And it certainly worked. Despite the cold Santa Ana winds, lots of people were out, and most of them stopped for a while to listen (sometimes pointedly crossing the street to do so). Fortunately, the wind graciously mostly died down while I was playing, coming back with a vengeance just as I was leaving and driving home.
I had someone to play for almost the whole time, and three or four times I had the entire sidewalk jammed with listeners. And I must have had a dozen groups stop to listen for a while, and then someone says, "You know, I've never been in here", and someone else, "Let's go in, then!", so it worked beautifully as a promo for the Historic Society.
Several times I had people come up onto the porch and sing along, softly. One lady seemed reasonably bold, so I asked her to sing the Girl Part to "Baby, It's Cold Outside", and she made a swing at it, but turned out to not actually know the tune outside of the first few lines. Oh well, fun for both of us anyway.
Anyway, it was fun -- and great to have a gig where I get to play the schmaltzy Christmas songs and people actually listen and appreciate it. I can't really do those at my nine Santa Claus gigs.
