I do understand where you're coming from on wanting to do some more "authentic" country style stuff. I'm in precisely the same boat as you - roots/Americana is about the only kind of steel-oriented gigs anybody but major country acts can book around here. Now I love that style, but I sorta get annoyed when people gimme the old 'yee-haw' like this is actual country music, just because there's a steel guitar on it. I wanna be able to call a country shuffle like "Heartaches by the Number" or "Brand New Heartache" and have it swing, and it doesn't. The bass lines don't usually have that walkin' strut, most of the drummers don't have that snap - I don't know why, but it's true.

If the Ithaca scene is like State College or a myriad of other college towns these days, your wife is right - these bands do have a sameness to them. Mostly medium-tempo, sorta mellow & sorta hard, sorta folky & sorta rockin', sorta sad & sorta happy, sorta major & sorta minor, middle-of-the-road tunes. Steel fits great, and I love it, but at a certain point I'm asking, "Why don't we turn on the afterburners and kick this up several notches for a while?", or "Why don't we get down in the gutter and get a little more intensely burning slow for a while?".

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... there WILL be a Fender tube amp present.

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