Those BlueBook Gatherings sound really weird to me. We don't have anything like that here (or maybe I just haven't been invited) and I bet if I ever hosted one, the folks would get tired of hearing "Ack! Watch Genie with your ears so we can all end at the same time!"


We have a bunch of isolated musicians around here who used to mingle with the same men who were my Betters. Until someone knows where they are and can let them know where to find gatherings, a lot of them sit around home and play. After a few years of playing alone, it tends to give some of them kind of screwy timing.
When we get some of them in the group, I follow them as closely as I can and do a lot of visiting. They're our missing link.

Some awful timing seems to come from guys who don't have anybody to play with and do their learning by TAB.
It has to be really hard to learn an instrument from a piece of paper!