Most of the time, when I go out with Doc Stevens and Marilyn (and now with the Holy Ghost Band) Doc is the front man, playing rhythm guitar and singing. Marilyn sings about half of the songs, and plays harp on the other half. If Marilyn is singing, then Rick plays the harp. If she is playing harp, then Rick plays the bones. Jay "I didn't do it" Jordan plays bass, Buttermilk Wade plays lead and Brian Garner plays drums.One of Doc's oldest and best friends is Big Dave. Big Dave lives somewhere in the hills of Virginia and visits Doc and Marilyn a few times a year. When they go out to play music, interestingly the roles change.
It interests me how the roles change so completely. I ask Doc about it.
Tondeleo: Doc, why is it that you are SO out front when it is you and Marilyn, you and Rick, or you and the band, and suddenly with Big Dave, you retire to the background, and are content to sit there quietly and play the bass?
Doc: Well... I ain't really thought about it that much. Me an' Big Dave go back to maybe when we were 15 or 16, so we've played together for years. I moved around the country a lot since I was about 20 and he took off for somewhere when he was about 19 or so. I lived all over the place and he lived all over the place. We mighta seen each other maybe once a year, IF that, for a long time. But we'd always have our guitars, and when we got together, it'd be based around that.
He's good on guitar, and he sings pretty good, and I like to listen. He knows a bunch of songs what I don't even know the words to, so I ain't gonna sing 'em and mess him up. So he sings, and I back him up.Tondeleo: But why the bass, always the bass when you and Big Dave get together?
Doc: I play regular guitar 90 percent of the time when I'm playin' music. When I'm travelin, I take a acoustic guitar or a 'lectric an' small amp. You can't sit out on the sidewalks busking and do very much with a bass. With a bass, you always need electric, and if you ain't got it, you're dead in the water. So I take an acoustic most of the time.
Plus, Tondy, I'm better on bass than on regular and I like it better. But I don't get to play it much. We got a real good bass player in the Holy Ghost Band. Jay plays a 6 string bass. Other'n that, I have a couple of home made guitars what has two bass strings and four regular strings, and I play those if we're out and our bass player can't make it.
Tondeleo: Tell me a bit about playing those guitars with the two bass strings. How is that done? Where do you get guitars like that?
Doc: Well, the first one I made was because I needed to play somewhere and they wanted electric, not acoustic, and I wanted to have a fuller sound, you know, with more bottom end. I was wonderin' how I was gonna compete with the other people playin' who had a whole band.
I was asleep and the idea came to me to drill out the holes on the tuners and the bridge on a regular guitar and put bass strings on it.It didn't cost me one dime. A broke man has to be a creative man. So I got up and went out to the shop and did it. Later, I did that to a couple of box guitars that I made.
Tondeleo: And how is a guitar like that played?
Tondeleo: But you prefer to play just a regular bass?
Doc: Yeah, really I do. But nobody wants to hear a man sing while companyin' himself on a bass guitar! So when Big Dave is in the area, It's a good break for me. I like hangin' out with him and hearin' his stories, and I like hearin' his songs, an' I like just kickin' back an' not being out front, just backin' him up an' playin' bass. It's like goin' on a vacation. Well, to me it is. I ain't got the money for a real vacation. Never have.
