Keith at Laguna Beach -- 31Dec2012

I thought that maybe there would be New Year's Eve party people out on the streets downtown to play for, so I worked up "Auld Lang Syne", got dressed like I was going to the snow, and headed down at 10:00. I figured that I could drive past The Corner, and if nobody was out, I could just cruise on back home.

But of course, once I was down there, and since a really close parking spot presented itself, I stopped to check it out. There was a guy with a guitar on the opposite corner, trading songs with a girl on accordion. She had this really great style of just pulling on long chords and singing over them -- reminded me of some of Steeleye Span's stuff, though I didn't recognize any of the songs. No one else was out, so I stalled a while and decided, since I was already there...

There was hardly any car traffic that late, so it was unusually quiet. I'm pretty conscious of not stepping on other performers' sound space, so I set up my rig, but kept it turned down really quiet. There were lots of dressed up people zooming by. I have no idea how the girls were surviving in those micro party dresses in the 40-degree weather. Maybe that's why they went by so fast...

It was pretty discouraging at first, but after a while the other performers left, so I was able to turn it up a bit, and then people were noticing me more. But they were all on their way from one bar to another, and it was clearly not a Party out on the corner. Still, I got several of those people who rush by, deliberately not making eye contact, and intending to just burn past -- but who pull up, apparently realizing "Hey, this guy's pretty good!", and digging out a buck or two to drop before the Walk light changes. Those are always very gratifying.

I did have one young couple sit down to wait out the end of the song I was in the middle of, specifically to come up and tell me that they had seen me a year and a half earlier at the food court at Foothill, on their first date. That was pretty sweet.

As midnight approached, people started scurrying past even more, apparently trying to get to the Right Place when the time came. I could tell when midnight hit, 'cuz suddenly the noise from the nearby bars and restaurants coalesced into "Five, four, three...", just like it used to do for the evening rocket launches when I lived down Florida.

I fired up "Auld Lang Syne" as it hit midnight, which sounded pretty cool, fingerpicked and with harmony, and just ran through it in a loop for a while. I missed seeing the new year in with Daleen, but it was kinda cool to be ringing it in doing something I love, even if I was only singing to the trees along Forest Avenue.

I hung out for a while more, playing for the people as they gave up and went back to their cars or started trying to hail taxis. Got some great comments, and $15, from the "I love you, man" crowd. Lots of "Happy New Years", and one girl grumbled as she went by, "I just wanna stop and listen to *this* guy -- he's the best singer I've heard all night", but I guess she was overruled by having to keep up with her fast-walking friends.

Anyway, by 12:45 or so, I was just too cold to play any more -- I couldn't feel the strings or frets with my left hand, and couldn't fingerpick with my stiff right-hand fingers, so I was making too many mistakes. I had played "Mister Tambourine Man" a while earlier, and the lines "My hands can't feel to grip, and my toes too numb to step" struck home.

Happy New Year.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 28Dec2012

Yes, I know I'm crazy, but I thought I'd see if I could sneak in just one more night of Christmas music, even though it was 3 days past Christmas. I thought maybe some folks might be out, on vacation like I was, and it was a Friday night...

And it was pretty OK. Cold, but not too bad, and some people out walking. There was a huge multigenerational family there as I was finishing setting up, and they were totally enthusiastic about having a "private performance", and stayed for half a dozen songs.

Oddly, just about the whole contingent of homeless guys were out, after not seeing any of them for several weeks. They're all pretty good guys, and quite respectful of what I'm there for, so they stay out of the way, but listen in.

And in addition to them, I had a pretty steady stream of people cruise by and smile or drop a buck in the jar, but nobody wanted to settle down on the bench in that cold. Did OK anyway, made 28 bucks, and got lots of nice comments. I guess it helped that there was so little traffic, so the sound was pretty good, for that spot. But I guess the Christmas songs are done for the year. Oh well.

Keith at Naples - 23Dec2012

We had a kind of High School Any Year Caroling Reunion Party, and the girl who was organizing it suggested singing around Naples, an upscale waterfront community in Long Beach. It turned out to be just terrific -- ritzy houses decorated to the nines and lots of people walking around the tiny island to look at them. We had a pretty small turnout (as I'd predicted), so we weren't very balanced, nor practiced, but we still had people gathering around us to listen and even applaud. I was amazed, wondered how I could not have known about this before, and resolved to come back the next day with my overcoat, top hat, and guitar.

There weren't as many people on Sunday as there had been on Saturday, but still plenty. And everyone is in the mood for "a little Christmas", and in no hurry to get anywhere. Perfect for me to pull in some folks to hear a few songs. And, although it's basically a sidewalk, it's *not* along an actual street, so there's no traffic noise!

I had convinced my wife and younger daughter to come along to see the amazing decorations, and they brought the dogs, too. I played while they circumnavigated the island. I pulled my "Blitzen the Red-Nosed Reindeer" gag several times when families with little kids would come by, and had lots of groups stop for several songs, gathering pretty big crowds.

At one point, a lady asked for a song I don't play, and I spun the music stand around so she could see the Table of Contents of the Christmas section of my book. She noticed "Silent Night", which I had literally *never* sung before -- it was in my book so I could play it for the little kid that sung at the Santa Claus line a few nights earlier. I had no idea if it was even in my range, but she insisted, so I strummed and hummed through it quickly, decided it was close enough, and went for it.

She and her husband immediately started waltzing to it, right there in front of me. The crowd instantly doubled somehow, and two more dancing couples materialized out of it. I've had people dance before, but never more than a single couple. On top of that, after a few lines, most of the crowd was singing along! I'd been avoiding "Silent Night" on grounds that it's (a) too religious, and (b) slow and boring, but that shows you what *I* know. Or, possibly, how powerful the Christmas Mood can be...

Anyway, I was out there for two and a half hours, played for hundreds of people, and made $88 in tips. It's a bit of a drive from here, but I wish I'd'a known about this years ago, and I'll surely be down there a lot more next December!

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 21Dec2012

Since it was a Friday, I came straight over from work at about 4:15 (so I'd have time to eat dinner and get set up to start at 6, or earlier), but the parking structure was already full! And the regular parking lot was completely jammed too, so I circled a while (hoping to not have to drag my stuff *too* far), but ended up pretty far away anyway.

Oh well, it meant that there would be lots of people there, right? I thought so, but I really didn't get many people coming by at all, and almost nobody sitting around at the tables. Apparently, the only people desperate enough to brave the mall this close to Christmas are actually *shopping*. How weird is that?

So it seemed really slow to me, but there were small groups that would stop for a while, and I made $138 in tips, so there must have been *somebody* listening and in the holiday spirit. I mean, beside the guy who came up on the stage from behind, threw his arm around me and started loudly singing along, who clearly had had lots of the *other* kind of "spirits". Fortunately, he only stayed long enough for his friend to snap a picture, and he was actually singing in key. And even better, he didn't steal my hat...

I did come up with a new "shtick" where I, when some kids come by, ask them if they know that song about the reindeer, and then I start it up but sing, "Prancer the red-nosed...", and stop, acting confused. Then I restart but sing, "Blitzen the...", and by now all the kids are shouting "Rudolph!" at me, and I act like, "Oh yeah!", and restart it with the right words. I guess there's a reason that that kind of thing is Standard Kids' Entertainment Procedure -- it works every time.

Keith at Mission Viejo Santa's Workshop -- 19Dec2012

The lady who books the Farmer's Market and the Santa Claus line gigs was at some function where a 9-year-old kid sang, and since she's a gramma, he was the cutest thing in the world. So she decided it would be really cool if I would let him come down and sing for the Santa line, and asked me if I would do that. Of course, that's a lot easier to say than do.

He wanted to do "Jingle Bells", "Winter Wonderland", and "Silent Night", which I don't actually do, but it's trivial to play, so no problem. But clearly, his vocal range was going to be different than mine, and I had no way of knowing how different. I can transpose songs, but only if I know where to transpose to, so I had to invite the kid over to figure it out. He sings OK -- and he at least has the guts to go ahead and sing in public -- but he's no child star (like, apparently, his manager/gramma thinks).

I had him meet me down there and do his songs first. He did OK, but kept backing off of the mic so he couldn't be heard much. It was mostly a waste of time, his and mine. He didn't impress anybody in the line, the booking lady wasn't there anyway, and the only real result was that the other kids (and moms) got the impression that I was letting kids come up and sing -- an idea that I really didn't need to get planted out there.

I fended off most of the requests until much later when a little girl (maybe 8?) walked up and asked if she could sing "Santa Baby". Since I know it, but can't sing it (it needs to be a girl), I fetched the mic that Wade had been using and let her try it. Of course my sheet was in the wrong key for her little voice, but I quickly added a bunch of capo and she sang the first verse -- and walked away!

The rest of the night went pretty well, and the line was really long. Turns out that I was misinformed and although there was another weekend before Christmas, this was the last night of Santa. Until next year...

Keith at Mission Viejo Santa's Workshop -- 16Dec2012

We had light rain off and on all day, so I didn't know if I should go down, but I'd had such a good time the week before that I took the risk. It sprinkled on my windshield all the way down there, but when I got there, it had stopped. I stalled for a while to see if it was really done, and decided to set up as simply as I could so that I could quickly tear it all back down again if it started to really rain. And I had brought a supply of garage towels to throw over everything, if need be.

But, it never did rain any more. Problem was (besides the mud), the threat of rain kept a lot of people away. And it turns out that the crazy kid party requires a critical mass of crazy, either in the form of one of a few really crazy kids, or a lot of mildly crazy ones -- and I got neither. I had kids come down, but it stayed pretty subdued because there just weren't enough kids.

But it was still fun, of course. And this time, I brought a little table and put out some of my Christmas CDs and the tip jar, and made $45. It seems like, once in a while, the kids will see another kid putting money in the jar, so they ask their dad for a buck, and it just snowballs.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 15Dec2012

Pretty much like last year -- nobody comes to the mall at Christmastime unless they have to, meaning they have shopping to do, and no time for the music guy. Some people are cool enough to at least smile on their way zooming past, and of course, I did have some people who stopped for a while and asked for some songs. And the families with little kids are the ones who tend to stop, so I played the Big Three kids' Christmas tunes (Rudolph, Frosty, Jingle Bells) a lot.

I've been experimenting with using the "pre-wired" backpack solution that I rigged up for "street work" in the full-blown gig situation, both because it's faster to set up and tear down, and because it prevents me having to disassemble and reassemble it when I go from one kind of gig to the other. The difference is that I need a bunch of additional stuff (the second speaker and its cable, the speaker stands, a power and extension cord, etc.), so I'm trying to figure out what all, and how to carry, the extras.

I'm getting it down, mostly, but in the confusion I forgot the most important thing: the tip jar! OK, maybe that's the 100th most important, but it's still fun to get "money for nothing", so I went to a coffee shop and they gave me a large clear cup. Not nearly large enough (yay!), so I had to empty it a few times into my pocket to make more room. I guess it made a pretty big difference though, 'cuz was a lot more money in my guitar case (on the other side of the stage) than the cup, which is the opposite from usual. But I still came away with $102, so at least I made more than the Center did, after the $50 fee.

I'm back there again this coming Friday, which will be my last Christmas gig this year . I imagine people will be even more frantic though, since it'll be "three days 'til Christmas".

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 11Dec2012

I made a kind of snap decision to go down to Laguna. Apparently, the weather was about to turn a lot colder, and I've got so many other gigs that I didn't know if I'd get another chance to try out my Christmas songs on The Corner.

I got there about 6:45. It was already dark, and the streets were pretty much deserted. I set up anyway, since I was already down there and it was nice and quiet traffic-wise, but I wasn't expecting much. Figured I would get some practice in, if nothing else.

But, just as I was finishing setting up, a couple came by and plopped down on the bench to cuddle and listen to a half-dozen songs. The guy dropped a handful of change in my jar as they left.

After that, couples and small groups came by once in a while. I don't think I sang a whole song to nobody at all, but most of them were only to a few people. But the great part was that lots of the people who came by, though they mostly didn't stop, seemed to appreciate the music, and lots of them dropped something in the jar as they went by.

Probably they just felt sorry for me, out in the cold all alone, but it was clearly the highest ratio of people-going-by to people-tipping that I've ever had. Usually it seems like one in 50 or so people actually put something in the jar, but this time it seemed like every other couple. I made $18 in an hour and a half, the same as I'd made in three hours on the last Art Walk, playing to 3 or 5 times as many people. I actually broke Minimum Wage for once. Woo hoo!

But mostly it was just nice to be out there playing for people who appreciated the moment -- sentimental Christmas music played pretty well in a somewhat magical setting. Or felt sorry for me -- whichever.

Keith at Mission Viejo Santa's Workshop -- 09Dec2012

Wow! That was the most fun I've had in months! When I got there a half-hour early to set up, there was already a lot of people in line -- which was routed as I had requested so that I had a space to play that wasn't on the grass behind the picket fence. When I got ready to play, everybody was looking at me expectantly, so I felt brave enough to introduce myself and announce that if any kids wanted to come down front, they were welcome to. And come they did. And once there were kids down front, other arriving kids figured it was OK for them too, and it self-perpetuated all night.

So right away I've already got a kids' party going, and I'm playing all the kids' songs, way too fast, and they're dancing away. And more kids come, and more, and after a while I've got 20 kids, dancing, telling me stuff, asking me to guess their names (?!?), and requesting songs, songs I just did, songs I don't know, and songs I've never heard of. You can't fault their enthusiasm.

I had one terrific little girl in a long pink coat, dancing away to any and everything. She just kind of joined me "on stage", and took on the role of "go-go girl". She was there for so long that I started to worry that her parents had had to go see Santa without her, but when I said so, they were still over there in line, waving and smiling at the idea.

After a while she was joined by a tiny Chinese girl in a big puffy jacket, looking exactly like a living "Small World" doll. She was also an enthusiastic dancer, and pretty soon they were dancing together, holding both hands and jumping around.

Anyway, it was just amazingly fun. At times I was actually having trouble singing right 'cuz I was grinning too big. And lucky for me, there was a dad there with a big fancy camera who was taking lots of pictures, many of them directly of me. So I gave him a card and asked him to send me some, and he did (as you can see). Can't wait for the next one!

Keith at Mission Viejo "Holly Trolley" -- 07-08Dec2012

The city of Mission Viejo does a home lighting contest every year at Christmas, and the last few years has added the "Holly Trolley" which takes people out on a tour of all the contest winners. The lady that organizes it noticed that she ends up with a bunch of people milling around waiting for their Trolley to leave (twice a night), so a couple of years ago she added a "reception" with cookies and hot chocolate and cider.

This year, she upped the ante by inviting me to play, and by having "campfires" and marshmallow roasting (it moved outdoors to the garden patio out behind city hall). I play an hour before the first bus, and then watch my audience walk out. Then I hang out for an hour (and eat the dinner they provide for all the volunteers), and then play another hour for the second shift of trolley people. Twice: Friday and Saturday.

It's pretty nice -- it's quiet and the crowd tends to be older people, so they're into the schmaltzy Christmas songs. And some families show up so I can play the kids' songs, too. I don't get paid, except dinner (though they're looking into getting me an "honorarium"), but the people are all very appreciative and say nice things as they go past me to get onto their bus.

And one lady came in and loudly proclaimed at me, "Christmas carols [sic] are *hard*! I was in a professional band for 11 years and the chords for Christmas carols are hard!" Not sure why/if she was specifically making a distinction between her "professional" band and me, but it was nice for someone to recognize that not just anybody can pull off those Christmas *songs* (not carols) on guitar. I worked long and hard on a lot of those songs -- much harder than the 60's and '70s pop tunes that I usually play. Working those Christmas tunes out taught me a lot of new stuff (and fancy chords) that I didn't know before. And a challenge is always fun.

Keith at Mission Viejo Farmer's Market -- 07Dec2012

Even quieter than last time, but more solidly the "Christmas One", so I got to play a lot of my Christmas tunes. Definitely not the most fun gig I play, and it's a bit tricky to play in the middle of a workday, but since I get paid, that's all OK with me. And the vendors there seem to appreciate my making their slow day a little less boring -- they say nice things or give me a thumbs-up as they walk by...

Keith at Art Walk, Laguna Beach -- 06Dec2012

I keep swearing off the Art Walk nights, and I keep being tempted back in. I thought that maybe this time would be better since it's "the Christmas one", and I was kinda right. There weren't as many people out as when it's warmer, but they seemed in less of a rush.

I got there pretty early, so The Corner was free, but I left it for Jim & Warren. Unfortunately, they got there just a bit too late, and it had been snagged by some guy I've never seen before. He was, let's say, "sincere", but not very good. Waste of a perfectly good corner...

Anyway, I set up down by the big green swirly bench/art thing, and had sufficient traffic to make it worth it. There was already some guy in Acoustic Alley, and later on, a guy strumming a classical and singing in Spanish, some kid slamming chords on a banjo, and a girl playing cello in the alcove/entrance to a For Lease shop (I'll have to remember that location!). Jim & Warren, having been snarfed from The Corner, set up across the street from me -- I could hear them in between songs, and Jim's new amplified voice helps their "sound" a lot.

I had a big extended family of parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc., come by and use me as a babysitter while the adults chatted way too loudly nearby, though a few of them were polite enough to clap a bit occasionally. And after a while, Silly Patty came by to ask for lots of songs, including some I haven't sung in a long while ("To Make You Feel My Love" and "For Free", that I recall).

Anyway, I had some fun (and made $18), so it alleviated, somewhat, my bad feelings about Art Walk. I guess the biggest problem is that, if you're not on The Corner, you just don't get the traffic or attention, and, since I always defer it for Jim & Warren (even if they don't manage to get it themselves), it's kind of a Poor Night, by definition.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 01Dec2012

The lady who books "acts" (I use the term loosely) for the Santa's Workshop at the Mission Viejo Civic Center finally figured out that nobody does it better than I do, so she let me sign up for as many of the nights as I wanted. I took all the Saturdays and Sundays that I wasn't already spoken for, and the last Wednesday (since it gets more and more people as the date approaches Christmas).

This was the first one, and, as expected, had a pretty small turnout. There are two possibilities of where they'll string the ropes to designate the line, and they chose the worst one, which puts me on the grass, behind a picket fence so the kids can't come up. I talked to one of the guys, and suggested that they do it the other way from now on, so we'll see.

Also, they run Christmas cartoons (Charlie Brown, Frosty, Rudolph, Chipmunks) on a projector back behind me. The sound has always been really quiet, so it's not a problem, but this time it was really loud. I asked the guy if he could turn it down, but he apparently couldn't figure out how to. It was pretty distracting, but I just powered through. After everyone was gone, I figured out where the volume control was myself, and turned it down. If it's back up next time, I'll know what to do.

Not a lot of response from the small crowd, but it was OK. The nice ladies in the Hot Chocolate and "Decorate a Cookie" booths clapped once in a while, so I didn't feel quite so lonesome.

I was also scheduled for the next night, Sunday the 2nd, but it rained all afternoon, so I didn't go down. I don't know if they still held the event or not, but I didn't want to go down and set up my equipment in the wet grass, nor get rained on and blow up the electronics. And there'll be more chances -- four more Santa gigs in the next three weeks, assuming the weather cooperates.