Cindy, Loki, and I are zooming along I-20 right now at… yeah, the speed limit, right… trying to make our way back home to Atlanta. Thanks goes to Cindy for driving so I can get this typed…aren’t wives just handy to have around: I should get two more (just kidding. love you). Man, I think the interstate through Alabama was specifically designed to murder drivers. Craziness. Plus they like to put empty police cars on the interstate shoulder in hopes of scaring drivers to slow down. I know where I’m gonna siphon my gas for the next trip through. Heh.

Anyway, I played The Mad Hatter in Clinton, MS last night. First let me say that I had a great time. Any chance to play in front of folks is a blessing to me, but there was goofiness afoot. I’m gonna ramble a bit about the goofiness, but don’t get a negative impression of the events that took place. Hopefully I will effectively explain that everything is still groovie and, as always, works out for the best. So before I get started, thanks to the folks at The Mad Hatter for having me out. Moving along….

We got into town around 2PM central time, and checked into the Comfort Inn. That place rocks by the way. They are always cool about letting us have Loki in the room. It’s getting increasingly more difficult to find a hotel that allows pets especially incarnates of evil that masquerade as Chihuahuas. In the hotel lobby, Cindy picked up one of the free presses to see if the venue had remembered to advertise me in the sound menu thingy. I totally encourage venues to bill me as “Solo Bass” and not as “Darren Michaels” because usually free press sound menus tend to only list names without any description. It’s my theory that at this point in my career “Solo Bass” will garner more interest than just “Darren Michaels”. Anyway, according to the free press, a “Darren Greene” was supposed to be playing The Mad Hatter in my time spot. Darren Greene?! Heh, where in the inverted pig nipple did they get that name? I thought it was just a typo in that one paper. Not so! Another free press billed the same exact name! What the f-bomb?! Yes, my first name is Darren, and my solo album is titled Green. I guess I can understand that mix-up, but where did the extra “e” come from? Oddness. I guess the typo was from whomever informed the free presses.

Oh well, no biggie. Most folks that come to the shows learn about them through flyers, word of mouth, or my website. So, I just kinda laughed this one off. For future reference, if you’re gonna bill my name wrong, you might as well do it in a beneficial way. Bill me as Blink 182 or someone else famous to attract a crowd, so when people make it out to the venue they’re like, “Solo Bass? Hmmm. Well, Barb, we drove all the way out here. Might as well stay.”. Ha ha. Maybe I should bill myself differently every venue as sort of a running gag. Email me with cool pseudonyms. I could post a list or something. Heh…

Okay fast forward to driving to The Mad Hatter to set up for the show. Um, The Mad Hatter moved! Luckily, they just moved two doors down. Man, could you imagine if it was a bigger move, and they didn’t notify me? I think I would have just set up in the street.

So I walked a few doors down to the new Hatter (which now allows smoking, bleeh!), and I learned that although I booked the night for just me playing, I’m now sharing the evening with two other acts. Plus the cover to get in was now double what I’d advertised on flyers and my website. Interesting. The other acts were just as surprised as I was. They had booked the night ever farther in advance than I had! So we had a brief discussion on who was to go on first. I’ve gotta say these guys, Justin and Jenny Lee from Midwest Dilemma and soloist Kyle Harvey, were just superdupercalifrajalista cool about the whole deal. They were just so laid back and eloquent. Thanks to them for letting me do my solo bass thing for an hour and half while they waited patiently to play.

Anyway, on to the show! The turnout in Clinton is getting larger and larger each time I play there. Hopefully that means I’m doing something right. Folks were a little quiet during the first few songs, but they soon warmed up to me. The crowd got even better when more and more familiar faces showed up. My brother, Sam Michaels, was there… hadn’t seen him in about a year. John Jayroe, all-round-cool-guy-extraordinaire, was there with his youth group. I wish I could have hung out longer with those guys.

The Maziarz clan showed up, but soon left because Meg got kicked out!!! What the heck?! Meg totally out-rockstarred me!!! You’ve got to have some serious mojo to get the boot from a coffeehouse in Clinton, Mississippi.

It was a real bummer, though! Anytime I play in Clinton, Meg and crew come out to support me. They treat me like family… most times even better than family. Plus Meg had just driven all the way from Birmingham. So it’s not really hip for a venue owner to kick out folks that I invited. The only thing Meg did was complain about the double billing and the wrong name in the free press. I’m confused as to why she got kicked out. Thanks to the Maziarz tribe for hanging outside to listen. I’m sad the venue owners couldn’t have treated them better.

The night was a lesson in turning lemons into lemonade. The wrong billing in the free press made me laugh more than anything. The triple booking at the venue turned out cool, too. I got to meet some really cool folks, Justin, Jenny Lee, and Kyle. Plus, I found their music to be really hip and inspiring. I hope they make it out to Atlanta sometime. Meg getting kicked out just pissed her off enough to plan a private party for me to play at, and she also may help me find more places to play in the area. All’s well that ends well.

Now on to the next gig….

The NAMM show was cool. Try to imagine every instrument created simultaneously being plucked, strummed, tapped, slapped, beaten and/or pounded and amplified to 11. It’s kinda like the background noise you here whilst flying in a 747 but louder. As you walk booth to booth treading on hideous red carpet, out from the rumble pokes a bit of melody or the world’s fastest pentatonic riff executed with the world’s most difficult technique. Ah, NAMM show riffs. Choking the walkways are legions of musicians, salespeople (who probably masquerade as musicians), and dragged along spouses. Most of the musicians are impeccably dressed according to the preaching of each player’s chosen musical tastes. Well, except for the famous folks who try to dress down (does that ever work?). The garble of smoozing rumbles past your ears…the swish of business cards…the clank of self produced CDs…nervous laughter from fans meeting idols. This is the language of NAMM. It is spoken by my people. I am of this tribe. I love every minute.

My almost-forgotten college textbook from my World Music class defines music as any man-made organization of pitch. Gotta love definitions. This one can possibly describe the language of NAMM. There’s pitch, though perhaps too much at once. Plus there’s organization…lots. But it seems to me to be the same type of organization that could be achieved by a room full of monkeys with enough laptops and cheaply-printed, not-to-scale maps. So, yes according to the textbook, the NAMM cant is music. Hmmm…I’m undecided.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some musical monsters lurking among the booths of NAMM. Lot’s of players are out there banging out some amazing stuff. But I like the invisible monsters. The ones tucked away in the hiding places created by large groupings…the ones that greet in a humble manner as they splatter your conception of music into a mangled, unrecognizable smear inside the back of your skull…the ones that through the airplane-ride-rumble, quietly shine. Monsters like Michael Manring, Adam Nitti, Steve Bailey, and Steve Lawson are the ones I caught a glimpse of. I’m sure there were more lurking, but my eyes and ears were useless for detecting them.

Manring’s performance at the Zon booth was amazing. Sure, his technical abilities with the instrument are quirking and show stopping, but this is eclipsed by the music this guy brings into the world. I’ve never witnessed so many different emotions interpreted through the medium of electric bass. Pity only a handful of folks stopped to listen.

Adam Nitti is always a treat. His music is witty and fresh, and his groove gets impossibly tighter each time I hear him…which has been many times. Listening to him play is almost like talking to the guy. He’s that fluent in the language of bass, and he‘s got a lot of interesting things to say. However, I think this guy’s main strength is his lack of satisfaction with his playing. He pushes himself so hard, you can feel it behind each note. He still bounces around lika ferret, though.

I finally got to meet Steve Lawson. His performance at the Modulus Booth was really hip, although he had to contend with an annoying guitarist in the adjacent booth. Don’t you despise folks that spray their wank all over good music? It should be sacrilegious…like farting in church. Anyway, I also caught Lawson when he played the Marriott Lounge on Saturday. His use of Ebow is inspiring, and his looping makes me want to kick myself for not being that clever. More importantly, his music is very organic and mantra-ish. His form is no form…layers on layers that create an ego-less sonic vibe. It’s very refreshing from the typical cookie cutter writing that’s around. I enjoyed it so much, I had to buy a copy of all the CDs he had with him. He’s the dog’s bollocks.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have an opportunity to listen to Steve Bailey’s playing at this NAMM (…heard him last summer NAMM, though), but I swear that guy was around somewhere…I’m so bummed out that I didn’t get to hear him.

Also, I’d like to mention Dale Titus of Dana B. Goods. He’s so patient with my rants about wanting Warwick to bring back the Fortress model. Thanks to him for chatting with me even though he was undoubtedly crazy busy. Oh, and Dale told me that his solo bass album may be available pretty soon, so keep an eye out for it.

If you haven’t done so yet, check out these musicians that I just mentioned. I’ll try to get links to their sites up on my page soon.

Thanks to Wilson Braswell for getting Cindy and me into the show. We had a great time! It was such a great excuse to finally travel to LA.

Okay, this is getting too long. I want to talk about hanging out in LA with my bud Derek Dague and Cindy’s relatives, but I’ll have to save that for another time. Thanks for reading!!!

darren