Keith plays Esther's Wedding -- 26July2008

Way back in February, a young lady and her boyfriend sat listening until the end of my solo gig at the Tustin Borders, and as I was packing the equipment, came up and asked if I play weddings. I hadn't really thought of that, but, sure, email me the particulars. I didn't really expect her to, but she did, and I was on.

I told her to go though my song list and choose which ones she wanted, and she picked all the cheesy love songs from the 70's, and even asked for some more that weren't on the list. I was starting to get the impression that this was gonna be some kind of "retro" wedding, but she never presented it as such, and it wasn't really any different than any other wedding I've been to. On the other hand, all weddings are shamelessly "retro", with the tux and long white dress, etc. Worse than a "hippie theme" birthday party, if you think about it.

Anyway, I made a list of all the love songs I know, and decided to add some more to fatten up the thus-shortened list. I asked her about the new ones, just in case she had an aversion to, say, John Denver (and who could blame her), but she liked them all -- except I specifically pointed out that Paul Stookey's "Wedding Song" was pretty religious (i.e. Christian). She hadn't asked for anything remotely religious, and had pointed out that her brother was "officiating", so I was afraid that she was aiming at an entirely religion-free wedding (like mine!).

She replied that it probably wasn't appropriate, since she's Jewish, and her fiancé is Buddhist. Whoops, scratch one "Wedding Song". A shame, though, since I'm one of the very few that can play it right, despite the thousands who try...

I showed up good and early to the ritzy country club in Yorba Linda, 'cuz I was supposed to play at the outdoor ceremony, and then for the "cocktail hour" between the wedding and the reception proper. That meant that I'd have to tear my stuff down and move it, and I wanted to do that as efficiently as possible.

Turned out that the club provided a P.A. for the outdoor part already, and it had free channels. So I just plugged my mic and guitar into that, and set my amp up in the lobby. After the service, all I had to do was grab the mic, guitar, cables, music stand and book, and go to the country club lobby, and I was ready to play some more.

Esther wanted to walk down the aisle to the Beatles' "Something", which is an odd choice, but, it's her wedding, and I kind of like my strange arrangement of it. She wanted "In My Life" and Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" as the parents, etc. were coming in, and "Somewhere" from "West Side Story" as the walking-out song. The trick (for me) was trying to wrap-up those songs as the events they were to cover ended. But the timing worked out pretty well -- I managed to make the songs end pretty close to perfectly synced.

Everybody seemed to like the music, and several people came up to say so. One guy asked me if I had a CD of "music like that". I told him I had a CD, with *some* stuff "like that", but other songs. He wanted one, and handed me a 20 for it. People are feeling pretty friendly at weddings...

After I was done and packed up, I went and found the country club's wedding coordinator, and gave her a business card. She liked my stuff, too, so maybe she'll recommend me to somebody that comes in and wants some live music but doesn't know where to find any.

So, it went pretty well -- I played reasonably well, sang OK, and got through all the transitions. Esther and her now-husband were walking over to the pictures-spot, across from me, and she gave me a big thumbs-up.

All-in-all, it worked out good, despite my nervousness at playing something a lot more "significant" than a coffeeshop with a dozen people in it. And any gig where you check after it's over and your zipper wasn't down counts as a success in my book.

K&W at South Coast Plaza -- 25July2008

Probably the most dismal night we've had at this one. Usually we get at least a few people listening in, and some kind of reaction, but this time it was dead all night.

Actually, at first, there was an extended Asian family occupying all the comfy chairs up front. A little girl, her mom and dad, and gramma and grandpa. They seemed to like the stuff, even if they probably hadn't heard any of it before. Gramma liked to silently clap along, though she was making up her own tempo. But they had to leave after not too long, and it was all dead silence from there on.

But it gave me the chance to try out some of the new love songs I'd learned to do for the wedding the next day. I wouldn't normally spend so much time on slow 70's love songs (though I do spend a *lot* of time on slow 70's love songs), but since nobody seemed to be on board anyway, I figured I might as well make some use the time.

K&W at Costa Mesa -- 11July2008

Another quiet night in Costa Mesa. First ever outing of James Taylor's "Steamroller Blues", and "Take It Easy" which both seemed to go OK. I'm playing "Take it Easy" with the capo on the second fret, but only covering the 5 highest strings, which seems insane, but works really well if you want to play in D, sound like E, and have a nice strong bass note. Which happens to be the case with "Take it Easy". I can also go into "Can't Find My Way Home" from there, and might just do so in future.

We attracted the attention of a woman sitting over in the comfy chairs, who asked for a song or two, and came up to talk to us during tear-down. She didn't *seem* crazy, but claimed to know Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, and Seal, and to have been one of the zombie dancers in the "Thriller" video (the one with a mop for hair, apparently). She liked our stuff, and had some notion that the Olympics (yes, those Olympics) needed a theme song "like last time". She thought she might talk to Quincy and see if there was something we could do about that.

I'm not holding my breath.

Keith at Mission Viejo -- 05July2008

Another quiet, mostly uneventful night. The room was pretty quiet, so the sound seemed good again. But I plumb forgot to bring the video camera.

Just before I started playing, a 13-ish girl sat at a table and was looking at me expectantly. Turns out she's an ex-Princess/Trailmate, and recognized me. I spotted her dad in the magazine racks, and remembered him. After scanning the song list, she came up and asked me if I used to play for the Princesses, and asked me to play "Waltzing With Bears". That was pretty fun. They bought a "Bears" CD on their way out.

I'd been working up "Cruella De Vil" during the previous week, and there were a few kids there later on, so I decided to try it out, since I can never tell if a song is gonna "work" until I've done it in public. I asked the kids if they knew the "101 Dalmatians" movie, and their mom said they had, despite their being too shy to answer the question. So I played it anyway. It seemed to work OK, but it was clear that the middle-aged ladies in the audience got more from it than the kids did. Considering that the movie came out in 1961, it's really a kid song for people in their 50's.

Keith and friends at Java Joe's -- 29Jun2008

Randy, one of the "regulars" at Java Joe's, had an idea to start a new (Sunday afternoon) Open Mic with a new rule: No "solos". He wants to get people to group up, either with their real band, or better yet, to create an ad-hoc band on the fly. This should give more guys, more time, to play. It's also less "serious", 'cuz you're not plugging some future performance, you're just having fun.

I was stoked 'cuz I thought it would be fun to have a bigger band to play with. Maybe get some drums, bass, background vocals. Warren couldn't make it, but I went anyway, and, inexplicably, Daleen and the girls came along. (They won't make *that* mistake again.)

We got there pretty close to the start, though not many others did. Randy had brought a *huge* sound system, set up with lots of mics on stands, monitors everywhere, huge speakers, and a "sound man" station out in the audience where it belongs. Gary had set up a full drum set, and was camped out, ready to play with/for anybody who came up.

A guy named Mark went first, but he was new and hadn't recruited anybody to join him, so it was just him and Gary. After him, a guy with an electric got up and just jammed some random stuff for a while, while Gary gamely tried to lay a beat down behind.

Another regular, Neal, was acting as M.C., and kind of spotted me out to go third, since there was nobody else (except himself! And Randy!). So, while the electric was playing, I asked Randy to play bass with me (by now having the impression that Gary on drums was a "given"). I thought we'd go with "Carolina In My Mind", 'cuz it's widely known and I think I do a pretty good job with it. And I thought "Desperado" couldn't miss. Randy looked through my list and wanted to do something "laid back", and chose "Wonderful Tonight", which has (of course -- it's an Eric Clapton song) a distinctive electric guitar lead line throughout, so he recruited his friend Troy to come fake that.

So we got up. I had been hoping that Patrick, a known high-harmony singer, would be there, but he wasn't (yet!). Another guy, Scott, typically adds harmony, but he was out on a business trip. But that's OK, I've got a full band, no need to get greedy.

We started with "Carolina", but it turns out that the bass line is very intricate and tricky, and poorly notated on my sheet, so Randy, despite being scary-good normally, was pretty lost the whole time. Troy (wisely) hung back, and drumming is drumming, so no problem there. But the result was pretty catastrophic 'cuz Randy's bass line was all messed up, and my guitar's lower three strings were completely inaudible. Naturally, the top 3 were way too loud, to compensate. I couldn't hear the bass notes to play well, and Randy couldn't hear 'em to try to follow along. Ack.

Anyway, we got through it, and moved on to "Desperado" (click for video), a much more normally structured, and well known, tune. Of course, I've transposed it to a lower key than the recording, so if the guys already knew it, they'd be off. But we got through it pretty well -- Randy could follow my sheet better, and Troy just played some riffs in between the lines. The monitor mix was still terrible, though, so I complained and got some adjustments made.

Third up: "Wonderful Tonight". Troy knew the song, but not how to play it, but he's very good, and figured it out quickly enough. My problem was that I fake that lead line on my guitar while fingerpicking the chords, too -- so if Troy's gonna play The Line, and I don't need to, what do I play instead? I'd never worked out what the vanilla chords would be like if I wasn't playing The Line. So this time, Randy was fine with the easy bass line, Troy had his part figured out, and *I* was the one that was screwed up. On my own song.

But it went OK, and apparently Randy was having fun, and it was "his party", so he called for us to do another one, and we quickly settled on "Something". Again, I do it in a lowered key, so Troy was a bit thrown, but Randy faked the bass line well, and it came out OK.

The advantage of having the family there was that I could prevail on them to take some video, and Acacia volunteered. I posted the last three songs (links above) -- I left out "Carolina" 'cuz it was a mess, and Acacia took the video from her seat way in the back, so you can't see anything anyway. The sound from the monitors was pretty awful, but I just played and sang on faith (I'm getting way too used to having to do that!). Turns out that the sound in the room wasn't much better -- the bass (both my guitar and Randy's bass) is pretty non-existent, and the voice is terribly muffled-sounding. The drums sound OK, though!

Anyway, it was fun, and I learned a lot. First: how it works. Second: wait until much later in the afternoon, so the sound gets better dialed-in, and more "band mate" options show up. Third: pick easier songs. Beforehand. And bring decipherable (by non-me people) chord sheets.

And, of course, my family learned: Don't go with Dad to a boring Open Mic.

K&W at Brea Downtown -- 27Jun2008

Our second outing at this outdoor street corner, in the middle of a up-scale-ified oldtown street. It's now a bunch of trendy restaurants and shops, and two big multiplex movie theaters. Last time was way back in November, and we had a blast, even though we froze to death.

We'd expected a much better turnout, here in the summer, but not so much. But we had a steady stream of people, many with kids, and lots of cruising teenagers (mostly girls -- don't the boys know about this?).

Last time, we set up right in front of the strange fountain, but this time it was still on when we got there. But even if they had turned it off immediately, the water splashes on the ground, and we'd'a been setting up on wet concrete. So we just moved west 30 feet. That put us right in front of a bench, which was usually filled during the evening. Bonus!

It started out pretty slow (at 7:00) and didn't get much better until around 9:00, when we started to get some actual (small) crowds standing around (maybe the movies were all letting out). But we almost always had a few people standing nearby, and there were people in the seats across the street at "Fatburger" who seemed to be listening.

It's a little weird to play for an in-motion audience. I'm used to handing out the song lists and getting (at least some) requests during the night, but I couldn't do that here. Also, we had to try to stick to the up-tempo songs, but those run out long before the night's over. But, since the audience is constantly changing, we were able to do some songs multiple times, so I guess it works out.

Towards the end, an elderly couple (you know, my age) that we recognized from last time came by -- they must live nearby. The guy clearly plays guitar, and likes to show off his ancient rock history trivia knowledge. It's fun playing for people who "get it".

We made $60 in tips, besting last time by $10. Warren took some video, click here, here, and here. We're set to play there again on August 22. It's hard getting dates there, but totally fun. Gotta learn some more up-tempo pop tunes.