I wasn't expecting much, since the last few Fridays have been pretty slow, but it was nice weather, and a lot of people, and especially kids, were out.
I must have sung "Let It Go" six or seven times; three or four of them as on-stage sing-alongs. That song always brings in a crowd, but if I have some kids already there, I ask if anybody's seen the movie "Frozen" -- as if there's any way any of the kids wouldn't have by now. The question always gets the expected enthusiastic response, so then I ask if anybody knows all the words to The Song.
Anybody that raises their hand is automatically a volunteer to come up on stage, particularly after I tell them where to stand and to face "that way, toward the cameras", which makes sure that the parents will insist that their kids come up (as they get their cameras out). Fortunately, the movie appeals to an age of kids that mostly aren't too self-conscious to get up and sing yet.
I also get teenage girls that love that song, and though they won't get up and sing, they're fun to have because they tend to also know a bunch of the other Disney songs, so I can play a whole set of them. Some of the littler ones don't know, say, "The Little Mermaid", which isn't terribly surprising since it came out 24 years ago. Still, by the magic of DVD, some of them do, and my "picture menu" Kids' Songs list was a stroke of genius.
Anyway, a really great night, and I made an almost-record amount in tips, so I must have been doing something right.
Great day/evening! Nice weather, lots of nice people on the bench the whole time -- which was almost six hours. But I didn't even notice -- time was flying; I must have been having fun.
I usually don't sell any CDs, so it didn't bother me that I only had three with me to put out. But someone bought one, and some other people saw that and decided that that looked like a good idea, and then someone else, and I was sold out in 2 minutes. I'll have to start packing more inventory, I guess.
Finally had some families come by so I was able to give out some bubbles (when it's daytime) and finger lights (after dark). It's not really meant to be a scam; I just like making the kids happy. But the dads inevitably put more, or bigger, money in the jar -- or send the kids up with some.
The Request List isn't meant to be a money-maker either -- I'd just rather play the songs that whoever's there wants to hear. So I pass out the lists (and the more I do, the more connected to the audience, and the more fun), and people choose songs from them, and also tend to add money to the jar. Which I don't mind, of course, but I hope they don't think that I'm handing them a list just to scam money out of them.
Two new songs this week. People keep asking, "Do you know any Neil Young?" Most other artists, they ask for specific songs, but for some reason, they ask for Neil Young by name. I always play "Old Man", which is certainly a top 3 answer to that question, but I felt like I should have more options, so I worked up "Cowgirl in the Sand". I lowered it, but it's still Pretty Darn High to sing, but it sounds good, and it's fun to pretend that I know how to flatpick...
The other song was "Blue Bayou", which in either Roy Orbison's or Linda Ronstadt's case has a really low verse, and a really high chorus. I'm still working out where to put the capo to center it on my range to try to hit both extremes. Fun to sing, though.
Around 10:30 some teenage boys came by who were clearly musically knowledgeable. One of them was clearly a drummer; playing "air drums" along with my songs, so I gave him some of my tambourine sticks (which some moms misinterpret as "rattles" for their babies, as seen above), and he improvised a drum out of an empty paper ice cream cup, and played along on a few songs. That was pretty cool.
Tonight was as much great as last night was terrible. And a good thing, too -- restored my faith in wanting to come down at all. And the cops drove by 5 or 6 times, but apparently it was just to keep my adrenaline level up, 'cuz they never stopped.
The weather started nice and then turned cold, but we still had a full bench almost the whole time. And in the few gaps I had a chance to play some songs I've been working or reworking up: "Southern Cross", "Billie Jean", "My Girl", and "Handyman".
But the big crowd-gathering song these days is "Mrs. Robinson". It sounds really great with the harmony box filling in for Garfunkel, and of course everybody knows it and sings along on the chorus. I just wish I could pull off that intro riff, but it's for people who know how to flatpick, not me. People don't seem to notice my poor imitation of it, though...
Had a few families come by and got a nice "Let It Go" sing-along started. And some middle-aged ladies with their long-time Laguna resident mother came by. She told us that we were the best sidewalk band she'd ever heard.
We had enough people come by to keep playing until 10:30. Toward the end, when nobody was around, I thought I'd run through my weird acoustic version of "Billie Jean" again, and suddenly three college kids showed up and were loving it. When it was done, one of the guys told me that he "felt like that was the way that song *should* have been done".
Busted! Almost...
I was hoping that there would be some action in Laguna on Friday nights, but I guess it's still too early. But we started out with some nice girls on the bench, but only three songs in, a cop car pulled up right when I was playing "Over the Rainbow" for them. He didn't actually signal me to stop, and I'm pretty sure that I wasn't breaking any laws, so I just kept playing, albeit as quietly as I could.
He went over and talked to Warren, and said that someone, who he wouldn't name, had complained about the noise. Our understanding is that there is no loudness limit, unless a business complains. The Ice Cream guy loves us, so he would never "drop a dime" on us, but Sanchez was playing across the street in front of the Fingerhut gallery, and the ladies in there hate him, so they definitely would.
But he was playing quieter than I've ever heard him, and so was I, since I didn't have to compete with his noise. Warren told him that it was more likely "the guy across the street" that had prompted the complaint, but the cop said that they'd mentioned the top hat.
So we were baffled, but the cop said that he thought the music sounded good, and if we turned it down a little, we could keep playing until/unless there was another complaint. And he went across the street to tell Sanchez the (presumably) same thing.
Our only theory is that a (new?) Fingerhut lady heard Sanchez' noise, but looking out the window, just saw me with a guitar and assumed I was the one making it. Or maybe she called in about "all those darn musicians". I guess we'll never know.
But later on, Warren saw a Fingerhut lady come out, make "turn it down" gestures at Sanchez, and then talk to him for a while. She didn't come over to do the same to us...
But, the whole thing put the scare into me, so I played super quiet and subdued from then on, and cowering every time a white car came around the corner from behind me. The cop never did come back, but it was pretty awful -- waiting, hoping he wouldn't.
We did have some people come by, unaware of the drama, and plop down on the bench with a batch of cameras, to take some time-lapse photos of the traffic going by Main Beach. For whatever reason. But the lady took some nice pictures of me with her fancy camera, and emailed them, so that was nice.
After we gave up (early -- no people, no fun -- at 8:30) and were hanging around talking, some high school boys came up and asked us if we were done. Turns out they were big fans of ancient blues rock: Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Dylan, etc. That was unexpected...
One of the ladies who saw me play at the "Make Music Downey" festival almost 10 months ago was apparently impressed enough to hold onto my card all this time. She called me up out of the blue and asked me if I was "the guy who plays the James Taylor songs". I thought, well, I'm not *the* guy who plays the James Taylor songs -- he's older, balder, and speaks with a Carolina accent -- but I'm *a* guy, and probably the one she's looking for.
She wanted me to play at her house for a family party -- her sister was coming out from Texas, and there were birthdays and graduations to celebrate. I set up in the living room, and it was a little strange to just set up and play in somebody's house. Or maybe it's not, but *I'm* sure not used to playing in somebody's house. Or indoors, for that matter...
But I gauge the success of a show and how engaged the audience was -- by how many songs get requested, and how many I have to pick myself. And after I played my customary "Hotel California" intro song, I didn't have to pick a single song for the whole time (four hours).
One lady in particular became a running joke among her family members by choosing songs one after another, before anyone else could get a word in. People would come and go from the room, and conversations would start up in this or that corner of the room, but they were generally reasonably polite about it. It was, after all, their party, not my concert. And I was being paid...
And as I was packing up, the brother-in-law came up and told me how much he had enjoyed my playing and the great songs on my list -- and he slipped me 40 bucks. Now, that's a tip.
Nice weather, and it must be a vacation week abroad because there were lots of foreign visitors out, along with the usual locals. We had lots of nice people right from the beginning, but pretty soon some local characters showed up and monopolized the bench and the somewhat drunk guy wanted to chat up the visitors, which generally just scared them away.
I finally despaired of getting any kind of audience together with them there, so I "took a break" to try to bore them away. Which actually worked after a while, and had the added benefit of letting me sit down for a while.
Earlier in the wee, I rediscovered James Taylor's version of "Handyman" in my songbook, which I had worked up but abandoned because it was just too high for me. But my range has moved up quite a bit, and it's somewhat feasible now, if I'm well warmed up. So I brought it out in public for the first time, and it seemed to work pretty well.
A nice lady listened for a few songs and then came up and announced that she was from "Chile, South America!". She asked me if I knew any Jim Croce, and I said no, because people always mean "Time In a Bottle" when they ask that, and I don't do that one. But she finally came up with the song name that she meant, and it was "I'll Have To Say I Love You In a Song", which is the only Croce song that I *do* know. So I fired it up and she danced around in front of me singing along. That was sweet.
We got cut off prematurely ("only" three hours) when the accessory battery went dead. I'm pretty sure I just recharged it wrong, but we went home with pretty short tips -- apparently the bulk of the tipping happens later in the evening. But I did sell three CDs, so somebody liked what we were playing...
Unfortunately, some kids think being on the stage is just too much fun, and I don't mind when they stay on the front edge, but that's never enough for some of them. I had one little girl in pink who got closer and closer until she was about to knock over the music stand, and then when she saw me clicking the buttons on the harmony box, she just had to join in on that. Which, of course, in the middle of a song causes havoc.
She was being almost handle-able, but then a little boy came up too, and he was even more dangerously curious. So after having to try to body block him away from the foot buttons for half a song, I had to request the parents to keep the kids off the stage. Which only half of them were willing to monitor...
I seem to have a bit of a stalker. The mystery lady was back again this week, sitting in the same comfy chair over by the Old Navy, staring at me for an hour or more from behind her aviator sunglasses. Not sure what the deal is there...
A family came by later on, so I handed them song lists, but I don't think they spoke any English. They talked among themselves in some language I couldn't even guess at, and finally the little girl just held the kids' list out and pointed at the "Frozen" sisters. "Let It Go", gotcha.
I've always had bad luck with Artwalk nights -- everyone seems too hell-bent on getting to the next art gallery with a free cup of wine to slow down for some street music. But it was (around?) Spring Break, so I thought I'd give it another try.
And it was mostly a pretty big fail. I'd even decided to pander to the Party Girl crowd by playing all strummy rock and roll instead of my usual soft stuff. So I spent all day relearning a bunch of dance tunes.
This turned out to be a good plan, but not because I was right about the rock and roll working better It was because our old nemesis Sanchez set up across the street and was playing *really* loud. So I had to be equivalently loud just to be heard over his incessant droning D-tuned din.
Still it was kind of fun to play different types of songs for once -- all those rock 'n roll tunes, "867-5309", "Wake Up, Little Susie", "That Thing You Do", "Don't Stop Believing", "Amie", etc. And it worked for some folks...
A guy came by with a hand drum and asked if he could "sit in". I said, "Sure -- can't make it any worse!" He was actually quite good, and sensitive to the tempo and style of the songs I played while he was there. A while later, Warren's fiddle-player friend Doug Miller came by and tried to play along, too, but the rock stuff in non-fiddle-friendly keys I was playing didn't work very well for him.
Later on some people were sitting on the bench (including this cute steampunk girl) and I was feeling embarrassed by the lack of finesse of the songs I was playing (I always feel stupid playing rock and roll on an acoustic guitar with no bass nor drums), so I explained that I usually play softer songs, but that, because of the noise across the street, I had to play these loud ones to be heard. They said that they could hear me fine, which was hard to believe, but I took them at their word and tried some of my usual quieter stuff (but with the amp up pretty loud, of course). Apparently they could hear me better than I could, and *not* hear Sanchez as well as I could, 'cuz they seemed to really enjoy them.
Anyway, by 9:20 it was all but dead, and since I knew this was the first of four gigs in four days, I figured I'd better give my fingers, back, and knees a break and go on home.
