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Nashville Berklee Jam with Bryan Beller – April 29, 2013 – Videos

For those of you who missed our second Nashville Berklee Jam at the Rutledge, you missed quite a special night. Berklee alum and bassist for Steve Vai and  Joe Satriani, Bryan Beller shared a fascinating story and some great insight, as well as a great performance with our house band and his wife, Kyra Small. Fortunately, we captured the whole evening on video (special thanks to Jack Zander for filming and video editing). Here are some highlights from this great night!

Bryan’s Talk

 

“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” performed by Bryan Beller and the house band


“Signed, Sealed, Delivered” performed by Bryan & the house band, vocals by Kyra Small


“Cissy Strut” performed by Bryan Bller and the house band


“Ain’t No Sunshine”
performed by Bryan & the house band, vocals by Kyra Small

 

Here are some links to performances from the jam portion of this event:

The Nashville Berklee Jam is held at The Rutledge on the last Monday of every other month, with the next event to take place on Monday, October 28 with special guest, performance coach, Diane Kimbrough.

For more info about future events, please visit the Nashville Berklee Jam website NashvilleBerkleeJam.com

If you would like to learn more about the Nashville music industry, please check out my website and book “The Nashville Musician’s Survival Guide”.

Nashville Berklee Jam with Bryan Beller – April 29, 2013

By Eric Normand

Our second installment of The Nashville Berklee Jam at The Rutledge brought out a great crowd, an inspiring story, and some “vibey” performances. Our special guest on this night, bass extraordinaire and Berklee alum, Bryan Beller gave an insightful talk that touched on the ups and downs of his life and his experiences in the music business.

Long before his recent work with Steve Vai, Dethklok, The Aristocrats, and his current role as bassist on Joe Satriani’s 2013 European tour, Bryan roamed the halls of BryanTalkingBerklee College of Music searching for a higher level of musical awareness and his place in the world of music. This journey would take him to LA and a stint with the Dweezil Zappa band, a move that led to an interesting chain of events.

A few years into his new life on the West Coast he found himself in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity auditioning for the bass spot with Steve Vai, a dream gig that ultimately slipped away. He candidly shared his story of the ups and downs of life as a musician in LA, and what started out as a musical journey eventually led to the golden handcuffs of corporate America when he wound up VP of the bass amplifier company, SWR, an experience that taught him much about the business world.

Eventually, SWR was bought out by Fender, a merger that Bryan helped coordinate, and while this turned out to be financially rewarding, his job title proved much more happening than the gig itself. Bryan eventually left corporate America to give his musical aspirations another shot, moving to Nashville to start a new chapter. No sooner had he landed in Music City when he found himself in a parallel universe, auditioning a second time for the Steve Vai bass job. This time, 11 years after his first attempt, he landed the gig.

The unexpected gig with Vai began a whole new chapter, one that is continuing to write itself as we speak. Of his experiences of delving between corporate life and the music business, Bryan explained:

“No choice is as permanent as it seems when you’re making it”, and “Whatever it is you want to do, leave open the possibility that it might happen.”

BellerBandBryan’s talk concluded with some questions and answers followed by a brief set with the house band. We jammed on some R&B instrumentals and also featured Bryan’s wife, Kira Small who delivered a passionate, vocal performance. The open jam that followed featured several alums, all who delivered inspiring performances. Follow this link to watch a video of Bryan’s talk (one hour). Video excerpts of performances from this night will be posted in another blog.

Special thanks to Bryan and Kyra for making this event a big success; The Rutledge; alums, Amanda Williams and Arielle Schwaim; videographer, Jack Zander, and Fran Breen (drums) and Eric Bikales (keys) for donating their time.

The Nashville Berklee Jam is held at The Rutledge on the last Monday of every other month, with the next event to take place on Monday, June 24  featuring special guest, President of the Nashville Musician’s Union and A-list bassist, Dave Pomeroy

For more info about future events, please visit the Nashville Berklee Jam website NashvilleBerkleeJam.com

If you would like to learn more about the Nashville music industry, please check out my website and book “The Nashville Musician’s Survival Guide”.

BryanBellerBerkleeJamBand

Nashville Berklee Jam with Dallas Davidson, February 18, 2013 – Part I

By Eric Normand

A cold, damp rainy night wasn’t enough to stop Berklee alumni and others from converging on one of Nashville’s coolest venues, The Rutledge in what would be the first Nashville Berklee Jam to be held in downtown Nashville. Monday, February 18 marked the one-year anniversary of this event which had previously been held in the suburb of Kingston Springs, and the move to downtown aims to kick the event’s profile up a notch as this centrally located venue is perhaps one of the finest performance rooms in the city.

People began rolling in around 6:30, and the guest speaker on this night, 2012 NSAI, ACM, and BMI songwriter of the year, Dallas Davidson began his portion of the night shortly after 7:00 PM. Dallas, Rhett Akins, and Ben Haslip, make up the songwriting team known as “The Peach Pickers”, who in recent years have become the most successful songwriting team in the history of Nashville. Since moving to Music City from Albany, GA in 2004 Dallas has had over 100 of his compositions recorded including 13 number one hits – “Gimme That Girl”, “Just a Kiss”, “The One That Got Away”, and “I Don’t Want This Night to End”, to name a few.

I gave him a brief introduction, he spoke briefly about his journey to Nashville and how he got his start as an “in-the- trenches commercial songwriter”, and then he quickly got into some questions and answers.

In response to a question about naysayers along the way during the years leading up to his recent success, Dallas candidly responded:

“The list is long and distinguished… starting with my dad… [Laughs]… a lot of publishing companies passed on me, all of ‘em did… the first time around and the second time around.”

He went on to tell of how he got his first big break, a story which underscores the importance of a person’s character.

“A guy named Brett Jones actually signed me to a publishing deal. He started a company called Big Borassa, I was his first writer that he ever signed, and he swears that he didn’t even listen to my songs; he just got to know me and believed in me… I was very, very fortunate to have somebody like that guy come in there and give me a shot and write with me and teach me a lot of stuff.”

Dallas spoke about how he uses his small-town roots to provide topics to write about, as he wants to be “the mouthpiece” of his rural friends. He shared that he likes to write the melody first, then the groove before starting on the lyrics.

In response to “What advice would you give aspiring songwriters?” Dallas replied:

You’ve got to write a bunch of songs… I mean this in the friendliest, competitive way… your direct competition is me and Rhett Akins and were writing 100 to 150 songs a year… Work harder than us and believe in yourself, because that’s all we did… don’t take no for an answer…

Concluding his portion of the night was a mini set of four of his recent number one hits, which we were fortunate to capture on video (courtesy Jack Zander). The band behind him on this night consisted of the players who backed Dallas and Rhett Akins on the 2012 Luke Bryan Farm Tour – Tom Good on bass, Nick Forchione on Drums, and me on guitar. Dallas’s heartfelt performance was well received, and upon its conclusion I thanked him and took a few minutes to reorganize for the jam portion of this event (which will be explored in part two of this blog). Meanwhile, please enjoy the videos below from Dallas’s performance!

The Nashville Berklee Jam is held at The Rutledge on the last Monday of every other month, with the next event to take place on Monday, April 29 featuring special guest, Bassist, Bryan Beller (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Mike Keneally) who will also be joined by his wife, Kira Small.

For more info about future events, please visit the Nashville Berklee Jam website NashvilleBerkleeJam.com

If you would like to learn more about the Nashville music industry, please check out my website and book “The Nashville Musician’s Survival Guide”.

 

Jack Pearson at the Nashville Berklee Jam – August 14, 2011

Guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and session-musician, Jack Pearson shared some unique perspective about his musical journey with a room full of Berklee alumni and others from the Nashville music community last Tuesday. The Nashville Berklee Jam, held monthly at the Fillin’ Station in Kingston Springs, saw some new faces and old friends on this special night, and Jack’s decades of experience as a world-class musician provided a rare peek behind the curtain for all those in attendance.

Jack’s musical career began in the mid 1970’s, when he played in multiple bands and logged his first recording session at age 16. In 1993 the Nashville native began his relationship with The Allman Brothers Band as a sub for Dickey Betts, eventually becoming a member of the ABB from 1997-1999 and also touring with Gregg Allman & Friends. Over the years he’s also worked with Vince Gill, Delbert McClinton, Jimmy Buffett, Earl Scruggs, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Amy Grant, Faith Hill, Gov’t Mule, Buddy DeFranco, and countless others.

Jack began his part of this night by playing some beautiful sketches of “I Can’t Get Started”, and for those who have never heard him play, his ability to transport an audience through time and space with nothing other than an unaccompanied electric guitar became quickly apparent. Following the spontaneous applause, Jack cut straight to some Q & A. One of the first questions asked was about his guitar, and I found it interesting that the deep, rich tone coming out of our backline Fender Deluxe originated from a Fender “Squire” Stratocaster, which he had recently bought for $100 at a pawn shop. Plugged into nothing other than a lone tube screamer, this drove home the point that great tone comes from within.

Learning from his oldest brother, Jack was exposed to rockabilly and blues as a teenager and explored the music of Chuck Berry, The Ventures, and Carl Perkins at a young age before eventually discovering jazz greats like, Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, and Charlie Christian. Learning from friends, other musicians, and records, he slowly pieced together his musical vocabulary. He shared some thoughts on how to approach a II-V turnaround, demonstrating some different voicings and melodic approaches, underscoring the importance of putting song and melody above the technical understanding of modes and scales.

“It takes a lot of experimenting… a lot of guys come to me that get out of school and they say, “when I hear this chord I’m supposed to play this mode and scale”, and it locks them up. They can’t make any melodies because they’re told to play a mode or a scale.”

This simple, but prophetic thought resonated, and I had flashes to a time in my life when I over analyzed the music I played. Jack drove this point home with “…it comes down to the chord and the melody and where it’s going to…”

He went on to talk about the blending of styles and how he went through different periods of his life where he would be deeply immersed in a singular style for a few years – Delta blues, jazz, etc., and that after a while, all these different styles started coming together. Not afraid to take some chances musically, he demonstrated how he might go from a Howlin’ Wolf lick to a Charlie Parker lick within the same phrase, and that while some players will say this is wrong, he believes that “the main thing is to get the music out, and play with feeling.”

In response to a question about some of his best and worst gigs, Jack said that some of the worst gigs are when people don’t listen, and the music that you play with somebody is more important than the venue, or how famous somebody is.

He explained how learning all of the Allman Brothers songs as a kid helped put him in the position to sub for Dickey Betts on an early 90s Allman Brothers tour, which led to some recording with Gregg Allman and eventually to a phone call from Greg in which he was asked if he wanted to join the Allman Brothers band.

He candidly shared how this landmark gig damaged his hearing, causing an already existing case of Tinnitus to worsen, ultimately forcing him to leave the gig, perhaps sooner than he otherwise would have.

“There’s really no way to describe how loud it was on stage…Dickey Betts wasn’t in the PA…he was 135 dB side stage…”

As a fellow tinnitus sufferer I completely related to this portion of his talk and gained some new perspective as he explained that, despite wearing earplugs, extreme SPL’s (sound pressure levels) can still do damage, as the sound can affect your inner ear by entering your nose, mouth, and through your bones.

In response to a question about life lessons learned through music he answered, “Try not to take music for granted, it’s so special, and you can reach so many people…lyrics can encourage you, relate to your pain, but you can also do it with notes.” He demonstrated this by showing how the same group of notes can sound happy, or sad depending on where the emphasis is placed. He talked about the endless possibilities of how you can play even a single note, demonstrating this concept by playing a huge range of variances on a high “G” note.

After Jack’s talk concluded he played a short set with our Alumni House Band, the air becoming filled with the sounds of spontaneous applause after each inspired performance. Jack left shortly after his set, and the other alums in attendance continued jamming into the night. I, and everyone else in attendance would like to extend our appreciation and gratitude to Jack for sharing his music and journey on this special night!

Our next Nashville Berklee Jam will feature country music artist and hit-songwriter, Rhett Akins on Tuesday, September 11 at The Fillin’ Station. For more info, go to www.nashvilleberkleejam.com.

 

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