I got the opportunity to play in Highway 6 this weekend at the Vertical Diner in Salt Lake City, Utah. Highway 6 is an all-original band that is fronted by the Father/Daughter duo of Tom and Heidi Nedreberg. They have just released a new CD called “Love Songs To The Desert” on which I had the opportunity to play a lot of the guitar. So when they got a gig at the Vertical Diner they asked me to join them.
The Vertical Diner is a small vegetarian restaurant in Salt Lake City with a small stage tucked into a very prominent corner. The Diner can seat around 100 people and it’s a medium sized room. The standard entertainment is all acoustic instruments but I just couldn’t duplicate my parts properly on an acoustic guitar. I am an electric guitarist so I brought my trusty Fender American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster and my Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier to the gig. These are the same two pieces of equipment I used on the the CD.
Tom and Heidi had done some very good marketing to promote the show and when we took the stage to play, the Diner was filled to capacity. All the seats were full and a few people were left standing where they could to catch the show. It’s always great when friends and family come to support your band because it makes you very comfortable to look out and see familiar faces in the audience.
We started out with several tracks from the new CD and they were very well received. The mix of acoustic guitar, acoustic bass and electric guitar gave us a rich and full sound. I know I was enjoying playing and listening to the warm mix from the stage. Highlights of the original songs were “My Water”, “I Don’t Wanna Live Without You”, The Bridge” and “Champagne Suicide”. They translated very well from the full band instrumentation to the instrumentation we used at the Vertical Diner.
We also played a couple cover songs that were very well reveived. We played Neil Young – Rockin’ In The Free World and Journey – Separate Ways. It was a real challenge to get Separate Ways to to work on acoustic guitar, acoustic bass and electric guitar but we pulled it off and got some seriously loud cheers for that one.
All in all it was a great night and we have been invited to play the Vertical Diner again. That’s always a sign of a successful gig. Watch out for more upcoming shows by Highway 6 by checking out the Highway 6 MySpace page.
