Blog post

September 15, 2018 [LINK / comment]

Utter "chaos" at Bedlam Brewing!

In preparing for my latest gig at Bedlam Brewing [a little over two weeks ago (August 31)], it dawned on me that their "embrace the chaos" theme was particularly appropriate for me, so I put an updated version of my "word cloud" on a Mandelbrot Set background. (See my Chaos page for an explanation.) That theme had added meaning, as the show came soon after the 50th anniversary of the the violence in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Chaos in the streets!

The "psychedelic" Mandelbrot Set, as an illustration of Chaos Theory.

Indeed, the first four songs I played had a direct connection to the social and political tumult of the late 1960s. "Revolution" and "[Chicago]" both sounded very good, I thought, especially considering I hadn't played either one in public before. "Gimme Shelter" fell short, however, partly because I really didn't practice it enough and partly because I had my songbook binder turned to the wrong page. Likewise, U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" refers in part to [the assassination of] Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. I started that one a little bit sloppy and then got better. The next three songs were not political but rather had a common theme of loneliness and alienation stemming from the rapid social change of that era. I was really getting into the spirit of things, and they sounded fine.

I was eager to play the tenth song, Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath," which I had done very effectively at a Queen City Brewing open mic event earlier in the summer. But somehow I got started in the wrong key (C minor played as A minor with the capo on the third fret), whereas it is supposed to be F minor played as D minor. I fumbled around for almost 30 seconds before I got it right, which spoiled the building tension that the intro of that song is supposed to yield. The rest of the song was fine, but it could have been better. Next came a CCR tune I have played before and Supertramp's "The Logical Song," which I only learned recently. I closed the first half of the show with three songs by Paul McCartney or the Beatles, and I was pretty happy with how they went. The audience was appreciative and friendly, but there weren't as many folks as I had hoped.

After a ten-minute break, I shifted gears and played three relatively "recent" songs, i.e., ones that have come out since the 1990s. The song "Iris" is familiar to most people, but amazingly enough, until this year I was barely even aware of who the Goo Goo Dolls were! "Rhythm of Love" got hearty applause, as did the next two songs when I went back to the early 1970s. Then came more songs from that period, including BTO's "Let It Ride," which is not the sort of song one expects of a solo acoustic guitarist. I had fun with that one, and did pretty well on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" as well. The intro part wasn't 100% clean, but it was close.

For the final portion of the show, I shifted gears once again, with somewhat more serious song themes. The Moody Blues' "The Voice" sounded fine, but the only Ozark Mountain Daredevils song I played ("It's How You Think") didn't elicit as much audience response as I had hoped. You never know. The late Tom Petty's "Here Comes My Girl" and Sheryl Crow's "My Favorite Mistake" went without a hitch, as did the Eagles' "Lyin' Eyes," which marked the grand finale. Was it the best choice for a last song? I'm not sure. Anyway, I felt good as I thanked the crowd for being there and being good listeners. Then I relaxed with a tasty IPA and chatted with friends for a while before unplugging, packing up, and heading home. In sum, it was a very satisfying night.

Some of my friends at the show complimented me on the song selection, which I appreciated. I always put a lot of effort into choosing songs and putting them together in an appropriate way. I was conscious of the need not to waste time between songs, and played for a little over two hours altogether: I started five minutes late, took a ten minute break, and finished about 20 minutes after 10:00 PM. I only left out one song from my planned set list: "Invisible Sun" by The Police. The above set list will eventually be incorporated into the recently-compiled "public repertoire" table on my Music page.

As for future shows at Bedlam Brewing, it will probably be at least three months hence because of the modest turnout that evening. I really need to promote my shows more actively if I'm going to get music gigs on a regular basis.

Recent open mic events

I couldn't even remember for sure if I had been to the open mic event on August 1, but after looking at my Facebook archives, I saw that Fritz Horisk tagged me as one of the performers that night, so I must have been [there]. After looking through my repertoire spreadsheet and song lyric documents (dated by when I saved them, implying that's when I learned them), I figured out with reasonable certainty what I played that night. As I recall, I did OK for the most part, but missed some of the words on the last song, which I was just learning. As usual, the hashtag symbols ( # ) refer to my use of the harmonica (along with the guitar), and the asterisks indicate songs that I played for the first time in public.

• Have a Cigar * -- Pink Floyd
• Hey Hey, What Can I Do * -- Led Zeppelin
• You've Got To Hide Your Love Away ( # ) -- Beatles ( ??? )
• Summer In the City * -- Lovin' Spoonful

On August 8 there was a virtually full slate of performers, including John Dull, who has become a regular at the QCB open mic nights, specializing in Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, one of my favorite groups. For the first time, I heard Sissy Hutching and Travis Weaver, the new proprietors of Fretwell Bass, the music store that I frequent in downtown Staunton. They sounded great together. Of the two "new" songs I played, "It's Too Late" was the more technically challenging, and I was happy I did pretty well on it. "Daniel" could have been a little better; it's one of those songs that is hard for me to sing in the original key. As usual, the hashtag symbol ( # ) refers to my use of the harmonica, along with guitar.

• Mother's Little Helper * ( # ) -- Rolling Stones
• Aqualung -- Jethro Tull
• It's Too Late * -- Carole King
• Daniel ( # ) -- Elton John

After missing the next week, on August 22 I called attention to the anniversary of the solar eclipse in the first song, and also the appearance of three planets in the southern skies: Venus, Mars, and Saturn. (I'm not aware of any song about the Ringed Planet.) "Venus and Mars" led logically to two other Paul McCartney tunes, which sounded pretty darned good if I do say so myself. The encore ("Us and Them") was not quite as good as I would have liked, somewhat annoying since I have practiced it so much.

• Invisible Sun -- The Police
• Venus & Mars * ( # ) -- Paul McCartney
• Band On the Run * ( # ) -- Paul McCartney
• Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey * ( # ) -- Paul McCartney
• Us and Them -- Pink Floyd

I was unable to play on August 29 because of a hospital visit, which fortunately did not impinge upon my big show on August 31. At my next open mic appearance on September 5 I played some of the same songs I had done at Bedlam on the Friday before (see above), noting the 50th anniversary of the the violence in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. All the songs went very well, except that I switched octaves while singing "Chicago," and that probably sounded a little off. Getting the guitar riff and vocals on "The Logical Song" was a minor triumph, and it got some nice applause. For the "encore" song I picked a standard Eagles tune that I had only done there once before, and it was also very well received.

• Chicago * -- Graham Nash
• Lonely Days * -- Bee Gees
• The Times They Are A-Changin' * ( # ) -- Bob Dylan
• The Logical Song * ( # ) -- Supertramp
• Take It To the Limit -- Eagles

And this past Wednesday night (September 12), I followed up with more Eagles songs, since people really liked "Take It To the Limit" the week before. Percussionist Craig Austin joined me on "Witchy Woman" and "Strange Way," which helped a lot. I had a hard time singing two of my "new" songs ("Hollywood Waltz" and "Madman Across the Water") in a consistent octave, so I'll have to work on that. Attendance by musicians and regular patrons was down compared to recent weeks, so we each had more time to play songs. The first two ["encore" songs] went well, as did the third, [a first-time public song for me,] "Tin Man." If I recall correctly, it was only the second song by America that I have played in public.

• Witchy Woman ( # ) -- Eagles
• Hollywood Waltz * ( # ) -- Eagles
• If I Fell -- Beatles
• Madman Across the Water * -- Elton John
• Strange Way -- Firefall
• Heart of the Night ( # ) -- Poco
• Tin Man * -- America

The hashtag symbols ( # ) refer to my use of the harmonica (along with the guitar), and the asterisks indicate songs that I played for the first time in public.