Notes_Norton

I think it's rather ruthless

Back Door Man — Howlin' Wolf

Outlaw State Of Mind — Chris Stapleton

Steely Dan — Caves Of Altamira

Walkin' — Stanley Turrentine (One of my all-time favorite jazz tenor sax players)

Cannonball Run Theme — Chuck Mangione

The Work Song — Cannonball Adderly (and brother Nat)

First time for me, too. And I've been making my own backing tracks since 1985. The the future Mrs. Notes and I were playing in a 5 piece band. Bass player quit due to family issues, out of work a couple of months. Then the drummer quit, out of work for another month. First gig with her and she didn't want to play in a bar. So I bought a Teac A3440 4 track reel-to-reel and started making backing tracks (I play drums, bass, guitar, sax, flute, wind synth, keyboards and vocals in various levels of competency or incompetency). Mixed to cassette and started gigging. Then digital came and we went through various generations of that. Other than the COVID lockdown, we've never been out of work. I tell the audience that the only band that has been together longer than us is The Rolling Stones. If it works, I wait a bit and then say, "And we still have all the original members!" (Of course we are a duo). The guy who doesn't like backing tracks hires bands for two venues, too. Perhaps he is a musician??? Or had a bad experience with someone using karaoke tracks??? I don't know, and he didn't explain. Another guy didn't want us because we didn't have a facebook page. I told him we have a www page that anybody on the Internet can see, including anyone who has facebook. But if I had a facebook page, only FB people could visit us. To me that was weird. facebook.com/sophisticats.duo - Even though I own The Sophisticats trademark, I can't keep others on FB from useing it, so I added the dot-duo at the end. So, even though I hate FB, I started a FB page. Only 10 followers so far, I'm not promoting it yet, still learning how to do things on it. The problem with that is it's mid season, I have almost 20 one-nighter gigs, and I'm learning new songs for our fans. Plus I make aftermarket styles for Band-in-a-Box and run that biz nortonmusic.com We have close to 500 people on our opt-in e-mail list. Quite a few people told us they are happy to start the 17th year of our mid-week, mid-day party and will show up. That's job security. Through the years I've improved my backing track skills. I'm now working on Blood Sweat & Tears, "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know". It's a cover version without the lead guitar, saxophone and lead vocals, which we will do live. It's a request from a regular audience member. It's a piece of work! When I started making tracks, decades ago, I didn't have the skills I have now, and couldn't have done it. I'm not done yet, but it's sounding really good to me, and it should be a lot of fun. I've been in this biz for decades, and I've met some really weird agents, club owners, and other musicians. No backing tracks? Too bad, I was offering him money during a time when the business is slow, between lunch and dinner. Now one of his competitors will get the money. We love our fans, many of them have become friends, and I'm thankful that they support us. Sorry if I've drifted off topic too far. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Dirty Work — Steely Dan

the righ way to wear ear buds

We had a 16 year, mid-week, mid-day party going, with 50-70 regular customers and others that didn't come every week. New owner, put the entertainers out under a canopy with no protection from a sudden thunderstorm (they are quite common here) and didn't want to pay what we were getting. So we started searching, two clubs said nobody with backing tracks (we have backing tracks, that I make myself, from scratch) One led us on for a couple of months and said that he didn't want the same band on the same day/time every week Another said, I've never tried a mid-week, mid-day band, and I don't want to start that. And on and on and on. We were just about to give up, tried the last one on the list, and the manager gave us all February, and if the people come like we hope they will, we will have a new place for the party, starting on our 17th year. We spent so many years building that up, we hated to say "Bye-bye". Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Can't Fight This Feeling — REO Speedwagon

Wooly Bully — Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs

And well drinks were 35¢, top shelf drinks 49¢ and you could get a cup of coffee for a dime at a diner. But ever since one particular president and his party took us off the gold standard, inflation has gone crazy. Things generally cost 10 times as much now, but we make more, too. The only loss is our savings. While it seems to grow, if that $1,000 you put away in the 1960s isn't $10,000 now, you've lost buying power. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar

We do a few of those, and it's nice to see people who are definitely challenged brighten up. Some can't talk, but will sing along with the words to the songs of their youth. It makes me feel like we are doing something important for them.

Children of the Grave — Black Sabbath

When I was in my 30s, I decided to pitch my efforts to the adult communities in Florida. There are a lot of them, so I figured it was a good market. Our audience is from 50 to nearly dead. Grey hair and glasses in the audience. At first, it was Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington and zero rock and roll. As years passed, we started getting requests for Elvis Presley, The Platters, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holley and the other early rockers. As time went on, The Beatles entered, along with their era. Then Jimmy Buffett, Miami Sound Machine/Estafan, Cyndi Lauper, etc., And the music eras keep on progressing. Elvis and the Beatles are old now, to be played sparingly. We also mix in country, Latin American, Reggae/Soca, and newish songs that the older generation takes a liking to, like Bruno Mars, Pharrell Williams, Zac Brown, Chris Stapleton, and so on. We have over 600 songs in our songlist https://www.nortonmusic.com/cats/songlist.html, although we don't often play the pre-Elvis ones, and even the early rock songs need the right crowd. The advantages are that if I play 3 days a week, I make as much money as I would in a bar for 5 or 6 nights (one-nighters pay better). Since there is a party, there is always an audience - no Thursday night snoozers. By that age they are self-confident, and not reluctant to show their appreciation. Unlike top40 night clubs, when we learn a song, it's good for at least 10 years, it won't drop off the charts (it's already off) and become out of style to play. There are some cons as well. We have to move gear every night. But I don't have to go to a gym to work out, I do “speakercise”. There isn't as much 'star status' in the gig, often there is no stage, we play on the floor. Sometimes we are background music. The usually ladies who organize these things like to create themes. We may have to learn a couple of songs for those themes, like a few Hawaiian songs for a Luau, a couple of Polkas for Oktoberfest, a few Christmas songs, or whatever. But we get to reuse them from year to year. Then other themes are easy, last Saturday was simply Black And White, so I wore a black shirt and white tie, no special tunes needed. Here in Florida, the work can be furious from November to Easter, then it slacks. All and all I'm glad I chose that we never lack for gigs. Notes ♫