Not a whole lot more people than last weekend, but much more fun for me, somehow. I was singing inexplicably well (and high!), so maybe that made the difference.
Right at first there was a guy and his wife, waiting for me to start. He immediately started requesting songs, and they were all the really old ones -- "standards". "The Way You Look Tonight", "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "I Only Have Eyes For You", etc. Turned out he was a player himself, and was basically scoping out the competition, or sniffing up repertoire ideas. He wasn't really being sneaky though -- he declared himself and gave me his card as he was leaving. I guess he plays for money, and we're not really competitors at all, since I won't get his gigs, and he wouldn't play mine.
Later on, a mom, a dad, and 5 or 6 twelve-year-old girls came by to eat their pizza. That was fun for a while, 'cuz these are My Peeps, but they had to get to their movie. Then I had a group of 5 or 6 Chinese college kids, who mostly ignored me until I did a Beatle song, which perked them right up. About the same time, a family with a cute 13-year-old red-headed girl arrived, and she was a big Beatle fan, too -- I could see her singing along. I sung up what I had, including my new "If I Fell", and the unlisted but in the book, "Yesterday", and "Hey, Jude".
About then Daleen and Acacia arrived (with Duffy and Anabelle), so I tried out "Dear Prudence", which I know is one of Acacia's favorites. I've been learning the finger-busting guitar part all week, and it's not really ready for prime time yet, but it was such an opportunity that I had to take it. Virtually all the other Beatle songs I do, I've had to transpose down a fourth or so, but this one is so tied into the guitar part that that's not really possible. I've just been singing it down an octave while I'm learning it, but it was a bit of a shock to see just how low that really is when sung "out loud". Probably it's just not do-able, 'cuz of that, unless I just throw away "the sound" of the original and do something very different, so I can get away with not playing in the original key. We'll see.
But it was remarkable how The Beatles (and *only* The Beatles) songs cut across time and space. I pick up people from around here, but also Japan, China, Persia, and everywhere else, and also 50-somethings, but down to 10-somethings, too. This is far from the first time that Beatle songs have sparked some audience connection, and I'm definitely gonna have to learn some more, and move some of the ones that I don't play much up into hard rotation.
To start with, "Yesterday", which I learned a long time ago, but kind of feel like it's Too Done, not to mention Too Cheesy. But it always goes over well when I do it, so it's gotta go on The List. And I've known how to play "Blackbird" on the guitar for ages, and though it's hard to sing and play simultaneously, I've licked that in recent years. When someone (who's not looking at The List) asks for it, it gets a big reaction, so it's gotta get moved up too. Problem is, I don't think there's anything Warren can do while I'm playing it, and I already feel bad every time I play "Scarborough Fair" and he has to put his guitar down and leave the stage. But even the Beatles knew there was nothing that could/should be added to the crazy-cool guitar part Paul came up with for "Blackbird", so I don't think Warren can/should overlay anything on it, either. Maybe it's just a solo-gig tune.
There was also a group of college dudes who were hanging out, and occasionally whooping at the end of a song, but generally not paying much attention. But when they got up to leave, they came over and were wanting to buy some CDs! I had recently decided to amend my "Whatever you want to put in the jar" answer to the "What do the CDs cost?" question, by adding "... most people put in a 5 or 10." (People who read the sign can comfortably get away with just a buck, but the penalty for not reading the sign and asking is guilt if you think a buck is enough.) Anyway, they bought 2 or maybe 3 CDs, and are probably the guys who stuck 4 fives, folded together, in there. Wow.
I had brought the electric along, and had it out, and was in fact staring right at the yellow-fur insides of its case all night, sitting out in front of me as people threw money into it. But I plumb forgot to actually fire it up. Oh well, it's a cool stage decoration, I guess.
And I brought my new camera out, too. I got one similar to Warren's because it (a) has better quality audio and video, and (b) takes a big-enough RAM card to record a whole evening without intervention. With the small cards I have now, I only got an hour's worth, but it's a start. The videos are way bigger and clearer, with great sound (even though it was right in front of the amp, and I'd expected it to be blown out. I'm pretty pleased. I set it up over to the side, so people wouldn't steal or trip on it, but unfortunately since I'm my own cameraman, it was exactly where the head of the guitar is in front of my face half the time. Doh! But I brought it out precisely to start making the mistakes you have to make before you figure something out, and now I know that one... I clipped out and posted 4 songs up on YouTube, if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/y7alanzo
And I made 64 bucks in tips. Very good for another cold, sparsely-attended night. We went to Costco the next day, and I was dying to spend some of it on something, but I couldn't find anything that I wanted. I said so to Daleen, and she said, "You can just consider it a partial payment on that camera." And I guess she's right, but she's no fun...
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