Outdoors to make the music better
I recently played a two night Saloon(bar) gig at the Chico Hot Springs “Resort” in Pray, Montana. The greatest part about this gig isn’t the pay, it is the group of guys I get to play with. The band is Big Caboose and the Soul Penetrators, and it’s a six piece funk and soul band. The point is that we drive out to this hot spring and play Friday and Saturday night(most of the bands only 4hr bar gig anymore). The band has an opportunity to hang out all day on Saturday before playing that night at 9:30(sharp!). We usually play this gig together about twice a year and lately we have been hanging out together, going for a soak and recently adding some outdoor activities. Nauman has started bringing his “Rocks” or Bocce ball set and the four of us have played the last two times we have been up there. It has been really good for us to build relationship and do something active, it enhances the music and makes us play harder with more intuition. We never practice because half of the band lives two hours away from the other half, so we can use any help we can get. Three of us decided to take it to the next level(the colonel was sick). I have wanted to climb the M in Bozeman for years, and Ben had recently started climbing it so we decided to add it to the list on Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful hike and we got our heart rate going strong. Alex, Ben, and I made it to the top and enjoyed the sweat and the view together. We jetted back to the gig just in time to play and that night we played better than we ever had. We thought we might be tired but the exercise helped us free up and play some really nasty stuff! Now the M is mandatory after breakfast, a soak, and Bocce.
“Colonel” Dan Wood, Me, Alex, and Benny J
5,000 feet above beautiful Bozeman!
Top of the M
