K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 04June2016

As feared/expected, Fiddle Kid was holding The Corner hostage when we got there at 6:30, but Warren negotiated its release so we could get started at 7. Somehow, maybe because I'd already played for two hours at Dana Point, I was feeling very loose about the whole thing -- playing and singing with abandon. Or as much "abandon" as this uptight white boy gets...

Also, after 30-some years of fingerpicking and essentially forgetting how to strum, the advent of the new guitar and its strumability is getting really fun to me. I'm still not willing to try to play full-on rock songs on my acoustic guitar (and I hope that the world is with me on that), but it's fun to get a little wild on the thing.

We didn't gather many big crowds, but it didn't seem like were all alone much, either. We had plenty of small groups to play for and fulfill their requests. A cute young couple came by and stopped to listen to "Moonshadow". After they said that they were big Cat Stevens fans, I started to read them the list of his stuff that I know, but the girlfriend stopped me at "How Can I Tell You" as the perfect song for them, and they cuddled all the way through it. Cute.

My old doctor (that I can't go to anymore because my insurance changed) came through with her dad and her tween daughter. She just stomped right up to me and started talking to me even though I was kinda busy singing. She asked for "Imagine" and after someone else's "The Boxer" request, she wanted "Puff, the Magic Dragon".

She may have been a little tipsy, 'cuz she was doing the Sexy Hippie Chick Wiggle Dance to any and everything, much to the consternation of her daughter (though it didn't seem to faze her dad). It's a little awkward to see your (ex) doctor out of context, but I actually kind of prefer having a Real Human. I'm gonna have to see if they've changed policies so I can go back to her next time I need some doctoring. She's way more fun than my new one.

We had quite a lot of dancing, for some reason. One guy came up and asked for "anything by Bob Marley", so I pulled out my version of "Three Little Birds" ("Every little thing, gonna be all right"), with less embarrassment than usual. I do have an active policy to try to have at least one song by Nearly Everybody (within reason of course), and it does work out every once in a while.

A big group of bar-hoppers came through and a girl called out "Play some Gwen Stefani!" I replied that that wasn't exactly in my wheelhouse, and she immediately blurted out "Beatles!" instead. That was impressively on-second-thought perceptive -- 60 to 0 in nothing flat.