yeah yeah because I mean it was just so cool yeah these guys I've always told all my bass player pals back in Nashville and anybody else you know that in my mind David Hungate could gather all of us big players up Nashville tie us up and a little sad drop us in the Chicago River a bunch of unwanted kids he's the guy and I have to say one other thing too because he doesn't get mentioned much anymore but he certainly should the the great nashville bassist Bob Moore to this day I mean just for being a swinging just playing the right no driving up he played electric as well but but he was always known for his upright what did the track oh he's he's played on I mean he played on there's he probably one of the most recorded bassist you all the time but he did a ton of you know if he was the Nashville mainstay he and several guys that preceded him and I don't know that he didn't Johnny Cash she probably did at some point but he played with Jerry Lee Lewis on a lot of those records he played on you know Conway Twitty Loretta Lynn Dolly Parton on and on on one of the things he's probably most known for was that his work was Roger Miller that's him on king of the road yeah he had that great background I don't know him personally and I don't know we don't live back he's still watch still playing great from what I from what he lives somewhere in Nashville but I don't know where you've never better I have met him a couple times yeah but again he's just was was and I'm sure is just an astonishing musician and he was they all said you know they called him King back in the day cuz he was the guy that drove those bands I mean he made he he made them how about contemporary say LA or New York you got anybody who well tips your you know I I don't claim to be up on probably the new hot guns if you will I'm thinking the 70s but certainly well certainly in LA certainly Bob glob and adore his plan and of course we'll the Bob Babbitt was a friend of mine and I know he was a obviously one of the mainstays in Detroit I somehow another always thought him as a New York player because when he moved to Nashville he had come from New York he was he was a beauty he was but again and obviously you know Pino is off the scale well that's gonna say he was one of those guys he you know obviously he broke open his own territory with that brilliant fretless work that he did right at the point where he didn't want to do this well and he was very why I don't know what his you know what led him to it I would be guessing and I don't want to do that but however he arrived at he was able to show the world there's more to me than that exactly how about a load of this and he can back it out you have you heard yeah a little of it I don't own it but I'm what I heard of it was fantastic but yeah I know bass players that listen of that and they say you know it's got to be all overdubs and cut together because it's just not humanly possible but you know says it straight ahead yeah I mean that's a man at the top of his game and not not many but I'm not my guess is is that he you know he's got the kind of confidence that he weighed in there and go for it and probably land it you know his confidence is his is his bass playing he's the nicest guy in the world you never know that this guy's you know the who first call yeah yeah hopefully we're gonna get him right here about three weeks credit through town great playing with the WHO and yeah ask me about a mute system on a bass so hopefully we'll have that yeah yeah that one too cool I can't think you know for taking the time on my pleasure let's have a look at some cool judge bases [Music] all right once where some kids with wandering why was trying to base out the music's towards satyrs me and within 30 seconds a piece of board HR I'm not a child by any sense of that everything I do I always say I'm totally utterly my collaborators fire to always aspire to is a songwriter driven music if you will that said when I hear a song for the first time hopefully I've heard it without it being a full-blown demo I like to hear it where it's just absolutely you - yellow exactly that's my favorite way of hearing so that said if I'm lucky enough to get that if a singer-songwriter say or the artist whoever brings the song presents it if we can get them to play it to us live or hear a recording of it where it's just piano and vocal or guitar book or whatever as stripped-down as possible that's my way to hear a song and that's the moment that I feel like I actually begin to go to work because often is not those first few things you here will become sort of a motif of what you come up with and for me it's not so much a chops thing as I mentioned earlier it it's it is a sonic thing so that said one of the things that I kind of pride myself on being able to do is hopefully approach things with an open mind and for that through the years I just have kind of not come up with anything necessarily revolutionary new but just trying to get the right sound behind whoever I'm about to record with or before play live with so for instance again this is not groundbreaking territory but but I will often you know are you music I'm muting okay I just love the old Motown stuff I love the sound as much as the playing itself and you know so I will often mute so you know for certain things I'll play that way obviously just I used to it's funny how years ago and I was a kid I alternated between my ring finger and first finger I know why the little finger just was kind of tucked out into space but that when I went back in earnest in studying string bass I shipped it back to the first tooth okay primarily because left hand you do the upright one to four or nice ya know I grew up I didn't grow up playing upright but a little bit study I did early on I was taught the Samantha method so I still use to that fingering although I have shifted I've been taking some lessons from a brilliant symphonic musician named Joel reached are di re ist he's the principal basis with the National Symphony okay and Joel is a student of the Francois Botha method which is a very different fingering where basically and this is actually kind of spilled into my electric playing as well the Rabat method basically instead of having half positions and intermediate positions the way the samanda method taught his ideology is more where you basically you anchor your thumb on the back of the neck in several different places and then you pivot your hand but you use that thumb as your reference we're using that technique onstage definitely use that yeah definitely use that for my upright work again I mean it's a blend because I do have a certainly a holdover from the semana de so that the lower positions yeah the lower positions is and again I play it's a big 7/8 base you got to have you've got to have some strength to get those strings down on the neck and hold them there and in the lower positions on string based some guys did it but most guys relied on having those yeah which so I still in the lower positions I still do that I have kind of unconsciously I think adapted to some of some of that Rabat technique where again instead of just shifting constantly with the left hand sometimes I'll try to keep things in a general region and just shift again I know if you can see that but instead of shifting the whole hand if I'm just going up for a note I don't necessarily move the thumb I'm not doing that to be clever it just is that a harder well I don't know if that's a good question I mean the theory the French swallow rebuff came with he was totally self-taught completely self-taught and he had nobody to draw from he didn't are you still alive he's might be eighty years maybe I'm not insulting him but he's a phenomenal player where's I think he lives in France but I honestly don't know I don't know where and I've never met a man who'd love to but but his theory was that particularly because the lifelong struggle for playing string bass as well as a fretless bass electric bass is intonation that's your that's your opponent if it was and his theory was if I really teach my left hand if I teach my thumb probably paraphrasing he might not appreciate some of the my own theory of what he's got going but anyway I think he feels like if I if I teach my left hand where these anchor points are then I can just adjust accordingly just swing the fingers a little before a little in front of the the thumb or you know further south if you will but if that thumb stays there and I know where that thumb is supposed to be it increases the odds of landing the note in tune as opposed to Samantha where you had to memorize all the half positions of the intermediate positions and there's an argument for that too regular the world is full of so your your subdued your approach is kind of become in my own like a real conscious thing but so much of you know playing the upright I can't help but bleed back into my electric plank and as I mentioned earlier I used to play steel guitar for many years and one of the holdovers on that there's a couple of holdovers have any example worked up but but I will will you know sometimes get a little rhythm thing going basically where I'm pulling down with the thumb and then using these [Music] again like I say I think it wasn't something I consciously set out to do just a couple times on record dates I would hear something in my head and and I realized I was kind of using that leftover steel guitar technique there's one thing I can show you that I came up with called Hill Farm blues there's only a kind of a taste of it on the record cuz it have a short fade but but we messed with that I just couldn't seem to find anything that was particularly cool on the bass but finally I dropped my D string songs based in E minor and and I eventually I kind of came up with this little part that became the the main structure of the bass line where I'm playing a minor doing this hammer-on thing [Music] [Music] [Music] well you know as much as I love those guys yeah I'm myself okay I don't have tons of facility tons of chops I've got a good theoretical background I think a halfway decent ear for harmony and for jobs give me too much yeah and again you know I've told you this there was a guy that I was I followed to other bass players into this guy's band both of whom just could completely kick my ass any job they could they could kick my ass when they were asleep you know they were just such extraordinary players and I got the gig after the second one of these guys departed and did the gig one night and it was early days with that band and I went to the singer whose band it was and I said why am I here I said you know as well as I do these guys were much better players more advanced and better dear everything and a guy just without we missing a babysitter you're here because you make me sound good those guys were here to make themselves sound good again I make no bones about I'm a collaborator I don't haven't made a solo records on my panel passed me when I will I don't know that it would ever happen and if it did it would probably more of us from a songwriter see one even at a bass player content with the basses you know every every artist that I work with I as I said earlier I try to get into character and play for them and play that try to make their songs come to life sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't so that is sort of my philosophy is again more about sounds I will use a pick if I think that's right I mean I love nothing more than just you know just just a bass with fresh round wounds on it running through an anthem just because Billy Miller with a pick you know it's my only chance to be 17 again but I'm to me it's all valid and and there's a song called yeah and again I think you know after having had a career of accompanying other people I think I have arrived at certain stylistic things I certainly had my own set of sensibilities but again my heroes back in the day most of those guys were so great and they were visionaries I mean you know so I just borrowed from everybody as we do and maybe there's a little bits and pieces of all those guys in me and hopefully there are a few subtle things here and there I can add to it very good thank you yeah

Channel: D. Lakin Basses

Views: 1,094

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: jobTdWlE1JY

Length: 90min 59sec (5459 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019