The bass player needs surgery

Monday night the bass player told me he has to have surgery on his left arm on Feb 5th.

He’ll be starting physical therapy just days after the operation and will be unable to play bass for about 4 weeks.

I love this guy’s playing and vocals, as well as, the original songs he has written and his energy and personality and I want to keep him in the band.

So, yet another obstacle presents itself.

The solution I’ve come up with will depend on the flexibility and cooperation of the drummer, who is also a very good bass player. If the drummer can cover on bass during rehearsals for the time the regular bass man is recovering, I know a drummer who can sit in on our practices for that period. Meanwhile, the bass guy can still sing the songs he is soloing on and do his harmony parts.

I’m figuring we will be ready to do a four set gig in about 6-8 weeks if we continue to get songs worked up at the rate we are doing now. That should be time enough for the bass guy’s recovery and time to get his chops up on the whole set list.

This, plus the rearranging of our rehearsal schedule to bring in the new guitarist is asking a lot of our drummer. I sure hope he can make the adjustments we need to keep this group of people together and I’m open completely to other ideas from the rest of the guys on this.

Two more rehearsals and I’ll start booking gigs. The clubs I have in mind are taking bookings anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks into the future so this should put us in the rotation right about the time we are ready to go.

Our next practice is Thursday night so we’ll see how this goes over with the rest of the group then.