Keith solo at Yorba Linda -- 28July2007

Another fun night. There were lots of people in the comfy chairs already when I got there, and I was able to get them involved right off the bat. I got lots of requests from around the room, and a lady right up front asked for "Something in the Way She Moves", and yes, the James Taylor version. I gladly started playing it, and her little round husband took her hand, and they stood up and started slow dancing! Right there in the bookstore. It's not even exactly a "slow" song, but they faked it. Other than little kids, I think that's the first time I've gotten dancing...

After I got set up, I went and found the manager, and asked her if she had any special instructions for me. She asked me to stop playing around 10, and I tried to get that extended by telling her that it only takes me 20 minutes to tear down the stuff, but she wanted to be able to make the "we're closing" announcements without having to blast over me, which I suppose makes sense. I also asked if she needed me to take a break, but she couldn't imagine why she'd want that, though she said that "most of 'em do". I said that I'd just rather play through, and she was OK with that.

I did *not* ask her if she was sick of my "same songs" repertoire -- a (probably bogus) complaint we've gotten lately. But I did try to play some of the lesser-done ones from the list, when I wasn't playing requests. The requests tend to be the more popular ones, and force the set to be the "same songs", so it's hard to take the complaint seriously. Clearly the ever-changing audience doesn't care -- if there's a real complainer, it must have been either a "regular" or an employee. Neither of whom ought to have a right to complain about that -- what am I supposed to do, learn 30 new songs every month?

Anyway, it was a nice, mellow, fun gig. I was singing and playing well. My newly-repaired amp sounds good, though I should have noted where I had the reverb controls set at -- I have no idea how to adjust those back to sound right. But I tweaked that and the volume levels between songs and eventually got it close enough.

Toward the end, a pair of older couples (you know, my age) came in, clearly in a good mood. They asked for several songs, laughed at my jokes, and took a business card to check the schedule for next time. I wish they'd have gotten there sooner. And almost last, I worked in "Mother Goose", 'cuz there was a guy down front who knew it, and he was properly impressed -- he even came up and said so at the end, and recommended another Tull song, "Moths", which I've never heard of, but should look up.

And as I was out in the parking lot loading the amp into my trunk to leave, a lady pulled past me, rolled down her window, and yelled "Good job tonight!"

K&W at Costa Mesa -- 21July2007

The gig went really well this week. My voice was in much better shape than last week in Brea, and we had lots of friendly faces. One couple came in to buy some coffee, noticed us, and decided to sit and listen. They were very into it (being big James Taylor fans), and even moved from their table to a closer one when it freed up. The big triangular display structure that usually blocks us from the Comfy Chair area was gone, so we had the luxury of playing to both those people and the café itself at the same time.

We got there nice and late -- partially on purpose and partially because of the OC Fair traffic -- and set up slowly, to avoid the "starts too early" no-no. We took the requisite Break, and I ended up talking to some of the Comfy Chair people, who were aghast that this was to be our last time playing there. One guy who's there every time we play immediately got up to talk to the manager. I'm not sure how inclined the manager should be to accommodate the desires of people who essentially use his store as a living room, but maybe it'll help.

We played to 10:00 and quit (despite no sign of the usual watch-tapping Manager Girl), and it occurred to me that maybe the manager had changed, as they do pretty frequently, and if so, this was our best and only chance to try to fix the black-balling. So we found him, a nice guy named Nick, and he said that he had nothing against us, and would call the district manager on Monday, after talking to his staff to see if there was something treacherous about us that he was unaware of. He's supposed to call me with the results of all that, but so far, nothing.

But, with some luck, we may get un-black-balled from there, which would be nice since it's becoming one of our favorite places to play -- and it's a heck of a lot closer than Brea and Yorba Linda. We recently discovered that we've been banned from the Mission Viejo store, too. My gasoline budget can't really afford us getting kicked out of all the close stores so all our $3-in-tips gigs are $10 away.

But, musically and audience-response-wise, it was a great gig. My voice was strong and accommodating, my mind was somehow sharp so my playing was good, and the audience was very friendly. Overall, a great antidote to how badly I felt after the disappointing showing at Brea last week.

I hope I can do as well as a solo at Yorba Linda next Saturday. A lot of it is on me, whether I can connect with some chunk of the audience, but a lot is also on random chance of who's there, and whether they're willing to interrupt what they're there for. If somebody is clearly listening, I get a lot braver to start talking and interacting, and it can be contagious. But I need that one starter...

Keith at Brea -- 14July2007

This was my first time as a solo in Brea. When I got there, it was very quiet, which makes it *so* hard to start up. So I played, and played some more, all to no reaction at all, except one guy in front who'd look up from his reading to clap quietly, most of the time.

It's very intimidating. I guess my insecurity needs the applause just to tell me that they're not resenting my intrusion. When this happens, I just tell myself to treat it like a dress rehearsal and play and sing like it counts. But once that no-applause pattern is set, it's pretty hard to break it.

So I played for a while, and took the Required Break. This kind of helped to break up the "song, song, song, he must be Muzak" pattern, and when I started up again, they seemed to realize that there was a person up there. One nice lady fetched up the list she'd been neglecting and asked me to play, of all things, "Octopus's Garden". And although the coffeeshop was almost entirely full, some new people had arrived and they weren't in on the unspoken agreement to not clap.

I also got to play my trump card: a lady with an 8-year-old boy came in, and after I played "You Got a Friend in Me" for him, I got him up to shake the shaker for "Jenny Dreamed of Trains". That always breaks the ice, at least some.

Then, near the end, amazingly, the guy who'd been quietly clapping two hours ago and had got up to leave, walked over and handed me a cold bottled water. He had bought me a drink! That's sure never happened before. I presume he was just being nice, and not reacting to my not-very-well-behaved voice of the night.

And when I played my last song and made my "gotta pack up now" announcement, there was a general (but quiet) round of applause (which has happened only a few times), and several people leaped up to put money in the jar! Apparently, despite my gloomy feelings about the night as it was happening, they were actually an appreciative bunch, just not a very demonstrative one...

Geneva, Driving!

Yes, it's hard to believe, but Geneva turned 15-and-a-half in June, so we signed her up for a 4-day Driver Ed class, and she passed the test, and she now has her Learner's Permit.

On Sunday, I needed some stuff at Home Depot, so I let her drive me there -- first time. The class included some post-test driving instruction, so she'd had 2 hours with her teacher, and claimed she was doing really well. And she is doing OK, with a few exceptions. She as a little trouble staying in the middle of her lane, but she'll get that, I’m sure.

Her worst mistake was that she had apparently heard the part about being able to turn right on red lights, but missed the part about stopping first. We pulled up to an intersection to make a right turn, and the light was red, and she slowed down, apparently (to me) to go ahead and stop. I was about to launch into the "Look this way, now look that way" speech, but she just rolled right on around the corner!

I was so shocked that it took me a while to realize that she was just gonna go on around. Then, to make matters worse, when I recovered my senses and started yelling "Stop! Stop! Stop!", she just *didn't*! So we had a *very* stern talk about "When I say 'Stop!', you *stop*!", and went on to Home Depot.

Then, on the way home, she rolled on around another red-light right-turn! This time I realized that she just didn't know she was *supposed* to stop at red lights, so I made that part perfectly clear. Very, very, clear.

It occurred to me that the basic implied contract that I, the dad, have with Society is that I'll sit next to her, and I won't let her hurt anybody. That seems simple enough, but it assumes that she'll do what I tell her to do, when I tell her to do it. Apparently, Society has leaped to a untenable conclusion on that one, 'cuz she appears to be as capable of ignoring me yelling "Stop!" as she is when I tell her to clean up her room...

But she's pretty aware of what she's into, and I'm sure she'll be fine. I was basically proud of her, and a little sad, 'cuz it's certainly one of those "They grow up so fast" moments...

K&W at South Coast Plaza -- 06July2007

Nice. SCP is definitely my favorite place to play these days. It's the only one where we commonly get that "shoppers going by, hearing the music, and joining in for a while" effect that we're looking for. It tends to start out with a lot of Studying Kids, but as the evening goes on, some older people come by and some of 'em like our stuff, and they stop to listen. We had a couple of sets of those this time -- friendly, appreciative, involved people.

And that helps me two ways. I sing and play better when I know somebody cares, and if somebody's listening, I can talk between the songs. Or, possibly more accurately, if nobody's listening, I can't. And, of course, if somebody's listening and I'm talking, it tends to better involve other people, and it all snowballs into a fun night for us, and, hopefully, them too.

What was really surprising was three Asian kids that were there when we got there, with their notebook computers, working away on something. They never really looked up or joined in at all, but after probably 2 hours, they got up to leave, and they bought a pair of CDs on their way out! I sure didn't expect *that*.

Keith @ Yorba Linda -- 30June2007

A bit better than last week when Warren and I played this one together. The audience was a little more responsive, and I had some kids to play for, which always helps. When I first got there, there was a young family with two boys, one reading comic books, and the younger one (4 or 5?) pretty bored. I let him come up and shake the shaker while I played "House at Pooh Corner", and although he never caught the actual rhythm, he had fun and his mom appreciated it.

And later on, I had a Latino family come in and their little girl Marisela (8 or 9) was totally into it. She danced, applauded loudly, jumping out of her chair in what I came to believe was what she understood to be a "standing ovation". I got her up to shake the shaker, too, on "Jenny Dreamed of Trains", so she could try to do the train sound. She really got into "Love Potion Number Nine" and "Lollipop Tree", and was "dancing" to a lot of songs. Her dancing consisted of bouncing around, trying to mime the specific words of each line as they went by. For instance, she was "rocking the baby" when I sang "Here Comes My Baby" which was literally applicable, but not exactly right...

I was obliged to play with a fake fingernail again, but I explained to the audience that the curse of playing fingerstyle guitar is that you have to have those three particular fingernails intact all the time, and that I had shattered my middle finger's nail a few days ago, doing something that I can't recall but I'm sure it was very manly, and so I had to go buy some stick-on nails, which, unfortunately, the closest they had to "natural" color was Pink Pearl, which is not very close at all. I'm sure this explanation was well received by everyone, and nobody thought I was weird at all...

I never did spot anyone that I thought might be the manager for the night, so I couldn't ask about stopping time or the Mandatory Break. Out of new-found fear, though, I took my first Break, ever. It was kind of strange, but nobody else seemed to think it was odd, and nobody was particularly listening, or so I thought.

I wandered out to the Info desk and talked to the girl there, who couldn't guess why "they" want me to take a break, but she took the opportunity to ask if I knew how to play "Leaving On a Jet Plane", which, of course, I *could* play, but don't. A customer was over using the computer, and after a while walked over and said "Linda Ronstadt", which was apparently the answer to his unasked question about who originally recorded "Long, Long Time", which I had just done. I usually announce that song, but didn't this time, and it was apparently killing him to know who it was, so he used the store's computer to look it up. Coulda just asked me, but whatever. He also said that he thought I played really well, and did I know "City of New Orleans", another song I can play, and have played, but it's not in the book anymore, sorry.

Later on, when I was playing "Old Man" at some guy's "Neil Young" request, a college-age kid was watching me intently, and when it was over I looked over at him and he did the two-thumbs-up sign, with a kind of knowing look. That was cool, and as I was leaving, he happened to be in his car next to mine, and he opened up the passenger window, called out, "You did a really good job in there, sir!", and wanted to shake my hand. That was odd, and nice.