jeff greer band journal

Ok...so like...I'm a big slacker! so I haven't written anything in the journal since last year. I'm sure by now everyone has figured out that the band has dis-banded and all that stuff! So I guess there's not much to write about except Laura's new band Trasna, is kicking it out and Wayne's new band Lost In Rotation is getting rolling as well, and as far as Matt...he's playing bass for both bands right now (he's a pretty hot commodity in the bass department, as you may already know) Anyway's, I've been quite busy leading the worship ministry at my church, along with being a youth group leader there as well. It definitely takes up most of my time. I've been writing some new stuff and am hoping to record it summer/fall of this year with a new band. The style is not the celternative, but it's spirit is still there. So keep your ears open for that later in the year. It will be a little more electric; alt rock i.e. U2, Live, Violet Burning, ColdPlay etc. It should be cool, but then again...I am biased. If you are looking for a church, or not looking for a church, or just in the neighborhood and want to visit, my church is Horizons Community Church in Stafford, VA. Here is there website: www.horizonschurch.com. Anyway, that's it for now...I'll try to keep writing exciting letters for everyone, so when you come to this site, there is something new here. Until later...rock on!!---jeff

April 2003-Update

Another month has gone by and so quickly! We've had a couple of weekends off with Easter this month and we've been trying to get some recording done as well so it all worked out for good. Starting the month off great with our opening gig with the Pat McGee band at Mary Washington College, which turned out to be a great show and a great time. The crowd was very responsive and we were stoked to be playing at our local college. It was also a priviledge to play with Pat and the band and hopefully we will hook up with them again. We then made another visit to our friends up at WRNR in Annapolis for the Local Diner. It was great to see Damian and Michael again and we had a blast playing on the air again. It was Matt's first time with us up there and he loved it as well...but he's not hard to please! Friday the 4th brought us to the big ceilidh to celebrate Tartan Day at Lu Lu's Club Mardi Gras in DC. It was our first time there and it is quite a place. We had an incredible time playing and the crowd was very receptive. We were glad to be a part of the celebration this year, and since the Festival on the mall was cancelled because of the war, this was the only celebration in DC. I'm sure we will be back at Lu Lu's in the future so keep your eyes open. We hit the White Horse again on the second weekend and caught everyone by suprise by opening our set with our version of the Devil Went Down to Georgia for the first time ever. It was a blast, as it usually is at WHP! We ended the month at the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival. We had quite a response last year when we played at 11:00 in the morning, so they put us at 2pm this year to play for more people. We were very appreciative of the overwhelming response from the crowd this year as well. We had such a great time playing the festival and were so happy that the rain held off for the whole day. We were happy to meet and talk to lots of the fans, some of which were from last year and some of which we made that day. We are looking forward to 2004 in So Md.
The next day, some of us (Fla. Wayne, Matt, Gene (roadie), Turner (killer), Hannah (the prez.) and I (jeff) hooked up an incredible opportunity to see Nickel Creek at Mary Washington College. It turned out to be the best show I have ever seen in my life. They are the most incredible musicians and some of the coolest people I've ever met. So if you ever get a chance to see these guys (and lady)perform, make every effort to take it. I guarantee, it will be an unforgettable experience! (So what if I'm a groupie!) Anyway, until next time...go with God!!
rock on--jeff

March 2003-Update

Well it's been a while since I wrote, so I figured it's about time to give everyone who's interested something new to read. March brought us our first official "tour". We had an incredible time on the tour; we learned alot of stuff and had a blast doing it and afterwards, we were definitely convinced that this is what we want to do full time! Don't get me wrong, it had it's ups and downs for sure, but all in all, it was well worth it! We learned that we'll never play at Fado in Philly again and that we will definitely go back down south to play in Savannah, GA! I won't get into all the details of how much Doug, Matt and our roadie Gene's hotel room smelled in Savannah after the chinese food they ordered...for three days! I will just say that it was very hard to go back to real jobs in the real world again, that's for sure! Savannah was quite crazy, though! It was a big drunk fest. I wasn't our thing really, so as the night went on, we didn't stick around for long down on River street. We definitely had an incredible time playing there on the big stage, for lots of people. Several thousand people were there total for the two nights we played and we had a very good response. We definitely made some southern fans that weekend. St. Paddy's day festivities on Monday were rained out as far as the bands went, but the parade went on and we packed up and got an early start headed back home...back to our dreaded real life. But we had quite an adventure on the road and it won't be soon enough for us when we hit the road again! --jeff

Great Guinness Toast 2003-Sine Irish Pub, Richmond, VA--February 21, 2003

Well it was quite a night for a record setting toast...and a record setting crowd at Sine as well. The place was packed to the hilt! You could hardly walk to get to the bathroom; (which is probably why there was a visit from the fire marshall). They almost shut 'em down because of a fire code violation, but they let it go when they stopped letting any more people in. Now, I'm sure that those people weren't all there to see us, but we were definitely not gonna let 'em forget us! So we proceeded to rock ever so hard for the large and rowdy crowd. It was our new bass player, Matt's debut night, and he rocked as well. We had quite a blast going crazy with the lively crowd! Me and Wayne were kicked off the bar because there were too many people and the manager was concerned with liability and stuff like that (we were standing on the bar, by the way) It was great to see alot of familiar faces. It appears we have developed quite a Richmond fan base from Sine and playing the Richmond games last year, and we are so stoked to have added Sine to our Wee Tour in March on Thursday the 13th. Richmondtonians definitely know how to rock and we are thankful for all of our Richmond fans! We love you and we will see you in March!-- jeff

Update--

Well, we've played a few shows since the last time I wrote, so I figured I would just write one entry and kind of sum up what's been going on. We played for the first time at a new place in Virginia Beach...Chick's Beach Cafe. It was Saturday night, Jan 18th, after playing a Thursday night at Sullivan's and a Friday night at Sine in Richmond. We had a great time there and the crowd was lively...especially one guy who had a bit too much to drink and decided to really get into it. He was quite entertaining though! The staff at Chick's really enjoyed the night and some of our White Horse fans were there, as well as some fans from Richmond...not to mention the new fans we made that night. We are not sure if we will make it back there, due to some management changes, it seems that the new people want to have exclusively cover bands play...which we are definitely not! So we will see! We had a few weekends off set aside to try to get some recording done on our new cd. Things are going slow because we are all so busy, but we are pushing forward and hope to make some progress in coming month or two.
February started out with a date at Sullivan's Irish Pub in Fredericksburg, which turned out to be our sub bass player, Brittany's last gig with us. She definitely served us well and helped us out so much while Turner was out and we are so happy that she could come in, in such short notice, and help us out! Speaking of Turner, his time off proved to be one that we knew would bring him to the unfortunate decision that he would have to leave the band. He had just come to a point where he felt he had to step down so that the band could continue in the path it was headed. I love and appreciate Turner so much for playing with us this past year and a half, but more than that...for being such a great friend and brother to me and to us all. We will definitely miss playing with him.
Almost simultaneously as Turner came to me to leave the band, our friend, Matt White, came to me to let me know he wanted to take me up on my offer and come play with the band. Talk about provision and timing! I had heard many great things about Matt, considering that I did not know him very well. But, by what others had said about him, I was 99% sure he would be the guy we were looking for. I hadn't even heard him play bass yet! When we did get together, I was astonished at his playing. His style fit the music very well and he quickly picked up on the groove of every song we played. At this point, I was certain... he is the guy. And so we are brought to now, with our new bass player, Matt White, we are looking forward to what lies ahead...a mini-tour in March and a hopefully very promising 2003.
For one last time together, Turner came with us to the White Horse to play with us for a farewell weekend. Friday went great and wasn't too bad, but the reality that Turner would no longer play with us, hit us on Saturday night, right before we went on, and backstage, we had a hard time holding it together. But, we did and rocked as hard as we could possibly rock for Turner's last gig with us. He actually broke his big E string on his bass at the end of the first set and we had to borrow one from someone at the pub, who ran home to get one for us! The night ended with our encore, and I came out on my own and played a song that Turner had wrote along time ago, which was a total suprise to Turner, and afterwards, proceeded to go into our traditional ending, 500 miles! It was a great night, with alot of emotion, but a good time was had by all and we are glad.
So next time you see us, we will have a new bass player, Matt. Thanks to you all for your support and love! rock on--jeff