Keith in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 26Oct2013

Warren was still on vacation so I went down to see if I could get The Corner and do a solo Saturday. When I got there at 5, though, there was a young girl sitting on the bench, strumming a singing, mostly inaudibly. I stood back and listened to her, but I didn't recognize any of the songs, either because they were her own, or because I'm too old.

I talked to her for a while, and she's just starting out, has done some open mics, but she's "so nervous!". I told her that she sounds great, and besides, being just acoustic here on the street corner, nobody could hear her anyway...

After a while, she said that she wanted to hear me play, so I set up my stuff, and played a few songs. Of course, with my amp, I was about 10 times louder than she had been, so after 3 or 4 songs, I beckoned her to come over, and I strapped my head mic onto her and plugged my guitar interface into her guitar. She was blown away by all the sound, but managed to play a few songs, and people were stopping to listen, too. She finished with "I'm Yours", and I kicked on the harmony box and really blew her mind.

Her parking meter was running out, and I think she was out of songs, too, so she thanked me profusely, and left (I fished the tip money out of my jar that had been put there while she was playing -- it's only fair). I'm actually not sure why I as helping and encouraging her so much -- I don't need to create any more competition for The Corner down there...

After she left, I did quite well -- lots of people came by to listen. I guess all the drunken rowdies were somewhere else, 'cuz I didn't have much trouble with them at all. Except at one point, a probably-drunk tourist came up and stood right in front of me and asked me to play "that song they do in Vegas... 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon'!"

I told him I didn't know it, and he thought of another one, then: "Moon River". I actually learned "Moon River" for the CD I made for my dad, but I don't remember it well enough, and I thought this would just be trouble anyway, so I declined again, and said "How about this one", and started "Hallelujah". He'd apparently never heard it before, but tried to sing along anyway, clumsily sliding notes up and down, trying to keep up. By the end of the song, he'd gotten ahold of some of it, but it was weird to have him singing right into my face from 3 feet away. Thankfully, at the end of that song,his buddy dragged him away.

After he left I said, "Well, that was interesting..." and all the people on the bench laughed.

Click 'Play' to hear the "podcast version". (Fair warning: it's really just me ramblin' on about this gig for 8 minutes.)