There's an old joke: how do you get a guitar play to stop playing? Put sheet music in front of him. How do you get a classical musician to stop playing? Take away the sheet music. My gig Saturday night proved the second part of that joke wrong.
We played a bar in downtown Roanoke last Saturday and this guy came in carrying a violin. Usually, when someone shows up at a club carrying an instrument it sends up all kinds of alarms but this guy was a violinist with the Roanoke Symphony and had just finished playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I don't think he had ever heard any Dead tunes much less played any. We had him sit in on Bird Song and Estimated-Eyes later on. I think it came out alright.
We played a bar in downtown Roanoke last Saturday and this guy came in carrying a violin. Usually, when someone shows up at a club carrying an instrument it sends up all kinds of alarms but this guy was a violinist with the Roanoke Symphony and had just finished playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I don't think he had ever heard any Dead tunes much less played any. We had him sit in on Bird Song and Estimated-Eyes later on. I think it came out alright.