Mid 50s vocalist/guitarist/bassist looking to play for fun

Novato CA

Description

I'm a music lover/musician hobbyist who's in his mid 50s and hasn't played with others regularly since the early 90s, when I was in a fun and casual cover band where we covered everything from X to the Ramones, to Hendrix and the Romantics. I sang lead and played rhythm/lead guitar. I also used to sing and play guitar in worship groups at various churches back in the day, when that was part of my life. Singing is probably what I do best...I have a voice that's a bit reminiscent in tone and range of James Taylor or Kenny Loggins, though I wish I sounded like Teddy Pendergrass. I've played guitar for almost 30 years total, but haven't really taken it seriously in some time, and even in my prime I was pretty good, but no better than that. I haven't picked it up in months, as I've been enjoying learning electric bass since the start of the year. Essentially self-taught, but I'm generally a musical person who understands basic theory and such. I can figure out most songs as long as they're not crazy jazz chords. I'm getting the itch to play with others again, and want to play with others who just love music and have no delusions of being pros or making this their life...just want to play for enjoyment, and if it happens to develop into something that allows occasionally playing out, that would be awesome. But the goal is to meet cool people who enjoy playing music, see if we enjoy the same stuff, then start learning covers and jamming and seeing where that goes. My tastes are pretty varied, though not especially modern. Huge fan of roots music and rock like ZZ Top, the Blasters and Los Lobos, love oldies (as in "from the hood" oldies), love Motown and Stax, almost all funk, R&B, and Soul, am a huge Blues fan, EWF, Ohio Players, the Pretenders, X, Ray LaMontagne, Van Morrison, Rickie Lee Jones, Jill Scott, Paul Simon, 60s and 70s pop and rock like Tom Petty, the Eagles, ELO, etc. Initially I thought it would be fun to find a female guitarist/vocalist or keyboard player/vocalist, and we could try to just cover singer/songwriter stuff, like James Taylor/Carly Simon. I also thought about putting together a group where we just played oldies...I'm talking like Brenton Wood, Wilson Pickett, Stax, etc. So basically, I can go a lot of ways musically. We can play in various genres, or focus on one or two. I'm open to where it leads. I can be the singer, but don't have to. I can sing lead or harmony if needed. I can play bass or guitar, and am willing to fit in wherever if we find a cool bunch of people who want to play. Basically, let's see who is best at whatever, or lets trade off and find roles that work, and let's learn some songs and play. I have no place to play so I can't host a jam session, but I have quality equipment...a nice acoustic guitar, several electric guitars and an amp, several electric basses and an amp, etc. So I could play whatever, but I'm a certainly more competent at guitar than bass. Be assured that if I start playing with others, I'll start focusing more on brushing up and will get the rust off. Though I'm in my mid 50s, I look rather young for my age, though I'm gray. But I'm not really hung up on image at all, so you shouldn't be either. I don't care much about anything other than that you love music, be open minded, have enough talent to be functional, don't be a political nut, conspiracy theorist, or a control freak, and that's it. And be vaccinated. Playing music is fun, and I miss it. So let's get together. I'm in Novato, so ideally be within say, 30 minutes or so. It would be great to play together once a week or so if it works.