A Nevah Acoustic Practice Session

I look forward to Thursday nights, it's the day Nevah gets together to rehearse our current repertoire, to work on new material and to discuss our upcoming goals. There is something special about getting together with no pressure, being able to simply play music and to work out new arrangements that fit the personality of the band. Yes, we also have an occasional beer or glass of wine during the nights session.

Lately we've been rehearsing unplugged (for the most part), relying on the acoustic properties of some of our instruments; mandolin, guitar, flute and banjo. By playing "acoustically"(meaning - not using amplification) we tend to listen better, blend our tones easier and work out dynamics in our music.

The loudest acoustic instrument in the band is the banjo. It's a Stelling Sunflower banjo that has a superb tone and an amazing volume using a minor amount of picking effort. We usually try to get all the other instruments "UP" to the sound level of the Stelling for a proper sound balance. This often means that the "banjo guy" plays softer, which is not easy to do.

The other day at rehearsal, Richard, our Mandolin player who usually plugs in and plays his 1930's A4 style Gibson Mandolin used a "Flatiron" mandolin (also by Gibson) and it really held it's own with the banjo. Larry's Martin Guitar did need a little amplification to keep up, but the tiny boost of sound through his Fishman Loudbox amp really helped to level the playing field.

We're an atypical prograssabilly band and do have an electric bass played by Phil, Drums with Dick at the kit, Flute/Sax and Kazoo courtesy of Ed and Congas rhythmically beat by Eric.

Everyone participates vocally on more than one tune and the challenge of blending the voices together, keeping the lead vocal upfront, harmonies directly behind and the "music" supporting everything is why we spend at least three to four hours practicing every Thursday.

Nevah is growing leaps and bounds and working very hard to bring original tunes to the table. So far we've got four completely arranged original songs that have been performed live, several times, and well received at each performance. The exciting news is that we've got four more originals in the immediate pipeline which means we are getting very close to having an albums worth of NEVAH material. So, hopefully in the near future we will be able to offer our first NEVAH album for sale.

Ahhhh, Thursdays, my favorite day of the week.


Hal -
Nevah Banjo Guy