In this issue:  Breaking into Nashville: Moving to a new town | Interview: Bob Babbitt | Interview: Ernie Durawa | The Blues Scale With Added B5th Note | 

Breaking into Nashville:

Moving to a new town

by Roy Vogt

In the winter of 1980 I moved from Miami, FL to Nashville, TN at the urging of a guitarist friend who needed a bassist. I was fresh out of Graduate School and had a boutique bass, a fretless, an amplifier and an upright bass. I had played shows in Miami and Dallas as well as recording sessions and gigging with Rock, Jazz and Soul Bands (and Country when I had to back in Texas), but had little or no reality check as to what was expected of me in Nashville. My frame of reference was based on Jazz virtuosos Jaco Pastorius and Jeff Berlin and the Latin music I was playing at the time. In the course of a year in Nashville I had to radically remake my tone, my instrument choice (goodbye Alembic, hello Fender and Music Man) and how I presented myself to prospective employers. As a bass teacher who has counseled many players who have moved to Nashville as gigging hopefuls I've learned some strategies from their experiences as well as my own. These will work in any relocation situation with minor tweaks to make them a little less NashVegas-centric.

It's really helpful to have a goal in mind when you relocate. Do you wish to do recording sessions? How about joining a working band? What about touring? Do you wish to write? Each of these is going to require slightly different strategies. For example, when I moved to Nashville in 1980 it was absolutely taboo to take a tour if you wished to play recording sessions. Road musicians simply were not considered for session work. With the reduction of record company sales and budgets and the rise of home studios here and elsewhere, this is not the hard and fast rule it once was. One thing that has remained constant and will come into play no matter where you live is that once you are categorized as a player it can be hard to break the mold. Therefore, if you're relocating into an Industry Town that is based on Country and CCM like Nashville, being typecast as a Fusion player may not be in your best interest if you wish to make a living playing. On the other hand, being a Country and Gospel specialist may not serve you as well in Las Vegas, LA, Atlanta, or Manhattan.

You have to take a bit of time and research your prospective market. Listen to the recordings made there. What are the bassists sounding like? What gear are they using? How are they playing? For years Nashville and Manhattan required owning a Fender bass (Jazz for Manhattan, P-Bass for Nashville). Nowadays there's a whole lot more leeway as to gear choice but as a newbie in Nashville having a Lakland, Musicman, Sadowsky or Fender (still very fashionable) in your instrument collection is not a bad idea. Remember, a lot of time people will make up their minds about you in the first few seconds they see and hear you and there is a certain segment of your potential employers who will "listen with their eyes". I have good friends who have relocated to Nashville as successful players from Atlanta, for example, and they've all added "Nashville approved" gear to their equipment rosters.

Once you hit town, try to find out where the Jams, Open Mics and Musician's Hangs occur. A great book to check out for Nashville is Sherry Bond's The Songwriter's and Musician's Guide to Nashville. You might also check out The Nashville Scene, The Rage or other local lifestyle magazines to get a feel for the Movers and Shakers. Nashville's Music Row Magazine is also helpful here.

The two sets of musicians you should make connections with immediately are fellow bassists and drummers. Often band and session leaders will try to hire rhythm sections as teams of bass/drums so having a lot of drummers that you click with increases your odds of working. A new gig or session is not the time to show off that tricky Victor Wooten lick you've been shedding for the last month. The best strategy is to seek to create a solid lock with the drummer and groove to the best of your ability. Nashville in particular is a "feel" driven town and I've seen groove-oriented players rise to good touring gigs after a very short time on the strength of their pocket in spite of having minimal chops. The more drummers who think of you as a go-to Groove Guy or Gal, the better.

Fellow bassists are for the most part very friendly and approachable. They will be a valuable source of work since a lot of times the busiest players are not able to cover every gig every night. Needless to say, when you go out to schmooze and network be sure to bring business cards that have your name, instrument and contact info (phone is good, cell phone is better, email is essential). You may also wish to create a page on a network site like MySpace or Facebook and upload some clips of your playing. Handing someone a CD of your playing (or even worse, a cassette!) is sooo " Last Century". It's good if someone can get on line and immediately hear what you sound like.

When I was still in college, my good friend the late Jim Lacefield relocated from Denton, TX to Los Angeles to begin his career as a bassist. He gave me good advice when he told me to bring enough money to live for 6 months without working. I would offer the same advice about Nashville. If you have an alternative job skill that pays well that can keep you in town and off the Road if you wish to only pursue Session Work.

One final thing I would bring is your patience. Nashville has been described as a "five year town" and I think that is the case. It takes about 5 years to establish yourself as a busy working player. Most of the busy session guys were on the 10 year plan. It takes about 10 years for the struggling singers, artists and producers to become movers and shakers and get in a position to hire you. A good example would be Mike Chapman, who was part of a studio crew for a struggling Country singer and boot salesman named Garth Brooks. The rest, as they say, is history.

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