John Hendow

On Saturday 7/10 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at Redmond Derby Days. Outdoor festival shows bring their own idiosyncratic challenges with strange acoustics, short changeover times between bands, and random issues with power / grounding. This performance took place on a stage that was covered with a large tent / awning, and it creates a strange acoustic space where some sounds reflect and others seems to disappear entirely. I knew, from previous experience, that this event would be a parking challenge so I packed as light as possible. This meant bringing the Hot Rod Deluxe rather than the Twin. While the HRD is lighter, it definitely doesn’t have the big-stage delivery of the Twin, and about half way into our set I started to wish I had just packed the bigger amp.

The set ended with “Don’t Stop Believin'” and during the solo I felt inspired to leap out the front of the stage, and from there I crept out onto a little ledge that overlooked the grass. Having gotten that far I decided to jump down onto the grass, estimating the drop to be around four feet. About halfway down I realized it was taking a long time to reach the ground… needless to say, my rangefinding might need to be recalibrated. Fortunately, I did stick the landing and had fun running around with the dancers in front of the stage. It was a bit of a hike to get back… but was worth the effort. After the show we had a great BBQ and spent a fun evening chatting and relaxing. Another wonderful gig with great friends.

I’ve been going back and forth between the options of a Line6 M9 and a Line6 M13 effect unit. Based on my testing, both seem pretty good, and I’m honestly tempted to add both to my setup.  The M13 would form the backbone of my effects processing, and I’d use the M9 for fly dates. I’ve been using Line6 equipment for a long time, starting with the original Pod, then a Pod Pro, Pod XT Live, and an XDS wireless system.  There are plenty of people out there who really strongly prefer use discrete stompboxes for their effects, and are willing to haul around a lot of pedals on a massive board.

My main interest in putting together a new pedalboard is to get smaller and to increase the flexibility in routing effects for live gigs. Hopefully I’ll be able to put these new units into play before the end of the summer.

On Sunday 7/27 The 1 Uppers made their debut at the Little Red Hen in Seattle. This is one of the better-established local country bars, and a gig there marked our official “coming out” party for the local scene. Sunday nights aren’t usually the best night night of the week for gigs, but the Little Red Hen has an advantage on those nights because they teach country dance lessons before the band starts to play. It definitely helped with getting people out onto the dance floor for some boot scootin’.

Several of our friends made the trek to the bar that night, so we had a few ringers in the crowd. Between them and the regulars, the place was packed! It made for a  fun night of music with wildly enthusiastic reception to some of our songs. As observed by my friend Chris “…that was the world record for the largest number of people country dancing to ‘How Soon is Now’…”. Each of us took our turns that night at the microphone; I sang “Ring of Fire”, which is right in my baritone range. Hope I did Johnny Cash a reasonable bit of honor by taking that one on.

For this gig I decided I didn’t need the larger wattage of the Twin, so I brought the Hot Rod Deluxe. It was the right amp for this stage, but the biggest challenge was the layout. The Little Red Hen has a fairly wide but very shallow stage. Essentially, the band was presented in a single-file line across the front. On stage left I was situated somewhat behind Jon Hyde, but since he sits down when playing pedal steel I was still visible. When you’re a short guy, such things are a consideration…

Our first set was 2 hours long. This is a little unusul, but was a good strategy as it kept the crowd in motion. Once we took a set break around 11:00 PM people started to drift out, although we had a good bunch of people around until nearly the end of thenight. The gig felt like a great success. People stayed and danced until well into our second set, which ended around 1:15 AM. It made for a somewhat tough wakeup the next morning, but well worth it. We look forward to the next show at the Hen.

On Saturday 6/26 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at a wedding reception at the UW boathouse. The bride was a UW student who spent years with the UW Crew, rowing to victory. Being back on the UW campus is always a little nostalgic for me, and I enjoy seeing how it has changed over the years since I was first a student there in 1981. Our soundcheck was early in the afternoon so we had a few hours to wander around before the guests began to arrive. Stefan and I trotted over the U Village to look around in the bookstore and sip some iced tea.

The wedding reception included a large number of people who had flown in from the northeast, and I enjoyed chatting with some of guests. The wedding couple had chosen some great requests for the first dances. The bride is of Irish descent and had spent several years learning traditinoal Irish dance. After some cajoling from her father she performed a short reel on the dance floor, which was fun. Then it was our turn to get things moving. Some of the songs we performed were rarities for our set list, including gems such as “Hot Child in the City”, “Werewolves of London”, “American Girl” and “Cracklin’ Rosie”. All are plenty of fun to play, and I’m always happy to oblige a wedding reception with special songs that are meaningful to the newly married couple.

This event was the appearance of my new flight case for the Fender Twin. Having that piece of equipment in a wheeled case sure made it easier to move around, but now it’s more difficult to pick it up and put it in the car. I’m considering the purchase of a small ramp to make it easier to manage alone.

All in all, a fun gig and one that went very well.