Pick-up picking sessions
A survey of Madison's open music jams
Eric Baillies
Brocach's Irish music session.
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The odds are stacked pretty high against all those folks timidly fiddling with their first guitar, banjo, or jaw harp at home. But there is a way to ease into playing live with other folks and feel like you’re getting somewhere. Open jams offer a chance to meet other music-benighted souls, while honing your skills and maybe picking up a few tricks. A basic level of proficiency is expected at most jams, though, so if your music theatrics have heretofore been confined to Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you may want to give it some time before you take it public. Decider scoured the Madison jam scene for some paths to relative success.
Happy-hour blues
The Frequency’s happy-hour blues jam differs from other jams in that there’s a host (guitarist A.J. Love of the A.J. Love Quartet), a cover charge, and an opening set featuring a venerable guest musician—often from the Chicago blues scene—who plays with Love’s house band. The second set is the more traditional open jam, where musicians can sit in and play with the house band. That is, if they haven’t been completely intimidated by the caliber of the musicians in the first hour—so what if they’ve played with Muddy Waters and Taj Mahal? You can still take that solo. The back room can get a little loud and crowded with people and instrument cases, so watch your knees.
When: Tuesdays at The Frequency, 5:30 p.m., $5 cover.
Irish sessions
First, a note on terminology: Irish jams are called “sessions,” not jams, though the general principle is the same. Players of the fiddle, mandolin, tin whistle, flute, harp, bodhran (drum), guitar, concertina, uilleann pipes (a type of bagpipe inflated by bellows strapped to the waist and right arm), and tenor banjo are welcome in the tight circle of players—everyone else is suspect. The music is played fast, in unison, and seemingly without breaks or words spoken between players, so body language is vital. So is knowing a hell of a lot of tunes, or the ability to pick up a song on the fly. The good news is that there are multiple levels of sessions held around Madison—beginners at the Willy St. Co-op, intermediate at the Froth House, and advanced at Brocach Irish Pub. The bad news is that you’ll see many of the same people at each of them, so the levels are more theoretical than actual.
Beginners: First Sundays at the Willy Street Co-op (1221 Williamson St., 251-6776), 1 p.m.
Intermediate: Second Sundays at the Froth House (11 N. Allen St.. 231-0100), 1 p.m., and fourth Sundays at the Willy Street Co-op, 4 p.m.
Advanced: Every Wednesday at Brocach (7 W. Main St., 255-2015), 8 p.m.
Bluegrass mob
If there are more people onstage than in the crowd, you know you’ve stepped into a bluegrass jam. Extra guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, dobros, basses, harmonicas, accordions, and sometimes voices are generally welcome onstage. These jams are also a little more open to different skill levels—if you know a few chords, you can keep to the perimeter and strum along quietly (maybe a little harder if you play accordion) while advanced players take the lead. The Monday night jam at the Dry Bean is the big one, though the scene can be jarring—the main room is dark, plastered in sports-tuned TVs, and filled with tables of cowboy hat-wearing poker players. Turn right from the main entrance into a smaller, light-filled side room for the music.
When: Mondays at the Dry Bean, 6:30 p.m.; first and third Fridays at the Harmony Bar, 9:30 p.m.; first Saturdays at Riley Tavern, 2 p.m.
Old-timey porch-bustin’
Old-time music, or real mountain-folk music, provided the foundation for bluegrass and tends to focus on traditional American fiddle and dance tunes. All the lead instruments—fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and sometimes hammered dulcimer, recorder, or tin whistle—play the melody in unison while the guitar chords along. Sometimes a jug gets in on the act and adds a bassline. Players of all abilities are welcome to join, though as with bluegrass, you should stick to the back if you don’t know the tunes. Or just bring your jug.
When: Every other Sunday at Alchemy, 5 p.m. E-mail scottk@lcs-impact.com to be added to the e-mail list.
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