Amen to that my Kilt Wearin' collegue!

All music has it's place. Just has to find an audience. I do a bit o' covers meself. (My Scottish roots there) but I always try to find a "twist" on all of them. I perform in Fla. once a month. I do a version of Margarittaville, (The most requested song) but I do it as a "WE ARE THE WORLD" approach with celebrity voice impressions. Julio Englasias, Arron Neville,
Micheal McDonald, Bob Dylan, ending up with a big version of Joe Cocker, complete with spastic facial expressions.
It is about having fun and making the audience have fun, keep drinking and hanging out. You do that and you make money and get rehired.
Tribute bands are usually stocked with some pretty good players. I am with you Dean, I don't care as much for the note by note thing. Even with the "Long Players", who are a Nashville based band of famous studio players, who recreate versions of albums from beginning to endm they try to put something special in. Last year they did Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" album with Al Kooper, who played the original riff on "Like a Rolling Stone." He even did a variation of his own riff on the record. Very cool.

There is nothing wrong with tribute bands any more than anything wrong with music. It is about sharing what is inside of you with as many people as you can. We all should just hope that some day people do a tribute band of us.

Hey, that is pretty cool too. Have you ever had people throw you a birthday party and all do versions of YOUR songs? That is a neat thing. I suggest it whole heartedly. My friends through a 45th birthday for me and about 6 did versions of my songs and the rest made up some songs and poems about me. Very touching.

MAB