I was part of a band for a Class Reunion in Aug of 2009. It went so well that a handful of us decided to continue. In 2010 we made a name change that I came up with and the band took off. We worked pretty much March through October with a possible gig here or there during the winter months.
It was initially just a nightclub band but evolved into a Chicago Tribute Band that was very good. Within the last two years the band had started to decline a bit. Health issues, changes in lifestyle and other interests were the main reasons. I was the driving force for the past 14 years but have pretty much "run out of gas". Add to that some hearing issues which made singing a bit difficult, a guitar player that is showing signs of early dementia, and a keyboardist that got remarried about 5 years ago and has been gradually losing interest and is unavailable for many weeks out of the season because of travel to see family, grandkids, and multiple vacations, and you have the groundwork for mediocrity.
Through all of this the rhythm sections suffered, self included. Concentrating on my hearing issues was causing me to play erratically which made it really hard on the drummer. I won't go into the issues with the guitar player and the keyboardist.
Last night I met with the trumpet player and the drummer to discuss if there was any reason to continue. Basically the drummer said unless the guitar player, keyboardist and the bass player (myself) were replaced he wasn't planning on going any further with the band.
At that point I decided to step down. I'd been thinking about it all year and the time was right. It's going to be very difficult to get musicians to replace us that are 'like-minded', have the playing skills, vocals, and are willing to dedicate countless hours to perfect the sound. Most of the guys who can do that are already working in other bands and either don't have the time to devote to it, don't want to commit to that much work, or are just not that interested in Chicago.
It was a great run and 14 years is longer than most bands stay together. It's time to dedicate my time to another band I work with and possibly add another project. I'm sure opportunities will arise in the near future.
It was initially just a nightclub band but evolved into a Chicago Tribute Band that was very good. Within the last two years the band had started to decline a bit. Health issues, changes in lifestyle and other interests were the main reasons. I was the driving force for the past 14 years but have pretty much "run out of gas". Add to that some hearing issues which made singing a bit difficult, a guitar player that is showing signs of early dementia, and a keyboardist that got remarried about 5 years ago and has been gradually losing interest and is unavailable for many weeks out of the season because of travel to see family, grandkids, and multiple vacations, and you have the groundwork for mediocrity.
Through all of this the rhythm sections suffered, self included. Concentrating on my hearing issues was causing me to play erratically which made it really hard on the drummer. I won't go into the issues with the guitar player and the keyboardist.
Last night I met with the trumpet player and the drummer to discuss if there was any reason to continue. Basically the drummer said unless the guitar player, keyboardist and the bass player (myself) were replaced he wasn't planning on going any further with the band.
At that point I decided to step down. I'd been thinking about it all year and the time was right. It's going to be very difficult to get musicians to replace us that are 'like-minded', have the playing skills, vocals, and are willing to dedicate countless hours to perfect the sound. Most of the guys who can do that are already working in other bands and either don't have the time to devote to it, don't want to commit to that much work, or are just not that interested in Chicago.
It was a great run and 14 years is longer than most bands stay together. It's time to dedicate my time to another band I work with and possibly add another project. I'm sure opportunities will arise in the near future.
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