The quick math rule of thumb we use is that the average song is three and a half minutes long. So take 68 multiplied by 3.5 and you end up with 238 minutes worth of music, or just 2 minutes shy of 4 full hours…If we played them back to back, non-stop with no talking in between. Which never happens.

Depending on the gig, we play anywhere between 1 – 4 sets and a set is either 45 or 50 minutes. That means we basically have 5 full sets worth of music at our disposal.

So how do we pick a set? It’s different every time. While we have some “standards” (considering we play covers, does that go without saying?) we use most of the time,  what order they go in depends on the gig itself. But yes, we like to try and mix it up  so that if we have fans coming to multiple shows, they won’t hear the same songs in the same order every time we play. We use a 15 song base for a set. That gives us some wiggle room at the gig to see how it’s going and make adjustments on the fly, because the best plan is to plan for the plan to not go as planned and make it work from there.

So that’s how we do it, one gig at a time.

And we thought you might like to try it and pick your perfect set from our song list (And I wanted to play with the polling plugin – Jim).  Below is our full song list as recently updated. Pick 15 songs that you think would be the perfect set and then click the Vote button. That’s all there is to it.  Enjoy!

To pick a perfect set originally appeared on Jim & Tim on February 16, 2012.

And we love that. We love the time of year and we love the music too.

That doesn’t mean we stop making music. Far from it. We understand that there are many events and parties that aren’t holiday related. You know we’re there for those whenever and wherever they may be. And we’ll even do a holiday song or two when they’re wanted/requested by popular demand.

It just means that in December you’re less likely to see something like this in your Twitter stream:

From Eric Clapton to Queen - love @jimntim!

August 21, 2011 12:51 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@theresalc

Theresa L Carter

Just keep watching, these will start popping up again very soon and we’ll be having a great time doing what we do best. Singing for you.

Happy Holidays from Jim & Tim.

 Photo Credit: mikecogh

Why don’t we see Jim & Tim this holiday? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on December 1, 2011.

Jim & Tim at Elburn Days 2010

Hey, it’s this coming Sunday and if you’re not busy…

We had our rehearsal and a couple of weeks ago we determined the songs we were going to use for the day. Elburn Days is always a fun gig for us, we’ve been playing a for a few years now. It’s the site of the infamous seven and a half hour gig  a few years back and it’s been a favorite of mine ever since then.

I don’t think that we’ll be playing that long this year (you never can be sure, can you?), but we’ve got our set list all ready. Come out and join us, it’s a great place and it supports the Elburn Lions Club. A worthy cause and a great group of people.

Even if you’re thinking about coming out, do, you’ll have a great time and I just don’t think…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMgRnygok8

Photo and Video Credit: Theresa Carter

Hey, what are you doing the 21st? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on August 18, 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMgRnygok8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCJWpKD97-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95d5vpanVYk

Just playing around originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 4, 2011.

Now for that open door. I also just found out that Jim & Tim will be playing at Elburn Days this year. It’s at Lions Park in Elburn on August 21 and it’s one of my favorite gigs because of its history. We’ll have some fun and probably even play some songs you haven’t heard us play before. In the meantime, we’ll be looking to set up some more gigs in the area so you have a chance to hear us play. Because that’s what we love to do.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

One door… originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 25, 2011.

But wait, how can that be? Jim, are you some sort of Svengali that can transport himself through space and time in the blink of an eye? Hmmm, can you…Can you?!

While I’d like to say yes, the answer is no, I’m not. I have to get back the old fashioned way in this case, by driving. So you might ask yourself  ”How are Jim and Tim going to perform Friday night, if Jim’s halfway across the country?”. Well, it’s simple, really and it happens a lot in the music world. The role of Jim will be played by someone else Friday night. Ken Overbey will be filling in for me and I’m glad he is.

So please, make sure to go out and See Jim (Ken) & Tim at the Beacon Tap in the Beer Garden. And come up and say hi to me when you get there.

Who is that mysterious Jim? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 17, 2011.

Photo credit Theresa Carter 2010

Okay, I’ve been remiss in writing. I’ve had a few things happen that kept me from writing about our last gig (And I’m not going to go into them here). And I will post some pictures, but let me tell you how it went and some news because of it and more.

The gig was fun, got there, got set up, said hi to the people we knew and started playing.  Now we had a good group of friends at the gig, which is always nice and a couple people came out that I literally haven’t seen in years, good surprises. But the best surprise of all is the unintentional one, and by that I mean the one that just sort of grows out of the situation.

We had a table of people come in that didn’t look any too interested in us or listening to us play. They seemed to be disinterested at best so at least from my point of view, I just tried to focus on the rest of the crowd who were enjoying us. Pretty standard performance, you just can’t please everyone all the time and so you go with the ones you do make happy. Well, I began to notice a change and soon enough, this table started lighting their lighters and more people came to the table (I found out after we were done that people at that table started calling their friends to come and hear us play and just have a great time at Beacon Tap, works for me!).

Even though it’s too late for long story short, what happened when we finished playing, they came up and asked how much it would take for us to stay and play a little longer. I told them it wasn’t up to me, they’d have to talk to the management at Beacon Tap. So they took up a collection and went to the folks there at the Beacon and we ended up playing for a little over an hour longer. Always a good thing when you have a gig like that. And the best thing? We talked with the Management there and they booked us for two more gigs in August! So you’ll have plenty of opportunities to come out and hear us and we’ll have a great time at a great place to have some summer fun! You just can’t beat that.

You want more? You got more! originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 31, 2010.

We had our regular rehearsal last night and let me tell you, it was a good run through for tomorrow’s gig to be sure. We rehearse in the closest thing to a factory that I’ve ever spent time in and there are a lot of fans, but no air conditioning in the area we rehearse. If you’re in the Chicago area you already know where I’m headed with this. The temp was in the 90′s with high enough humidity that it took all of about 10 minutes before I’d sweat through my T-shirt. Now you may think that’s  pretty gross, but I look  at it a little differently. It’s good training for the gig. You see, the forecast is pretty much the same for Friday night and we’ll be outside in the Beer Garden. I’m hoping for a breeze, but I’m not counting on it.

Besides, if you ain’t sweating, it ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll, right?

Hope to see you there tomorrow night and stop by and say hello if you’re there.

Gig Redux originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 15, 2010.

So The Local Tourist and Free Spirit Yacht Cruises have teamed up to present Bringing Back Venetian Night and Jim & Tim will be aboard The Free Spirit providing the live music for the entire cruise! Man, I’m excited, this is going to be a ton of fun. So here are the details:

The cruise is from 8:00 – 11:00pm on Saturday, July 31st.  There will be an Italian Buffet meal, an Open Bar and we’ll be sailing to watch the fireworks at Navy Pier from the water! The cost is $99 per person with everything I’ve just talked about included.

Come and join us and a lot of fun people by buying your tickets for Bringing Back Venetian Night!

It’s out of the bag now! originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 2, 2010.

18 June 2010

Well hey, this is shaping up to be an interesting night. We had a thunderstorm roll through about 4:15 in the afternoon, carried some winds and rain with it, not a lot of thunder , so since the gig wasn’t until 7:00, I headed over to the Beacon Tap, only to find that the power is out. Not everywhere mind you, it was out at my place, so I basically got ready in the close to dark, but I’m far enough away from the the venue that there was no way to know. Driving over, there were areas with and without power, so it was a crap shoot.

As I write this, it’s about 6:10 PM and although it’s cloudy, it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain anymore, so if the power is out, we may still perform, so here I sit in the parking lot. It’s not a bad temperature out and I’m willing to stick around for a little while, see what happens. I can’t tell, but it look s like the Starbucks across the street has power, I’m going to check that out and if it does and I can get online, I’ll post this on the site, give a play by play of the situation. Ah, first gig stories, nothing like them.

The Starbucks doesn’t have power either, so I’m just sitting in the parking lot waiting to see if anyone I know shows up, just seems like the fun thing to do right now. I’m starting to hear that power is out in a lot of the surrounding communities and the traffic here right now is unbelievable. These are the types of days made for a pay or play clause, but we don’t have one and that’s not a bad thing.

Gigus Ingterruptus originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 19, 2010.