Artist - Gwen McCrae
Electric Bass - Nate Watts
Difficulty - Intermediate
If you were to ask a bass player "what is a great Nate Watts bass line?” they might answer with Sir Duke, Master Blaster or maybe Do I Do (all excellent answers btw!). I would however wager that almost none of them would name this particular track, Gwen McCrae’s Keep The Fire Burning.
I was first exposed to Gwen’s music (and lots more besides) via some excellent Jonathan Maron seminars, and have loved her work ever since. This particular track has the same challenge as tunes like Billie Jean; it’s relentless, the groove never stops so there is certainly a degree of stamina required! The grooves themselves in the verse and chorus are fantastic illustrations of how you can write something catchy and propulsive with relatively simple harmony ingredients, in this case F minor pentatonic and chromatic approach notes. This is interspersed with little flashes of Nate’s phenomenal ability to lay down tasty ideas (that little fill in the last chorus before the slap line kicks in is killer). In the slap section, pay close attention to which parts are thumb and those that are popped, its quite surprising how few times Nate uses the pop!
This track suggested flats to me, so I went my my Yamaha BB, recorded through my Cali76 compressor, MXR M80 preamp into my Audient interface.
Enjoy!
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