OK Al: Your right, ya don't know, so here are as many of the stories as I can remember. First Sorcha Dorcha, we were booked into a gig in another country, I think the Bahamas if I recall, and on the eve of the flight, I left the band because the band mates were constantly stoned, and as I didn't know what the constructive possession laws were in that country, and we were sharing rooms, I didn't want to put my wife and I in the position of being arrested for drug possession, as we don't do that sort of thing. Now, one of the three band members who went down is now in jail for sexually abusing children, my fault? Then, the next incarnation. Mandolin player, flute player A, singer B, fiddler C. Singer B has an alcoholic boy friend who beats her, and she always shows up late for gigs, tripping onto stage over my Uilleann pipe drones, I have to loan her money to get to gigs, and though she asks for help leaving her abusive boy friend, she does nothing, and finally quits when I mention that she should learn the words to the songs, as she misses rehearsals constantly. We take on singer D. She objects to the song Yvette's Song that I wrote about the forced assimilation of Canadian natives. It is a true story from work I did with hunter gatherer Indians. She tells me she does not feel she should sing about other people's liberation struggles. Fine, I tell her sleep on it, think it over, if we don't tell the story who will, as our electric in New York costs them their land. The next day, she objects to a song I wrote about the murder of a Gypsy mother in the Czech Republic, where the skin heads who murdered her got six months for disorderly conduct. She says she needs to know the other side of the story. Member A says, "what other side, the bitch had it coming?" She leaves taking fiddler C, in comes singer E and fiddler F. Fiddler F has anger management problems and singer E and member A keep telling me they are afraid of him after he blows up several times during rehearsals. He leaves the band, and frankly I missed him. Along about that time, I go to England to stay with a friend who is dy\ieing, leaving new demos with member A to get gigs when I return. My friend dies, I return to find he has not only left to go into a band that does not do civil rights songs, he has convinced singer F to leave, though not to go into the band he has gone into. I am speaking to another fiddler Uilleann piper member G, and couple H and I overhear us and say, "we love your band, can we play also." We take on singer J. By this time, from audience reaction, I am doing a lot of the vocals. Before this, I had pushed other singers and basically thought of myself as a piper and whistle player, but I was getting good reviews. Singer J had time problems, so we took on alternate singer K. The two together did lead on some songs and harmonies behind us. Singer J often forgot the words and objected to doing more than one take on recording sessions and didn't rehearse. She left. Singer K asked to be paid for a benefit that most of the band was doing for free. I paid her cash out of my own pocket from my busking proceeds. Two months latter she tells me that I never paid her and she wants another two hundred bucks. I pay her again and she leaves. (my fault of course). Then, Sept. 11, one of the couple member H is really shaken, was close saw a lot, and just stopped taking part in the band as did his wife. They then announce on their web site that they are free of the bondage of my band. I mistreated them all the time you see, in that often they got paid, when all I got was the expenses of the gig, and no cash, did all the heavy lifting, and they waltzed in to perform. by the way second Uilleann piper (it was great harmonies between the two of us) had already left the band as he was part of the famous fight where member I played with her back to the audience, so I let him go to please H and I. So, I take on guitar player member L and fiddler M. We do a gig in North Carolina, and doing my songs, get a huge reception and offers of other gigs. We get back to New York, I put out several hundred bucks in new promotional materials as M asked us to take on her boy friends member N. Two days later she calls to say she does not want to further commit to the band, and as the band is now defunct, (so she says) without her, can I give her the contact info so she can do the gigs we were offered in Appalachia right. So I get another fiddler. member O. He tells me he does not want to commit enough for me to take bookings, he is only with the band to learn Irish tunes, at which time member L tells me that, though I have incorporated her singing and her songs, which are rather nice, introspective songs about being a woman folk singer, she does not want to do my songs. Yup, join my band, do her songs but not mine. Well, there we are, I may have left one or two folks out in the story and I admit, it is my telling, but see Rashamon, we only have our own limited perspective.
I am to blame? Maybe. I can see why, when I played for six months with a broken rib, right under the Uilleann Pipe bellows, and my band members offered no help to take the PA system down five flights of stairs and back up after the gig, no help setting up, no help pushing the PA through the snow, expected to be paid and were before and generally instead of me, why working for an old bastard like me would be slavery.
Cheers Al. hope your band treat you as well.
Larry