Hello and thanks for stopping by!
I know it’s been awhile so I’ll try and hit the high points and try to keep my ramblings at a minimum. It’s been what..uh..about seven months since I posted anything here. I’ve been a procrastinator when it comes to me writing about me. Thanks to those who emailed and missed the updates. The continued interest and support is truly appreciated.
If you were to scroll down to the last entry here, it was August of 2007 and I had just gotten to play as a sideman guitarist with Cheap Trick at the Hollywood Bowl doing The Beatles Sgt. Pepper. Well, it happened again in December of ‘07 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Cheap Trick revisited Sgt. Pepper with some of the same guest singers (Joan Osborne , Rob Laufer and Ian Ball from Gomez) and, fortunately, the same sidemen (Danny Louis from Govt. Mule and myself). It felt like a more relaxed replay of the Bowl gig with a reunion-like atmosphere. Even famed fab engineer and producer, Geoff Emerick, was on hand to mix. Cheap Trick will be back at the Hollywood Bowl at the end of June 2008 and I’m scheduled to join them once again. If you go to the trouble of LEARNING a whole album you MUST go play it occasionally.
Which is also the case with The Long Players. We’ve had pretty much nothing BUT incredibly fun shows here in Nashville over the last four years. We take a classic album and play it in it’s entirety from front to back with the vocals performed by guest singer from the amazing talent pool this town has to offer. We always donate a portion of the proceeds to a charity and it’s been a great way to honor “the album” as an art form as well as showcasing our community of artists willing to be in a high-concept cover band for a night. It’s truly a blast.
Let’s see.. looking back at 2007.. there was Derek and the Domnos’ Layla then Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust.. then Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours…then Led Zeppelin IV at the end of the year. We JUST did the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers a couple of weeks back. There’ a whole list of these shows, the performers, the dates we did them and some photos at the LONG PLAYERS link. Please take a second and click it and you can see what’s it’s all about. Here is, also another link to the NPR story they did on us in late 2006 that is still available:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6556455&sc=emaf
The guest artists over the last few years have been stellar. We’ve had world class singers like Wet Willie’s Jimmy Hall and world class guitarists like King Crimson’s Adrian Belew. From country chanteuse Suzy Bogguss to Dez Dickerson from Prince’s Revolution, it’s a real cross section of our community. We’ve done Dylan albums with Al Kooper and Charlie McCoy and Stones records with Bobby Keys. It’s so amazing to look over your shoulder and see the guy who played on the original record. I’d like to proudly add that our band has pulled it all off with skill and heart. It’s a love thing. What started off as notion for some fun has turned into a real musical event every few months.
For me it’s great to reconnect with old friends and bandmates like John Cowan or Radney Foster and getting them to play covers for a night. Tom Peterson from Cheap Trick joined us for our Fleetwood Mac encore when we were doing the Peter Green era stuff.
I’ve also met some tremendously talented young artists through putting these shows together as well. Our next public performance, not including private engagements will be May 24th, 2008 doing Paul McCartney and Wings Band On the Run album. Please check here or on my My Space page for an update. http://www.myspace.com/billlloyd
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