Why Did We Play This? A Series: 9/29/26 Thunderbird Tuesday Bluegrass Sessions, Pgh., Pa.

I'm not sure how the Wolf Tones' Rolodex of bass players is so deep. But every time we find ourselves in a jam (the unavailable-bass-player kind, not the musical kind), we end up finding yet another hella dope bassist to sit in.

This time, Kyle was under the weather, Nemo was doin' family stuff, and the first three people we reached out to were also busy. Mind you, this is less than three hours before the gig.

Enter our homeboy Dave Busch, bassist on probably my favorite album ever by a Pittsburgh band, Wreck Loose's OK, Wreck Loose. I can't recommend it highly enough. That being said... it's very much a pop-rock record. No bluegrass in sight. 

Now listen, I'm not gonna sit here and act like bluegrass as a musical form is super-complicated. It certainly can be at times, but one of the best bluegrass bassists I know has a basic mantra of, "It's all the same song." Lotta fifth intervals in bluegrass bass. But it does have its little nuances, and if you're not used to them, it can trip you up.

Like I said, though: We just keep finding hella good bassists to sit in.

As soon as we kicked into the first classic bluegrass rhythm, I knew things were gonna be good. At the same time, Dave was doing us a huge favor, and I wanted him to enjoy himself rather than sitting back there learning a ton of songs on the fly.

That meant being a little more conservative than usual as we randomly pick the setlist. Our homeboy Glenn Strother from Norside Organ Trio was sitting in for the whole evening on guitar. And that meant we could dip back into the blues tunes we started pulling out last week when Glenn stopped by. Let's get into it:

Early set: Whiskey, Woodpecker*, Jambalaya, Kiss & Tell > House by the Sea > Burning & Looting > Breathe > Colt 45, Big River, My Sisters and Brothers

*Semi-original (1st verse by S. Silverstein)

We started nice and easy with Charlie Daniels' "Whiskey," my expanded, reggae-fied version of Shel Silverstein's two-sentence poem "Woodpecker" and Hank Williams' "Jambalaya" to get our feet underneath us.

These are all pretty deliberate choices. "Whiskey" is a slightly modified version of the standard blues progression. "Woodpecker" is what we call a "1-4-1-5," referring to the song's numbered chord progression. It's an extremely popular song form in bluegrass and folk music. And "Jamabalaya" is literally just two chords (D and A) repeated over and over. These are all song forms I know Dave and Glenn will be familiar with, and this gives us all a chance to settle in, figure out the overall vibe and decide where to go. Again, Dave's doing us a last-minute favor, so I don't want him to feel like we're just tossing him in the deep end and seeing if he can swim.

From there, however, it was off to the races. G. Love's "Kiss & Tell" employs the same basic structure as "Whiskey," and then we shifted the jam down into E-minor and banged out Iron & Wine's "House by the Sea," Marley's "Burning & Looting," Pink Floyd's "Breathe" and Afroman's "Colt 45," which are typically all late-set tunes when we're stringing a big long jam together. 

In this context, that means two things:

• #1: Things are going well and it doesn't feel necessary to stop playing and explain the next tune for Dave or Glenn. 

• #2: Maybe this is a musical trick I shouldn't give away, but every song in the jam aside from "Kiss & Tell" kind of leads well into the next one, in terms of chords and structure... "House by the Sea" is E-minor and D... "Burning & Looting" is E-minor and A-minor... "Breathe" is E-minor and A-major and so is "Colt 45." It allows us to subtly change the jam to keep things interesting as we go along, and to improvise our way into the next song. This is also where being able to vamp is helpful. If I do need to tell the other band members something, I can do it as we're transitioning out of one song, usually by playing over two, perhaps three chords.... "This next one has a weird little hitch at the end of the verse," or "This one goes to the four when the chorus comes in," or "We're about to go from D to E-minor, I'll cue you."

Archie got everyone hyped with "Big River" and then we rounded out the early set with a tune we haven't done for a while, Jerry Garcia Band's "My Sisters and Brothers." Things felt good and we were pretty geeked going into the...

Late set: Don't Let Your Deal Go Down, Georgia On a Fast Train, Drivin' Nails in My Coffin, I Got My Mojo Workin' > Sweet Heaven When I Die, Shady Grove > The Cisco Kid, The Vape Machine*, Big Black Train, Columbus Stockade Blues, In Tall Buildings** > Werewolves of London

*Original / **feat. Carrie King (vocals)

The early part of the late set was some pretty standard 'grass tunes, and then we started getting funky with Muddy Waters' "I Got My Mojo Workin'." I thought it would be an easy pivot back to bluegrass with "Sweet Heaven When I Die," but something got miscommunicated and it took until the second verse for everyone to really lock in. I'm listening back to the recording right now, and I still don't really understand what happened... I think maybe someone was going to the four when the rest of us are going to the five. 

But no matter. We got it together and then made up for it by diving deep into D-minor with an extended jam on "Shady Grove" and War's "The Cisco Kid." 

Joe called our newest original, "The Vape Machine," a true story about the Thunderbird replacing the jukebox with a literal vape vending machine. Midway through, I realized I was singing this song with one of the venue's owners in the crowd, possibly the person who made the decision to buy the vape machine. Whoops. Alas... we press onward.

We hit a couple more regular-repertoire tunes and then had the emotional centerpiece of the evening. Last week, Carrie King came up and sang a lovely version of John Hartford's "In Tall Buildings." She did so again last night, but it was also her last night in Pittsburgh. Today she's moving to Colorado, so this version turned out to be a beautiful little goodbye for one of the people who've been coming out to see us almost from the start. 

Then it was "Werewolves of London" to round out a super-fun evening of music. Go listen to OK, Wreck Loose. It's f***ing awesome.