Trailmate Campout at San Onofre

Now that the weather's nice again, we're having Trailmate campouts again. This one was at San Onofre beach, which is on Camp Pendleton, but we have a retired Marine in our group who was able to get us in.

Because of the exclusivity, despite all the camping we've done, this is the first time we've been to this campground. It's pretty nice, and you get to pitch the tents right there on the sand. This seemed really cool, but it happened to be a new moon, with the attending very high tides, and the first night, the waves came up and almost soaked some of the tents. But, fortunately, not quite.

We had a movie on Friday night, as per tradition, and though I generally frown on this idea, thinking that the girls ought to be doing something that they *can't* do at home, nobody else seems to have that issue, so I join in. I try to bring some "unexpected" movie -- there's no point in bringing "the newest thing", as the kids will have all seen it anyway. So this time I brought "Cocoon", which is "ancient" as far as the kids are concerned, and has a nice message about being kind to old people, like me.

On Saturday, some of the guys took their girls to go skeet shooting on the base, but that doesn't really appeal to me, so we stayed behind. Acacia played in the (freezing) surf with her friends, but Geneva's ankle is still messed up, so she mainly slept late and sat around knitting. It's OK to have a pure decompression weekend once in a while.

On Sunday, some of the guys took their girls horseback riding, but since Geneva can't put her foot in a stirrup, we just headed home at noon, and Acacia went riding with one of the other dads, who then brought her home.

Overall, a pretty good, laid-back, weekend, though it was windy and cold part of the time. I had forgotten my sun hat, so I had to modify a foam dinner plate to act as a brim stuck up under my stocking cap. Fortunately, there were no mirrors for me to see what a dork I looked like. You can check all the pictures, here.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 17Apr2009

Remarkably, it's been 7 weeks since I'm played indoors, and 8 since I've played the brilliant acoustics of the South Coast Plaza Borders. Wow! I'd forgotten how good it can sound. At Spectrum, the general environment's loud, so I have to be way too loud, and that darn fountain makes white noise that varies between loud and really loud for the music to compete with.

So it was pretty delightful to be able to play and sing with a little subtlety for a change. And it was good timing, too, after the two previous somewhat discouraging gigs, it was good to have one go well -- I was starting to worry that I'd lost my mojo...

As usual, there weren't a whole lot of people there, but we had folks listening in pretty much the whole time. Right at first there was a young family that we've seen there before, and there were some college girls that made a few requests. Later on, there was a guy who was obviously a guitar player, who commented on playing in Drop-D tuning, so I took the opportunity to play a bunch of those songs. Not that he was really asking to hear every Drop-D song I know, but it was as good an excuse as any.

I brought my movie camera again, and with the great acoustics and attention, was playing and singing pretty well, so I got lots of presentable songs. Luckily (?), I'd forgotten the second battery, or I'd'a had even more of 'em. As it was, I waited until halfway through to fire the camera up, but, since I don't like to delay the show, I just pointed it the best I could guess, and hit "go" -- ending up with me pretty squarely in the picture, but Warren usually cut in half. Wish I'd'a remembered to put it in Letterbox mode -- if it'd been getting wider shot, Warren might have been in the picture better. Next time.

But anyway, I posted what I got -- some new stuff, and some classics that are hopefully improving over time. Links below:
Five O'Clock World
Sarah Maria
Four and Twenty
Wichita Lineman
Past the Point of Rescue
You Were Always On My Mind
Time After Time
Something

I'm not entirely sure why I'm filling YouTube up with videos of me singing stuff. I guess I'm pretending that it can be an audition resource, but we've yet to encounter any booking person that accepts on-line material in lieu of a physical CD. Maybe the world's working up to that. Until then, I guess it's straight-up vanity. Fortunately, with my new camera, rig, and software, it's pretty easy to grab a night's worth and edit out and post the good takes.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 11April2009

Well, as much as I was hoping that Spring had sprung, apparently it hasn't yet. I was hoping for a mild evening and a bigger turnout, but got neither.

Fortunately, I remembered last weeks shivering, and brought a sweater *and* my jacket, and had asked them to bring out a heater too. There was no heater when I got there, but I soldiered on hoping that it would appear as it got darker and colder. It didn't, but I had put the phone number for Maintenance in my phone, and at 8:00, when I realized I was already cold and had two hours to go, I called them. Fortunately, the guys are real friendly and brought one out right away. That helped a lot with the cold.

But didn't do anything about the crowd, or lack thereof. I'm starting to get the impression that a gloomy day (understandably) just turns people off of coming out to outdoor malls. I assume that the stores' receipts would show the same trend as my tip jar does.

Right off the bat, though, a group of "rocker dudes" showed up to sit and smoke. I thought I'd have a hard time with them, but despite the tattoos and all the hard rock band logos sewn onto their no-sleeve jeans jackets, they seemed to honestly like my stuff. One dude literally asked for "Fire and Rain" -- non-ironically! And the "hardest" of them all (most patches, tattoos, and hair) asked for Willie Nelson's "Always On My Mind" and then Sting's "Fields of Gold"; two of the most romantic songs on my list. They stayed for over an hour, and before they left they came up and basically dumped all the change in their pockets into the jar -- over 3 dollars in small change. You just never know...

After that, I played to almost nobody the rest of the night, until Daleen and the girls showed up at 9:30 or so. I had been "saving" my new Beatle songs so Acacia could hear them, so I ran through lots of those, and then it was time to go.

I had my movie camera set up again, but I was playing pretty poorly, and the camera's "aim" was off most of the night. The girls fixed it up for me when they got there, and having someone to play for makes me play better, so the last bit was somewhat usable. Here are links to: Graceland (better than (and replacing) last week's)
Carolina In My Mind
The Water Is Wide
Hey, Jude
If I Fell

I brought in $22 in tips, which is, I think, a new low for Spectrum, but which would be a darn good night at a Borders, so I shouldn't complain. My bigger concern is the (now) two crappy performances in a row. Last week I had the cold to blame it on, but this week I'm going with the intimidation of the movie camera, and the lack of people to play to. It really makes an embarrassing amount of difference to my playing and singing if there's someone recognizably listening or not. Oddly though, the camera, representing *lots* of potential people actually listening, makes me play worse.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 04Apr2009

Well, I've been better...

I don't know why, but I was just kind of out of it. Could have been (but *shouldn't* have been) the two week layover (due to the wash-out last weekend), but I've survived longer gaps. Maybe it was just kind of weird to start during daylight, since the time change. That also kind of faked me out, 'cuz it was sunny and warm when I started, so I didn't ask for a heater. By 9:00, though, I was regretting that, since I was so cold my knees were shivering (and I had to fight to keep it out of my voice), and my fingers were too stiff to play well.

I had set up my little movie camera and recorded most of the night, but my voice didn't really warm up until half-way through, and by then my fingers were frozen. So I have bad singing in the first half, and bad playing in the second.

But actually, there were a few good (or, at least, interesting) takes. I clipped 'em out and posted them on You Tube. I did several of my new songs just to try to catch them, and although they're not artistic triumphs, they came out OK. Mostly, they all seem lethargic. I guess I was just tired -- or at least I sure look tired...

Anyway, here are the videos I put up. Hopefully, I'll get better ones next Saturday, and I'll delete these -- so if you're interested, you'd better look soon.
Graceland
I Should Have Known Better
Carolina In My Mind
Yesterday
Your Song
You've Got a Friend

But it was still some fun. I didn't get many real Listeners, but occasionally there was some interest. Right at first, there was a little girl, just 1 or 2 years old, staring right through me like she knew more about me than I did. She wanted to "dance" (i.e., rock back and forth), so I played a few songs for her, with her swaying, and staring with those wise old eyes. And toward the end there was a table-full of kids who were getting into it, and asking for songs.

I did make $46, so I guess I wasn't all bad. But next week, I'll do better.

New Songs

To keep the gigs interesting (to me at least, if not to the audiences), I'm constantly learning new songs. In the last few weeks, I've added Hal Ketchum's "Past the Point of Rescue" -- a great, if not well known, up-tempo tune to the book, though not The List, yet. I've also been working on James Taylor's "Country Road" (for what, 30 years?), and may have finally cracked the amazing right-hand technique he uses to get "that sound". It's (apparently) a variation on Travis picking that I'd never thought of: pick with two fingers at the same time, but still within the pattern. Seems stupifyingly obvious now, but it eluded me for a long, long time. I wonder what other songs it might come in handy for...

After several requests from my buddy Dave, and its coincident appearance on the new James Taylor CD, I've learned "Wichita Lineman". As stolen from James' version (but transposed down a bit), it's got one of the most amazing chord progressions of any song I've ever learned. It doesn't really sound like anything magical is going on back behind that melody, but there is. That Jimmy Webb could really write 'em. I mean to make Dave come up and sing it, next time he comes out, but until then I guess I'll have to do it myself.

About 6 weeks ago, we went to the Golden Horseshoe in Disneyland and saw their comedy-hick act, "Billy Hill and the Hillbillies". They're masterful musicians, of course, beneath the hick routine, and they did a terrific bluegrass version of "The Letter", by The Boxtops. I went home and built a version for myself, not so hick, but not quite rock, either. I kind of like it, and having another up-tempo tune doesn't hurt.

Lately, I've noticed a really good reaction whenever I do Beatles songs. The older folks love it, of course, but there's a whole new generation of kids that are into the Beatles, too. I get good reactions from older teens and 20-somethings (possibly due to the recent Beatles-music movie "Across the Universe"), and a surprisingly lot of recognition from 10 to 13-year-olds, too.

We have several Beatle songs already, and I worked up and have been closing with "Golden Slumbers" for the last couple of months, which seems to really "work" -- at least I love playing/singing it. So I've been trying to add even more Beatles, starting with my new slightly soft version of "Hey, Jude", which I was reticent to try because the original is so deeply ingrained. But, it seems to work OK with people, and it's fun to kind of imitate the style of Paul's piano playing on the guitar. And occasionally I can even see people singing along with the "Na, Na" part at the end. I also recently worked up an acoustic version of "I Should Have Known Better", which seems strangely OK even without the prominent harmonica breaks in the original. Haven't tried it out in public yet, but I intend to this weekend.

I've worked up "Dear Prudence", and when I say "worked", I mean it. It's a finger-buster. But it's Acacia's favorite Beatles song, so I thought I ought to know it. Problem is, it's actually pretty repetitive and boring, without all the extra magic that the Beatles pour on top in the recording -- instrumentation changes, lots of vocal harmony -- all stuff I can't really bring to it. So it may have to fall out, sadly. Luckily, Daleen and Acacia showed up at my last gig, and I pulled it out (with limited guitar success), so at least Acacia got to hear me do it once.

But I've decided to go ahead and add "Blackbird" to the list. I've been able to play it for years -- the incredible guitar part is a kind of Holy Grail of guitar players -- but singing along while playing it makes it even more of a challenge. But, it's nothing a few jillion hours of practicing can't fix, and I think I've got it down. People ask for it sometimes, and who am I to deny being able to play it? And when I have, it's been a pretty good crowd-pleaser, so I'll just have to keep it practiced-up. The only real issue is that it's un-transpose-able, because of the magic guitar part, and that "Into the light..." line is way too high for me. I'm just kind of shooting at it, though, and something comes out that's over with before it gets too embarrassing.

All this last week, I've been playing nothing but Paul Simon's "Graceland", after being inspired to try it out by Alison Kraus' sweet and slow(er) version as seen on TV (though I'm not able to keep it as slow as she managed to -- nor do I especially want/need to). I'm not sure how audiences will react to it, though -- it's a big favorite if you're into Paul Simon at all, but I'm not sure how much of the general public has heard it. We'll see.