The Project

[Norm]

A slight revision of a previous post

Most of you have seen me post Paul Yandell quotes from time to time.

The Project is this. I'm shaping my "Archive" into something like a biography of Paul Yandell. In so doing it is also a chornicle of the Sideman... the faceless musicians who work for love and usually little money to make the music most of us grew up on. Paul was one of the lucky ones who eventually made a decent living (thanks to working with Chet and Jerry Reed) after a long hard slog at it.

The Archive is an extremely detailed look at guitaring as Paul saw it as he worked with those two giants taken as posts here on the Chetboard and written up much like the quotiing posts I've made in the past. I at least want to make it so it can be in Marie and Micah's posession.

It, of course, has a lot of detail about Things Chet

I really would like to see the finished product made available to students and people like us who are interested in the industry as it was from the late thirties to the present day. That, I don't know about. I'll eventually have to contact the Atkins Estate to get permission to somehow release or publish the data. That part of "authoring" I'mn unfamiliar with.

I have asked before and I'll ask again...

If you have any good Paul or Chet stories, or possibly even some musical "war stories" you think might be suitable for inclusion, please send them in. I'm not looking for a general "Paul was a good, kind, guy." statement. We know he was that. What I need are little stories that show and describe what he was like as a person. Advice he gave, funny or philisophical things he may have said.

Thanks in advance...
What I do with what I read....

If it looks like something I'd like to consider using I will take the anecdote, maybe rewite it a little, and send it back to the person who wrote it to me in a Private Message to see if they approve of my edit. As much as I can I try to keep the contributor's writing style intact. They have the option of being directly quoted or not credited... left as an anonymous contributor. I intend to keep an alphabetical list of contributors at the end of the thing.

The anecdote is then filed in my source materials to maybe (or maybe Not) be included in the final document.

The added benefit is that initially your story about Paul and his life and association with Chet and others will be shared with your fellow chetboarders.

[rickr]

Norm, you might talk to John McClellan, who has worked frequantly with the Atkins estate.
Just a thought,

Rickr

[Norm]

Actually, I just got a very supportive note from someone who I think will be of great help to me

[Ray Bohlken]

Norm, I'm sure you've already thought of this, but there were some videos and mp3 files posted during several of the C.A.A.S. conventions where Paul reminisced about Chet and in 2010, Steve Wariner and Paul played a few songs and told some stories that might be what you are looking for. I don't know if you were able to save any of those or not.

Ray

[Norm]

I didn't save the links to those, darn it and I don't know if I'll be able to find them.


The Project is about Paul and Chet but it is also largely about how the industry might be seen through the eyes of a sideman.

short comments on, maybe:
the best part of working the road/the worse part of working the road

would be appreciated too.

[George Babbitt]

Chet was so cool on stage. I saw him Indianapolis in the 80's, I believe. When he botched an ending, he apologized, backed up, and redid it. Chet was rarely, ever totally satisfied with his playing. That may be why he was so good.

Did Tony Bennett ever do that? Or for that matter anybody on stage?

George

[Randy Finney]

What a great idea, Norm.

I would be happy to help/support you any way I can. I will be useless for supplying any first hand stories - I am too young and too far away from "it all" - but, if you need anything administrative, or some research assistance, or proffreeding (this is my idea of a joke), etc., I can do this.

Randy

[Ray Bohlken]

A slight revision of a previous post

The Project is also a chornicle of the Sideman... the faceless musicians who work for love and usually little money to make the music most of us grew up on. Paul was one of the lucky ones who eventually made a decent living (thanks to working with Chet and Jerry Reed) after a long hard slog at it.

Norm, in the May (current) issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine, there is an artilce about Bob Bain and it has a lot of info about his life as a studio musician, which is a heading of one of the topics they cover in the article. It talks about him being the one who schedules musicians and him being scheduled by others, as well as the coordinating of working on multiple projects for multiple leaders and record labels. I'm sure both Paul and Chet went through this in their carreers. I read the magazine today at a Books-A-Million. I used to subscribe to the magazine, but they got further and further away from players I was interested in. If you're near a Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million, check it out and have a cup of coffee while you peruse the article to see if it would be useful.
I left a link to the issue so you could see what the cover looked like.
Ray
http://www.vintageguitar.com/current-issue/

[Norm]

it just so happens I have a subcription to that.
I'll check it out

[Norm]

What I would dearly love to have is a scan of the catalog or brochure for the tweed Fender Pro amp of the mid fifties. I tried to join the Fender Forum but it seems to be broken.

Sending a test message to their email address comes back as a MAILDAEMON

Any ideas?