Quintessentially Quilly

There was a band at that birthday party I told you about last week.  They came to the party to play for fun and food because they are friends with the birthday boy.  These guys are all in regular bands, but they have this lose, “volunteer” group who just gets together to jam every now and then.

I did a pretty poor job of taking pictures but it was a small room with 30 or so people packed inside — most of whom were jammed around the buffet table that actually jutted into the band.  The stuffed mushrooms and the steel Guitar player were only inches apart.  The bass guitar player and the macaroni salad were equally close.

I got great photos of the band members who weren’t behind the food.

I only know the drummer’s name. Jim plays his harmonica in the praise band at church. I should know the banjo player’s name, but it fell through a hole in my memory. I have been told he can play anything with strings. I have seen him with both the banjo and an acoustic guitar.  The guy playing the electric guitar didn’t make any of the photos, either.

I love the slide guitar.  Since I never got a decent shot of the one at the party, I give you instead a Youtube video — not mine. Sorry.

The regular drummer who usually jams with the group wasn’t able to attend the party so Jim put a drum set together as best he could. His ingenuity is amazing — and it sounded pretty darn good, too.

The first thing I noticed about Jim’s drum set was the screw driver. I’m not a drummer, but I don’t think that came standard issue …. When I posed that question, Jim pointed out a couple of other things I had missed.

His bass drum was actually a duct taped cardboard box. That blew me and half the other people in the room away.  We all kept shaking our heads, marveling and asking each other, “Did you notice the drum …?”

And here’s a close up of Jim playing the harmonica, sans hands, so he could play the drum as well.

A couple of the guitar players in the band are retired pros. The banjo player currently heads his own band and plays an assortment of instruments. Jim is wholly self-taught.  When I was marveling over the drum set, Jim asked me if I had a problem with the music.  I most certainly did not.  These musicians all come together with vastly differing talents and abilities, and equipment of various caliber, and made beautiful music.  If I were asked to name this band, I think I’d be tempted to call them American Ingenuity.