It's been a busy little stretch. I played in a writer's round Friday night, and a bar show last night. This week leading up to those, I labored over which songs to play Friday night. I really wanted to play my newest finished song, No Place Like Gone. This is a problem I've had since I was first writing songs... I always want to play what's brand new.
The problem this time around is that I wrote the song in the key of A. It's a fairly complicated western swing type of chord progression, and when it was clear that the key was too low for me to sing comfortably I needed to change it. So now I'm playing it in D. Much better for singing, but now I have to build muscle memory for a completely different set of chords. I worked at it all week, but in the end I decided (rightly) that it'll have to wait.
Friday night was fun. It's great to play for an audience who is there to deliberately listen to the songs. And the feedback from the other writers is always valuable. AND their stories behind their songs are always cool to hear. It was really great to meet Richard Roberts Jr. and Ryan Bizarri. It turns out Ryan and I were in Nashville at the same time in the late 2000's, but it's impossible to say if our paths ever crossed before.
I played Lessons in Lonely, an unrecorded song called Faraway Places, Little By Little, Rock Bottom, and Don't Go to Nashville. Maybe another one or two, but I can't recall. Because despite all my planning and practicing and worrying... I fly by the seat of my pants and play what I want to in the moment.
Saturday night went like a bar show. Most of the patrons weren't really interested. But a few were, and I can say happily that I made a few new fans. It's cool to have enough original material to easily play for 3 hours. I did play a few covers; Crazy, Oh Boy, King of the Road, Reincarnation (Roger Miller), and Act Naturally. It was notable to me that not a single person reacted to Crazy at all. Either my rendition is completely unrecognizable... or they didn't know it. Hard to fathom.
This coming Friday I play at Bucktown Revue, which is like a monthly live variety show. I've played a handful of times before, and it's always a good experience because the crowd is extremely receptive. The theme of the show this month is classic country, so hell yeah. I'll play a few of my songs that are right in that vein. Right now I'm thinking of There Goes My Heart, I Can't Cry All Day, and Counting Gray Days. It occurs to me that none of those are recorded yet...
After that, it's going to be preparation for my trip to the Netherlands. I need to brush up on several of the songs. Playing last night, I blanked on lyrics a couple of times. It didn't matter in that bar setting; I was able to vamp until I remembered, or else repeat lyrics. I'm confident no one noticed. But I don't want to do that in front of an attentive audience.
It's good to have definite goals to work towards. But I'm already wondering what it'll be after I get back from Europe. I'm going to need to come up with the next plan soon. I don't like idling at all.
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