K&W at Tustin – 20Oct2007

A really good night! The sound was not-so-good, especially at first – some weird echoey muddy sound in/from my guitar, but it seemed to go away over time, unless that was just me getting used to it.

But what really made the night was the attendance of little Anna, our First Fan, literally. I say "little" because when she first started dragging her parents in to see us every chance she could at Tully's, 4 years ago, she was only, I'm guessing, 9? Now she's 13-ish, and not so little anymore. Like I told her, I hope I don't look as much older to her as she does to me!

Frankly, she's changed so much that I didn't recognize her. But her mom looked familiar, and when I asked her if she had any requests, she came right out with "Waltzing With Bears". I said, "You've seen us before, haven't you?", and she said, "At Tully's", which dropped the whole thing into place -- I suddenly knew exactly where I'd seen that not-so-little girl before.

Being an (almost?) teen-ager, Anna is now, of course, much more restrained than she was at 9, but it was still a delight to play for her again. It's always much better to play for someone, anyone, who's really listening, but it was doubly fun to play for an old fan (who's not so old at all!). And her parents (and grandpa?), too.

I guess her being there, and some recent comments on YouTube, conspired to make me tend to pull up some dis-used songs from The Old Days. There's several songs that are still in the book, but we don't do as much as we used to, or as much as we maybe oughtta. That was kinda fun, too.

KC at South Coast Plaza – 29Sept2007

Very nice, as it usually is at SCP. The sound is just so much nicer there, for no known reason. Nice crowd this time, too – smaller than usual, but that made it a bit cozier, quieter, and more personal. I had a couple of "couples" come in, not even carrying any books -- apparently simply to sit and hear me play.

The first couple listened for a long time, interacting with me about songs and artists -- appreciative and friendly.

The second couple came in a little while after the first couple left, and since there were no pairs of comfy chairs open, he sat in a chair and she sat on the ground in front of him. She looked familiar, like they'd been to see us before, and she didn't want/need to see a song list, she was "happy with whatever [I] wanted to play". She sat and smiled through a bunch of tunes, and then ventured to request "Mister Bojangles". That had coincidentally been requested several weeks back, so I had printed out a song sheet for it, played through it some, and put it in the "Songs I'm Kinda Working On" section of The Book, so I said, Sure, I'll give it a try.

She smiled through that one, and I flipped through the book looking for something else to play, and came upon Elton John's "Your Song", which, despite being written on (obviously) a piano, works pretty well for me. I fired it up, and when I looked up after a line or two, I could tell something was going on. She started to cloud up, and then started to collapse down between her knees. Her husband could tell something was wrong, too, and he was kind of hugging her from behind and rubbing her shoulders.

I'm thinking, "Is it *me*?!?" But I can't figure out how a silly love song should have this kind of effect on her, so I keep going. She gets smaller and smaller, and is eventually, clearly, crying. I have no choice by this point, so I keep going (simultaneously oddly guiltily proud and mortified), and she starts fumbling in her purse on the floor beside her. I figure she's obviously trying to find some Kleenex, but after she fumbles for a while, she finds what she's looking for, jumps up, stuffs some money in my tip jar, and runs out, off between the bookshelves. Her husband sits for another 10 seconds, grabs the shopping bag they came in with, and takes off after her. They never came back.

Pretty mysterious. I've never made anybody cry before, for one. And, why "Your Song"? Why not "Mister Bojangles", which is a certifiably Sad Song -- and the one she asked for? And most mysterious, why did she go to the trouble of digging out and leaving me a tip -- for making her cry?!?

K&W at Tustin -- 28September2007

Much better band-location than last time. The Borders guy actually moved about 10 people and their tables to get us back against the wall of the place, pointing out. Much better.

Unfortunately, my guitar had re-found the rattle that plagued it a few months before, but which had vanished (without me actually finding what it was). It was really bad this time, but I couldn't find what was causing it right there mid-performance (though I tweaked what I could reach), so we just had to pretend it wasn't there.

My brother and his wife showed up, which is always nice, but "possible" mystery guest Jeffy didn't. That's OK, we had lots of nice people to play for. Surprisingly, they were mostly Studying Kids, but these were more open to the idea of looking up occasionally and taking part a little bit -- requesting songs and clapping and such.

And there's a quite young Coffee Girl named Liz behind the counter who just *loves* us, for some reason. She was gushingly appreciative last time as we were leaving, and thrilled to see us again this time. She requested a bunch of songs (by highlighting a list), and we did all of them (of course). As we were leaving, I gave her both a "Live" and a "Bears" CD, 'cuz she's pretty much our biggest fan.

Also, last time we were there, the GM (they have a "General Manager"?!?) requested "Mrs. Robinson", which I happened to have been running through a few weeks earlier. So I faked it, forgetting most of the lyrics. This time, I was prepared to actually do it for real, but he was out on vacation. Oh well -- next time (only 3 weeks away!).

K&W at Yorba Linda -- 21Sep2007

Uneventful, pretty good, gig. Took a first-time stab at "The Sound of Silence", which went pretty fair, I guess, and got more applause than it deserved. I don't really like my voice and/or my singing on it, for some reason, but I can't find a way to do it better. But the guitar part is fascinating, with the first part all high-notes tinkly, and the rest of it strummed.

But even at that, the strumming sounds bad on my guitar when it's electrified -- I get more wood-thump than note, so every strum sounds like I'm drumming my fingers on the saddle-piece, with a faint hint of the actual notes behind it. I've been working up to bringing my electric guitar along to the gigs for certain songs -- and this might have to be one that's in the electric set, even though it's classically an acoustic song -- if that's not too weird.

The coffee girls like us there, as does the (assistant?) manager. I had, unexpectedly, the presence of mind, as we were leaving and they were telling us how great we are, to tell them to report that back to the District Manager, whose office is in that building. He's essentially our "boss", and mostly, apparently, gets only negative reports when we do something wrong (like play too much). It would be nice if he got some positive feedback, once.