Chapter 17

Eugene met us at the back door when we got to the Wild Cat. I assume he had some kind of camera set up and I do remember his office being pretty close to the back, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

“Charlie, good to see you.”

“Hey,” I said, shaking his hand, “this is my friend Hanna. She wanted to watch us practice and see the show from backstage. She’s going to college in the fall for talent management, and she wanted to get a sense of what this kind of thing was like.”

That wasn’t really true, but I figured it would be easier explaining it like that than just asking if she could be backstage. Eugene was nice and might have allowed it anyway, but there might have been insurance or some other reason he would have said no if I said she was just a friend who wanted to watch.

“Really? That’s exciting. Sure, come on and watch. Charlie, the band’s already set up and ready to do a quick rehearsal if you are. People will start coming in at seven and we need to have the curtain down by then. We’ll get you all a bite to eat from the kitchen and then you go on at seven-thirty.”

“Sounds good. And thanks for having me. Really, I know you’re going out on a limb, giving someone my age a shot.”

“Nah, you killed ‘em last time, so I’m not worried. Besides, you’re not the first kid I’ve given a shot to. You think Chef Tang’s the only one takin’ in strays?”

I hadn’t realized he and Chef were acquainted, but I should have. Two bar and restaurant owners who had live music an hour apart, both of whom gave Willie stage time, it should have been obvious.

He led us down the hall towards the stage, although he probably didn’t have to, since it wasn’t that complicated and I remembered it from last time. Of course, I hadn’t met the band, so he probably also felt like he needed to introduce me to them.

“Guys,” he said when we stepped up on the stage. “This is the young man I told you about, Charlie Nelson.”

The stage was already set up for us to play, with a full drum kit, a keyboard, and a bass guitar along with amps, mics, and wires going all over the place.

“Charlie, this is Rodney Hunt, our bass player, Seth Byrd, the drummer, and Marco Manning, the keyboardist. You didn’t have any piano parts in your songs, but the covers you were thinking about doing and Willie’s stuff did, so I asked Marco to come anyway.”

“If we have time, I had a few thoughts of how I could transpose the main guitar over and join in the other stuff, though,” Marco said.

“Sounds good,” I said, pulling my guitar out of its case and putting it on the open stand. “This is my friend Hanna and she’s going to be hanging back and watching, if that’s okay.”

“A groupie. Cool,” Rodney said.

He sneered and gave her a look that suggested all kinds of things in the worst way, and it made me immediately dislike him. I was trying to be professional though and take charge like I’d seen Willie do in the past, so I ignored it and tried to stay all business.

“You guys looked at the music I sent over, right?”

“Yeah,” Seth said. “I really liked Hush. Reminded me of some bad relationships I had when I was younger.”

“I think we’ve all had those relationships,” Marco said.

“Not me, man. I leave all the chicks I date first. Always leave them wanting more is my motto.”

Seth rolled his eyes, so I knew I wasn’t alone in hating this guy at least.

“I liked the eighties-rock feel of Cherished to Death. It had that angsty, angry feel to it, like what you heard in the early days before metal became a thing.”

“I’ve made some changes to it,” I said. “It’s pretty close, but I’ve pulled back a little on the guitar. Let’s do it first, and y’all can just follow my lead.”

We played through it once and they followed my lead pretty well. These guys didn’t have the intuition quite like Willie’s band, but they’d been playing with Willie for decades and were able to predict his moves through sheer personal experience. Overall, I was still impressed.

“I like the changes,” Seth said when we finished. “It’s still angry, but not as metal, you know.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was going for. It sounded too metal to me too.”

“I don’t know, I think you guys are discounting how good metal can sound, and this isn’t really even that far into it. Besides, I think it might have gone too pop and it’s missing some of the angst for me, you know,” Marco said. “Can we do it once more? I think if I do something halfway, but still in the rhythm you have now, we might be able to make it have that same angst. I know we’re just practicing and this is your stuff, but you hadn’t really put in keys, so I’m just extra anyways.”

“I’m all for experimenting as long as we don’t spend too long on it. We still have a bunch of stuff to get through.”

We tried it again, and I could see what Marco was going for, and he did a pretty good job of putting the two versions together and finding a middle ground on the fly. He was actually pretty good and I could definitely see some options for when we got to Country Roads, which would work really well with keyboards added.

“Not bad,” I said, trying to find a way to tell him I didn’t love it without coming off as an ass. “It’s still a bit too hard for what I was going for. I think maybe there are a few things there, but I’d need to think about how to incorporate them. It wasn’t bad; I just don’t think it quite fit for what we’re doing.”

“Hey, no problem. It’s your song; we’re just here to back you up.”

“Okay, but keep the input coming. It’s really useful and I play with the same guys every week, so it’s nice to hear other points of view.”

“Sure man, don’t worry about me.”

We played through Cherished to Death a few more times to make sure we were all comfortable with it, although I pulled back on my vocals a bit to save my voice, since it required a lot more than anything else I normally played. Next, we practiced Hush, and Seth surprised me when he came in on the chorus, harmonizing with me one octave down. I was a tenor, although I could get into most of the baritone range without sacrificing too much. Seth, who was shorter than me and wiry had a bass that, while on the high end of the range, was still surprising coming out of him.

His harmonies played against my vocals in the chorus amazingly well, and really was what the song was missing. I’d been playing with the idea of taking it more country, because I wasn’t getting the longing that I was really looking for, but this did it so much better than that. Modern country was more sad than wistful and I was going for an acceptance of things changing, not a sadness for the things lost.

“Man, that was awesome,” I said when we finished. “You surprised the hell out of me.”

“Yeah, Seth does that,” Marco said. “No one ever expects him to be all low and rumbly when he looks like a sentient wet noodle.”

“Keep talking. I’ve got your wet noodle right here.”

“Dude,” Marco said, giving it a beat for Seth to realize what he’d said.

He then burst out laughing, saying, “Okay, maybe not.”

We all joined in. The fact that he was able to laugh at himself made him go up a notch in my book. In high school, everyone was so worried about reputation and what others thought of themselves, they were completely incapable of taking a joke. Honestly, it made me want to get out of school and just do this full time if that was even possible. This didn’t even feel like work, although the show hadn’t started yet, so maybe things would change.

I was right about the keyboard coming in on Country Roads. It fixed a lot of the issues I had with it, too. It was becoming clear that I really needed a band to play with, instead of just doing things by myself. For Willie, it made sense being a solo artist, which he was even though he had a band he played with normally at the Blue Ridge. Blues can be all about the vocals and lead guitar, with everything else adding just a little color. Sure, there were great blues groups that were more expanded than that but, like folk and some forms of country, it wasn’t needed. It could work well just on its own.

Rowan had nailed my sound pretty well, and the combination of classic rock, blues, pop, and country really needed a band to work. It needed harmonies and dueling melodies and the full sound that you can only get from multiple instruments and voices blending and working together.

The covers didn’t take long to work out, since they were all songs they’d heard before, and some they’d even covered before backing other visiting musicians. This allowed us to circle around and play with my music more, making changes and small additions.

Rodney didn’t really have anything to add, and the few things he did suggest the rest of us agreed didn’t work, but Seth and Marco really got what I’d been trying to do, and helped tweak it to make it so much better.

We finally shut it down so they could seat the house and give us a thirty-minute break before we went on for real. Eugene brought us some food from the kitchen, including a bowl for Hanna, which was really nice of him.

While we ate, I brought up the thought that had been sitting in the back of my head since the first song we played.

“So, I know we just met, but I have a question. I have a talent scout from MAC Records coming to hear me play in a few months, but I really need to get a band together, since they’re looking for a group and not a single artist. I started looking for people a little while ago, but you guys seem to really get what I’m trying to do on my songs. How would you feel about playing together more often?”

“You might want to look around more,” Seth said. “I mean, I’m flattered, but we just play gigs in a small market. You really should have someone working with you, a manager or something. At least run a decision past someone you trust first.”

“Why?” I asked, not that I disagreed, but I wanted to hear his reasoning for it.

“You just offered guys without any real prospects a shot at being heard by a record label. That’s a big jump for us. Some guys wouldn’t hesitate to take you up on it and then burn you later when they got what they wanted, or even try to pull aside the scout and try and cut their own thing. We’re all having fun up here, but this can be a pretty cut-throat business, especially if they think you’re young and inexperienced. They’ll see you as an easy mark.”

“Dude, shut up,” Rodney said. “I think it’s a great idea.”

I gave Rodney a glance, but ignored him. I honestly was only thinking about Seth and Marco, since we meshed so well. Rodney had been rubbing me the wrong way the whole time and I couldn’t imagine playing with him regularly.

“Seth’s right,” Marco said. “You just threw out some big bait that some guys would kill for. Think about it before you make the offer for real.”

“Sorry,” I said, trying to backpedal. “I wasn’t really saying what I meant well. I more meant are you guys free if this works out tonight. I’d have to get y’all to come up to Wellville and play for Willie, who’s been advising me. If he thinks it’s a good fit, then we’d go from there. I can’t promise I’ll have all that many gigs for us right away, since I can only play on weekends and can’t travel far, at least for right now. I guess this would be more of a start.”