My New Years Gig Story - Ask Zac 106

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac i hope you are doing
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well happy new year first episode of
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2022 can you believe it
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so today I'm going to talk about my new
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year's
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run of gigs that i uh you know play
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played some shows and uh it was a ton of
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fun and uh
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had to do some different things because
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uh there was a another
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you know it wasn't me filling in for uh
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Paul Bogart's guitar player as me
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playing with him
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and so i had to uh i had to think
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differently and i had to bring some
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different tools with me and so one of
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the things i brought was this dano uh
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six string bass this hodad also brought
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a mandolin of course i always have my
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esquire and
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had the old vox ac 10. so yeah I'm going
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to talk about that today so uh
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of course
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you know while while we're thinking
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about it
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all right so let's dive in
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so
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I'll just you know pardon me I'm I'm you
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know kind of getting over a uh
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a bad cold had uh
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you know that's always fun to go play
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some shows and be sick but uh but I'm
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okay and doing better so but if I'm a
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little bit froggy that's why
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so to back up a little bit the last
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shows i played with Paul
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uh it was a fly date in las Vegas and
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that of course is the episode where i
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talk about going direct because it was
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you know backline kind of got hinky and
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i just decided to use the strymon
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iridium went great well paul asked me to
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play a couple more shows uh you know the
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the 30th the 31st and the 1st of january
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so it was you know basically the day
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before new year's eve new year's eve and
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new year's day
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so they were all kind of in the Tulsa
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and Wichita Kansas area so he asked me
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to do those and those we weren't going
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to fly to them were going to be driving
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out there so with that i had a lot more
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freedom to take stuff and
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i learned a whole lot from playing the
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fly date because that was the first show
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i had played with the other guitar
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player because again normally i was
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filling in for him
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but now i'm playing with him and i'm
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realizing that of course we're going to
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a lot of the same things
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so
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i had to to really think about
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you know after doing that show i'd
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really think about
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moving in another direction and staying
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out of his way now unfortunately we
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couldn't have a rehearsal together so
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that would have been the easiest thing
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but that would have been also the most
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time-consuming thing
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so with that i tried to remember as best
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i could
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what he was playing on different songs
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and you know what you know because he
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wasn't doing what was on the recordings
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i had heard
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and which of course every guitar player
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you know changes it up when they're when
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they're playing live and having to cover
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multiple guitar parts so
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i i
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played more slide guitar because he was
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not doing that
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and then also i brought along this dan
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electro six string bass
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which i actually picked up recently i
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have a squire base six
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but uh i put flat wounds on it and with
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this i really wanted kind of that dano
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you know
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you know lipstick tube pickup round
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wound string sound so i got this off of
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the old reverb
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and you know it was like five or six
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hundred bucks not too bad this is a hoe
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dad uh six string bass from the uh
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from the early 2000's
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and
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i had to do some uh some little rep kind
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of uh
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uh i guess what you'd call triage guitar
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tech repairs on it so if you see here
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this is actually raw solder you know
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unused solder that i used to to ground
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it because it had a bad ground and so i
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just connected the switch and actually
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wrapped it around one of the strings
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and i found that uh you know
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that really reduced the the ground noise
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so i did that also
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one of the uh adjustment screws for the
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pickup
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uh just you know kind of fell out
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and i didn't have time to to fix it so i
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kind of jammed that up so that the
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pickup so this bridge pickup which is
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what i was using the most would stay in
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place
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so
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that was fun so anyway so yeah i i
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learned uh you know some different
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guitar parts and solos and things i
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could do even to playing like an
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instrumental like ghost riders in the
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sky
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you know which uh
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really
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you know fun to do you know
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[Applause]
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yeah
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that's just a ton of fun to play on on
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the bass and then on the you know base
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six and then you know the guitar player
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you know i could play like the melody
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line and then he could do a response
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with some you know kind of wailing kind
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of high you know
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high on the neck you know type playing
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so that was a lot of fun so this worked
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out really well and one of the really
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fun things was the piece that i played
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at the beginning of this episode was
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actually an intro
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to uh to a new song that paul bocart uh
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had done um you know when when she's
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while she's mine when she's mine sorry
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i'm forgetting but i'll i'll put it in
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the
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in the link
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and he just sent us the demo you know
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over the uh you know or the the single
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that hadn't been released yet he he just
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you know texted us to us and said learn
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this
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and so that you know that's kind of
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thing that happens you know we're out on
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the road and he texts this song and so
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we uh
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we learned it and it had a dobro part
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playing that intro and of course we
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didn't have a dobro
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and uh i just thought well what if i
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play it on the base six and it will you
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know kind of and play it kind of like
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john jorgensen might have you know
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played something like that with the
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desert rose band so of course i had my
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fox ac 10 out there and i used this
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and i used the uh
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boss vibrato and uh boss dd2 for a
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little touch of delay
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and
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yeah
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to do
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you know this type of sound
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[Laughter]
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[Music]
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so
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it was it was fun to utilize uh that
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sound you know live and uh yeah so those
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are just kind of the things you get
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asked dude it's all of a sudden it's
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like hey let's do this song you know
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tonight no rehearsal you know and
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everyone and so during soundcheck we
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kind of did you know we kind of went
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through the song once or twice and
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and he was okay with me uh doing the
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whole
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base6 thing on there with the
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warbly vibrato and everything so
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yeah so another thing i did was uh
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i also brought a mandolin
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and that was you know because of course
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i love to play mandolin and also because
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the mandolin is fantastic because it
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stays out of the way of other
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instruments
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so
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there was a western swing tune
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called all that cowboy jazz that i
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really love playing and it has some
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harmony parts on it and such and it was
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you know it was just two guitars sounded
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okay when we played it in vegas but i
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thought you know if i if i could just
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play those parts on the mandolin it's
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going to sound so much cooler because
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it's going to be up an octave and
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instead of playing like way up here on a
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guitar play it here and also you get
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different voicings and everything and
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then also you had to take a a you know a
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solo on it so anyway it was a song in
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the key of g
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uh you know
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[Music]
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you know just a 145 thing but you know
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you kind of
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[Applause]
8:56
[Music]
9:10
[Music]
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[Music]
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that's into the key change going into a
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[Music]
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yeah so it was a lot of fun plus you
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know
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yeah the mandolin just kind of stays
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you know out of the way of the guitar
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unless guitar players went way up high
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and uh it just kind of has its own sonic
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real estate and so it really worked well
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another uh fun we played the don
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williams tune um
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some hearts uh some hearts will never
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mend yeah some
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my love for you will never die you know
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that's a a great tune and so i you know
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could play mandolin on that and uh yeah
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and of course another nod to john
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jorgensen whole reason i play the
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mandolin is from seeing him uh play with
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the desert rose band you know in the in
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the 80s and and
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hearing him play
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uh his mandolin which i found out he was
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running through his uh ac 30s
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and uh
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kind of in tribute to him and also
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because we had to we ran out of channels
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so i ran my mandolin through my vox ac
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10 here and so i just used a boss eq
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pedal this one's modified by xts
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and so i uh i just you know ran the
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pickup through that and then i would
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turn all the effects off so i wouldn't
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use any effects unless it was something
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where i was really going for something
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oddball but yes you can put you know uh
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effects on the uh like i did use the
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vibrato on the uh on the mandolin uh you
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know once or twice just to get kind of a
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a neat effect but yeah
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so that was just a a whole lot of fun
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you know switching out and and uh
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playing the mandolin and bringing
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different colors to it and
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you know making it fun also you know i
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got to uh got to sing a couple songs uh
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you know he needed you know he wanted to
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have a break and so i played some
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favorite tunes of mine so i played only
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daddy that'll walk the line you know the
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old
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waylon jennings tune that
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jimmy bryant
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got
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got payment for playing on a session
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for by getting rider credit on it even
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though he didn't ride it
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and
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did like honey won't you open that door
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the old uh mel tillis song that ricky
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skaggs had a hit with that was a lot of
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fun
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and
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yeah so it was just a
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hell of a lot of fun you know going out
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and playing some shows those are those
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are great guys and and it was it was
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good music i really love playing you
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know traditional
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country music it really warms my heart
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and makes me feel good and you know i
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get to play
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my esquire you know through through this
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nice
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vox ac 10 and with a a simple pedal
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board i'll just tell you what i what i
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have on here i have the xts ge7
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uh which they just modified to make it
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where it's a little more guitar
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frequency friendly and a little cleaner
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a little quieter
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sonic research turbo tuner use the the
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karma moss torsion which i highly
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recommend because it's like
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200 bucks and it's uh it sounds the same
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as my old mastor shins in it and it's
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just more rugged and smaller i used a
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new
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boss vibrato the wasa craft version from
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boss had an analog man tremolo just
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because i didn't want to run this foot
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switch all the way over even though this
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actually would have sounded better the
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vox's
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tremolo is really nice and then i had a
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boss dd2 for long delay time and then i
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had the
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boss rv2 which is the old
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reverb pedal they made back in the late
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80s and of course i have that on the
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plate setting
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and yeah again uh in
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kind of a tribute to john jorgensen i
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don't play anything like john and uh but
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yeah he's just uh been a
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a big
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influence and uh you know kind of when i
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think about country bands like i kind of
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think about either his his mold or or
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playing more like you know roy nichols
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or reggie young those are kind of you
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know a lot of my heroes when i'm and
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what i'm thinking about you know as far
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as you know not playing exactly like
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them but maybe thinking like them in a
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small way so but always ends up coming
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out like me because i can't
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can't play like those guys because i'm
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me
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so
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yeah
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so one other thing i'll just mention
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briefly
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is uh you know it was a little tough
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being sick out on the road which i was
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and uh
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you know but i just uh
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and just so you know
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i uh i was tested and so you know i
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didn't have the unmentionable you know
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while i was out on the road and uh
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wasn't spreading that but uh yeah it was
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it was kind of tough you know of course
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having to rest up you know and then you
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know get ready for the show and kind of
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saving up all your energy for the show
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but it was
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it was a lot of fun and uh
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yeah so yeah that was my new year's eve
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amp wise i just used the vox ac 10. i
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had the fender tone master deluxe the
14:28
blonde one i had that as a backup but i
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didn't use both amps because again
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there's another guitar player and i
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didn't need to go
14:35
stereo and so i just went mono
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and it was it was great of course you
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know and then i could actually turn the
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ac 10 up louder so i could turn this
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thing up about halfway
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and
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it sounded pretty darn glorious
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i want to uh thank some some friends out
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there that have been been kind and sent
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me some some gifts i had uh
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one friend that uh
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who shall remain nameless who gave me an
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early duncan broadcaster pickup that he
15:06
used in his guitar for many years on on
15:09
sessions and albums and such
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so
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yeah very thank you
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also
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had uh
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greg townsend was kind enough he plays
15:23
in low straight jackets and he sent me a
15:26
two of his albums
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and they they are fantastic they are
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they are the kind of instrumental music
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i like because he actually plays
15:34
melodies instead of just flailing around
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i mean he will play some solos and burn
15:38
some
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but he has you know pure guitar sounds
15:41
he plays a jazz master and a telecaster
15:44
and you know and just gets a good guitar
15:47
sound and doesn't just go weedly weedly
15:49
wii which that weedly weedly weed just
15:52
wears me out so uh i like it a little
15:55
bit but
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then also
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uh you know i'm always amazed at the
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people that will you know reach out to
16:01
me and one of them was bob berman
16:04
so bob berman
16:06
managed danny gatton for a while did
16:08
some interviews with like
16:10
roy buchanan and james burton and others
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and uh
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he's a you know a great you know
16:16
historian and also he's been involved in
16:17
the business and uh he sent me this
16:20
really cool picture of he and james
16:22
burton
16:23
in the uh it looks like the mid to late
16:25
1960s by uh burton's uh lamb chops and
16:29
also by the the cadillac because uh of
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course burton always uh drove a cadillac
16:34
so i thought that was a a really really
16:37
cool
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photo of bob and james burton
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so
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i just want to thank y'all for uh for
16:45
sticking with me i'm sorry i was uh you
16:47
know gone for a couple weeks of course
16:49
it was holidays and then it was gigs and
16:52
then i got sick and i'm you know getting
16:53
over it and you know looking forward to
16:56
to to good times in in 2022 and i hope i
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hope y'all are all doing well
17:01
and uh yeah and i'll see you next time
17:04
bye