Close Eyes. Throw Dart.

As I've previously blabbed, a cover band musician needs to check ego/self-indulgence/attitude at the door and consider what makes the PEOPLE happy. That's why song selection is key to getting a working band a good gig.

I built Party Jones as a dance/pop/soul/R&B/"hits" cover band. Why? To get people dancing, of course - to tickle their brainstems with a nice memory about a song, to make them happy. Bigger picture, this would give us more gig options (corporate functions, personal events, holiday celebrations) and give me more selectivity when booking club dates. I'm not ripping club work - at a good club the energy, crowd proximity and acoustics are sweet - but there's only so far you can go on the circuit. A working cover band musician aims for the bigger gigs mentioned above.

However, streamlining a band means making hard choices song-wise. As I said before, a cover band musician gives him or herself over to playing songs that make THE CROWD - not the musician - happy. As for me, after so many years of regurgitating classic rock pablum for smaller and smaller crowds/gigs, I was ready to tailor an accessible cover pop band appealing to the broadest range of people possible. (ASIDE: muy importante' - I'm in NO WAY disparaging cover bands performing classic rock. John Lennon sang "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," and that sums it up. There are a lot of great classic rock cover bands out there - it's just not the road I choose to take.)

Although some classic rock songs do cross over into "pop" territory, and can work at a high-end corporate gig ("Brick House," "Honky-Tonk Woman," "Play That Funky Music," "Brown-Eyed Girl"), most don't, and instead become exercises in self-indulgence, familiarity and ease of playing for a band. Right away, this breaks (my) Rule #1 for a cover band - play FOR the people, not TO them.

So - how to pick songs that work for the majority of the band's gigs? It's an inexact science - like a dart throwing contest between Stevie Wonder and Jose Feliciano - but swaying the odds in your favor just takes a little gumption. I do homework. I've pulled a ton of songs from shows like "VH1's Number Ones" - and every song WORKS. They're popular and dancible, and were written to appeal to a wide range of people. Next, thanks to a great suggestion from Rob Ferrell (PJ's drummer) I also download a TON of "Most Popular Requests at Weddings and Functions" lists from the internet. I cross reference these lists and see which songs the lists have in common. Doing this has given me ideas I NEVER would've considered - and again, they work ("Love Shack," "Faith," "Walking on Sunshine," etc.). I also check out other bands I admire and see what's working for them. And you can't miss with one-hit wonders - and we'll be learning a gob of those before long.

After a few gigs, I'll know if a song is working or not. I inserted "You Give Love a Bad Name" into our set list, and it only lasted about six weeks. It didn't go over. It's now buried with Hoffa.

Finally, playing a dorky song is FUN if the band's behind it. As mentioned countless times, my cover band isn't built to placate the musicians, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun playing a song we may not like. If the band's attitude is good, everything else is good.

If the band's attitude sucks...?

That blog's coming, my friends.