Rock star

A little story about my weekend:

Last Tuesday, I got a call from my friend Rob whom I used to play music with. He told me that Shake Anderson was playing at Broadway Christian Church, and Rob wanted to know if I wanted to play.

Open for Shake Anderson, I thought. That would be fantastic.

I consider myself a bass player — aspiring to be sure, but with a small amount of ability — so naturally I have several pros that I look up to. My three favorite bass players, in no particular order, are: Pino Palladino, Victor Wooten and Shake Anderson. I dig them all for very different reasons, but suffice it to say that those are my favorites. So opening for Shake Anderson would be an amazing moment for me.

Later that day, Rob called back to give me the list of the songs I would be playing. He started naming these tunes, a lot of which were Shake’s songs.

I really don’t think we should be playing Shake’s songs before he goes on, I told Rob.

“No man, you’re going to be Shake’s bass player.”

It’s funny that sometimes the feeling you get when you get really bad news is the feeling you get when you get really good news. I’m actually not sure which one of those I felt — probably somewhere in the middle — but I almost declined right there. Nope, not gonna do it. Get somebody else. I can’t play for one of my heroes of the instrument.

But for some reason, I played it cool. Yea man, no problem. Just misunderstood you.

Fast forward to Thursday night, when Shake Anderson and Phil Keaggy were playing at Asbury College. My good friend Ely opened for them with his band — killed it, by the way — and I sat in the back after taking some pictures. JD Blair, who is currently Shake Anderson’s drummer and has played with two of my three favorite bassits and is one of my three favorite drummers, came out and sat on a couch to prepare himself to go on.

I joined him on the couch, introduced myself, told him I was playing with him Sunday and basically exhaled every concern I had up to that point. I’m nervous, I look up to you guys, I don’t have the chops Shake does — he stopped me.

“Chops?” he said. “Chops? Don’t worry about no chops. You groove?”

Yea, I said. I groove. That’s actually where I’m at my best.

“You’re gonna be fine. Nothing fancy. Just stay with me and it’ll be great.”

Then JD went out and played his set with Shake and the Ascenxion Band. Incredible show. Did nothing for my confidence.

We had practice for the show Friday and Saturday. I showed up, pulled out my bass and plugged in. Shake and JD came over, shook my hand and surveyed my gear.

“Five string Jazz, Kustom amp, ok,” Shake said. “Turn it on, show me what you got.”

I don’t do well put on the spot like that, I faked my way through some weenie little lick and looked up.

“Ok. Uh, let’s get started,” he said. Strike one.

We played through the first part of a couple of the tunes, me fumbling around and Shake hollering a bunch of corrections. JD appeared in front of me and grabbed my shoulders.

“You good man?” he asked with a smile on his face.

Yea, I’m good.

“Man let it go, be flexible. Treat this like a jazz show and just go with it. Have fun.” He went back behind his drum kit.

From there, I started to get a little more comfortable, even had some fun a couple times. Saturday we came back to practice again. I was even more comfortable, having gone through the routine once, and had a little more fun. Then Sunday afternoon I showed up for sound check realizing that everything had changed. Shake switched up the order of the songs, added new songs, and we hadn’t even run through a whole tune yet. Half of them we hadn’t even attempted. Joel Goodwin, the unbelievable keyboard player, ran through the starts of two or three songs with me, and we went backstage to get ready.

I have a little bit of a nervous personality, most evident in the fact that I get sick to my stomach in anxiety-ridden situations. This qualified. I stood in the back, not even able to take a sip of the bottle of water I’d been holding for an hour. Then we went out. The room was about three-fourths full and pumped about the show. Some were wandering in late because Miley Cyrus was playing next door at Rupp Arena and the traffic was bad. Shake came out and everybody went nuts. The nerves that I had at the first rehearsal came back in full force, and I fought my way through the first song, Shake’s stunningly moving hit, “Rain.” It finished, and I immediately went back over the missed notes and rogue rhythms in my head, sure that this was going to be a long night.

I looked over at JD, who was smiling ear to ear. He looked back at me and winked, and at once I was calm again. I was ready to have fun.

And I did have fun. I had a great time. We played for almost three hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. As a matter of fact. Shake told the crowd we had one more song for them, and I looked back at the clock, shocked that it was already over. I don’t even remember most of the show, honestly. I do remember one part though, the moment that made the whole experience for me. On that last song, a cover of Israel Houghton’s “Friend of God,” I broke out a bass line that I had heard on one of the more obscure recordings of the song, a real funky roll that I had grown to love. I hit it, and Shake turned around and looked at me. He gave me an “OK, I really like that — where did it come from?” look. This whole time, I had done nothing to impress the bass legend, just been good enough not to replace, and in that moment he acknowledged that I was good. I’ll never forget the look.

We finished up and I breathed the first stress-free breath I had experienced since Tuesday. Great feeling. My family and friends came to the stage to congratulate me, I had Shake sign my guitar, and I thanked JD for all of the help he had given me. He said, “I got something for you,” and gave me two CDs that he made me give my word I wouldn’t reproduce.

“I’m not telling you what’s on these CDs,” he said. “But send me an email when you listen to them and tell me what you think.”

I went back and shook hands and hugged some more people, thanked Rob profusely for giving me the opportunity, and plopped in my car with an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. The night had flown by like a dream, and Tuesday seemed like a year ago. I had performed with two of my favorite musicians, and they had accepted me as a peer for three days. It’s a great feeling as a wannabe musician, just trust me. I popped in one of the CDs JD gave me and listened to what became icing on the cake for the whole experience.

Too bad I’m not telling you what it was.