Thumpin

It all started back in Kenora, Ontario. Some friends were getting a band together and the missing piece was the bass guitar. It was 9th grade and my family was new in town, with my parents moving there to pastor a church. I had piano lessons when I was younger, until my pushback finally got to be too much. I took guitar lessons for a while before we left Brandon and I kinda liked that. But now, a bassist was needed.

I remember the first bass, a starter model for sure, graciously provided by my parents. I had a couple of books but mostly it was "Somebody start playin' and I'll figure something out." Then it was mix tapes with band songs, over and over until it felt good. Not the worst way to learn an instrument: just get into the music.



I remember long practices with the gang, hanging my feet over the edge of the stage and getting so relaxed that I wondered if I could fall asleep and keep playing. Never happened. I remember standing on my amp a lot too, to feel the vibrations better. I don't know why people don't do more of that.

Bass #2 came while I was still in Kenora. Barry Rogers knew a guy in southern Ontario somewhere who had a Yamaha BB2000 sunburst red bass that was supposed to be really sweet. I remember the plush velvet, form-fitting case and thinking I'd never seen anything so cool. I think I've still got a hand written receipt somewhere. Wish I knew where Barry is now. Long time.

I played that bass all the way to college in Minneapolis and through my freshman year. Then I tried out for this traveling group called One Accord and actually got the gig! At home at my parents place in Ninette, Manitoba, I went in to the music store in Brandon and traded up to an Ibanez 5 string, bass #3. Not too many people had 5 string basses back then and my friends thought I was a pretty bold for making the switch with an 8 month tour coming up and a recording project to lay down in the studio. Pshaw!

Then I ran over my own bass with the bus on tour. The girls beat us back to load up one morning and had, unbeknownst to me, started stacking equipment beside the bus in the parking lot. I felt a th-thump as the rear passenger-side duallies rolled over what I thought was a snow bank. I stopped after a check in the rear view. Walking to the scene, I saw my bass case crushed and mangled, muddy tire tracks across the middle. Quietly and alone, I pulled open the cover and saw the most amazing sight. The five strings of the bass were ruined, crimped with fret lines. There was a vice-like compression on the back of the neck, a few inches from the body. Everything else was fine! If it had been a skitch toward the neck, it would have missed the support and snapped the neck. If it had been a skitch toward the body, the pickups and knobs and hardware would have been crushed. I picked up new strings and played the Ibanez at our next gig. I'll have to find the picture of the case with the tire tracks on it. 

I sold that bass after college, just feeling like it was a distraction from what I was supposed to be doing. I remember renting a Ken Smith bass and a Modulus from Laabs Music in Stevens Point to play at Spencer Lake Bible Camps. Those basses were cool, and I stacked our entire youth group sound system on either side of the drummer for a massive, beefy stereo chorus effect just for my bass. Good times!

Bought a Yamaha 5 string (bass #4) a few years later, good enough to use live or in the studio...that's still the main axe today. These days I play once a month with the band at Northwoods Vineyard Church in Tomahawk, WI. Kinda fun bein' the old guy.

 So many great musicians that I've been able to jam with over the years. And I got a B.A. in Music Theory and Composition, and I directed choirs and played piano and synth and drums, and lots of singin'. But maybe at the heart of all of that, I'm just a bass guy. I love the virtuoso violinist at the symphony, but when a row of upright basses hits full bow, forget about it! I love the rippin' lead guitar solos and funky, choppy, chordal stuff, but a smooth, tasteful fretless or a slappin', poppin' bass groove will draw me in like nothing else.

I mostly stopped going to concerts at some point. I remember standing in a crowd in front of some band in Appleton, WI, thinking, "You know, I can chase around my whole life watching people do this or I can just live my life and make music when the chances roll around." Done. I'll never be anything but a local yokel on the bass, but it's been a lot of years of settlin' into the groove and makin' whatever I'm part of a little bit better.

And I like to listen, and appreciate. Here's one of my faves... Victor Wooten, Bass Tribute and reprise with reference to my man Abraham Laboriel