When last we spoke, the band was in dire straits - no pun intended. We had no guitarists left and still had less than ten songs we could play that sounded any good. Things were not good, but as they say, when you hit rock bottom, there’s only one place to go - and no I don’t mean get a shovel and start digging - I mean up!

Things did get worse before they got better, however. I ended the last blog saying that we were bringing in two new guitar auditions at the next practice. That was definitely the plan but a couple days before that rehearsal, our bass player decided to quit too. And then there were three…

We went on ahead with the rehearsal anyhow with myself playing bass and we tried out the one guy that actually showed up to audition. His name was Charlie and he was definitely the guy for us. He came in prepared, knew all the songs, and played well. When he left for the night, we kept playing with just the three (drums, keys, bass) of us and had a fun night despite it all. So the problem moved to finding a bass player.

I put up ads and nothing great happened. On the day we were supposed to try out someone who seemed promising, Carl the keyboardist contacted John, the bass player who quit, and asked if there was any way he could come back. John seemed like he was eager to come back and said he thought quitting was a mistake. I guess he just felt it was going nowhere, and to a point he was right, but I was surely working hard to make sure it kept moving. Who can blame the guy for walking. The thing is, he’s really, really good and adds a lot to the band. He plays every song known to man and what he doesn’t know, he can fake and he does all this effortlessly. He’s a nice guy and a funny guy too so I was glad he came back.

So things sort of went downhill and uphill all in the span of 2 or 3 weeks but we ended up on our feet with a good line up. After a few weeks of working with Charlie we had some great momentum and everyone was pretty happy. I keep thinking we need one more guitarist but I think everyone’s happy with what we have now so I’m not going to push my luck.

There’s a small chance we may have a steady backup singer as well. Carl’s lady, Jess, who also takes photos for us, stood in for me one night while I was seeing The Police at the Garden. She takes vocal lessons and had a good time singing with the boys. She has since expressed interest in possibly joining up as a backup vocalist which is cool because the guys don’t really want to sing all that much. Plus we can do cool duets like “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” which we were doing anyhow but I was singing all the parts. So we’ll see how that goes.

Oh, and I almost forgot - we have a name now. After much deliberation and stuff, I spit out the name HEARSAY and the guys took to it. I was just looking at the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and started thinking about similar names and that one popped in. Then there’s the fact that it’s made up of two words, hear and say, which are both sound-related. It just seemed cool. A runner up was Rockshow which, of course, comes from the Wings song and concert movie of the same name.

So, momentum is ours and we’ve already gone from 10 songs to about 30 in a few short weeks with about another 30 more on the way. In the meantime, the band will make its big debut at my Labor Day BBQ at my house on September 2, 2007. This will be our first official show in public though I’m hoping to book a big “first gig” at a local bar or club or something.

In addition to all this, I’m also starting to write songs again, starting with a tune I’ve written with an old friend of mine named Brian Fitzpatrick called “The Stories That They’ll Tell.” I’ve also been posting my old bands’ songs and some of my old demos on my MySpace pages. I’m looking into some home recording software for the PC (though I’d LOVE to buy a Mac!) and will hopefully invest in some kind of midi interface so I can play into the computer and write songs at home. Call it a little musical renaissance, if you will.

Until then, Hearsay has been officially launched and I’ll start working on a website plus a MySpace page some time soon. Yes, it’s a cover band but man it’s tons of fun and I’m doing my original stuff on the side. If you’re in the NJ area and want to come to the big BBQ, let me know and I’ll put you on the e-vite list.

Now that the “Making the Band” portion of Hearsay is over, this will probably be the last installment of this little series so for nostalgia’s sake, below are the links to the rest of the blog posts for those who missed the previous ones.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Part 8