KC - RSM 03Jun05

Strange evening, but OK. When I got there, there was a table set up in front of the café section, with a little sign advertising a book signing by a local guy author. In convenient, but probably OK, so I start setting up. The café guy lets me get mostly done, then tells me that I need to talk to Tom, the Event Manager. I was afraid that he was gonna send me home, but although Tom's a little exasperated that Bob booked me without regard for his (apparently) locally booked book signing schedule, he's OK for me to go on, since I don't need his PA system, and he knows he can trust me to play quietly until the book guy is gone.

In fact, Tom was incredulous when I mentioned that the only discernable rule that Bob has is not to book a single act twice in the same store in the same (calendar) month. (I'm already kind of cheating that rule since I tend to get booked once a month as "Keith & Warren" and once as just Keith.) But Tom said "People love you guys! We've never gotten a complaint, and gotten lots of compliments", and wants me/us in there as often as we'll come. He gave me his email address and phone number, and said that anytime we want to play, just let him know!

I'm not sure how that gibes with the schedule that's forced on him by Bob, though. Obviously, Bob can't book, say, "Marina V", while Tom books K&W on the same night. By the looks of the recent schedule, there aren't many Fri-or-Saturday nights that aren't Bob-booked. But, the upcoming June 24 and 25 seem to be empty, and I'm free, except for the Folkie Jam, so maybe I'll take him up on the offer.

Anyway, I finished setting up, and played, really quietly, for the first hour and a half. So quietly in fact, that I was sure no one could hear me, which is remarkably freeing. But there was a core group of three or four solo ladies there that were reading, then clapping, so I guess they could hear better than I thought. It also provided an unprecedented opportunity to play all the really soft and slow ones, without the guilt of being too boring...

Of the several people who told me that they would, or might, come out, none did. Except Acacia's teacher, "Mrs. Smiggs", who hadn't said she was coming, but showed up with her daughter around 9:10 and seemed to be both amazed and entertained.

And although I was prepared to switch to a mic for the guitar if it started cutting out again, it worked perfectly all night. I was hoping it would cut out and give me a chance to try to isolate the problem, but it's wise to that plan...

Stay back, kids!

K&W - SCP and RSM - 13/14May05

We played South Coast Plaza on Friday evening. A lot fewer studying-college-kids than usual, which, unfortunately, meant it was nearly empty. We did get a pair of college kids, but they weren't studying, just shopping, and they listened and made some requests for a while. And we had a nice Persian lady that seemed to like the stuff, even though she didn't know many of the songs. She said she lives nearby, and would like to bring some family to see us next time we're there. That's flattering.

I tested out my new arrangement of "Something" -- having finally caved to the pressure of the many times we get people inadvertently requesting James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" when they really mean George's tune. Turns out that parts of it work pretty cool in My Style, whatever that is, though other parts, not so much. Maybe they'll tweak with time. Warren seemed to like it, anyway.

But, as expected, it went quite well, again, solo at RSM on Saturday. It was pretty empty at first, but somewhere in the middle I got a few kids, and was doing songs for them. Apparently, some other kids heard familiar tunes, and came in, and I ended up snagging quite a few families that way. And, of course, the adults like to send the kids up with some money for the jar. Because it was so kid-heavy, I think I made the most tips ever, and without selling a single CD -- though I did give one away to a nice couple that was celebrating their 35th anniversary (with me?!? What's up with that?).

The guy was amusingly forgetful -- he asked for "You Were On My Mind", which I did, and three or four songs later, he asked whether he had requested "You Were On My Mind" or "Always On My Mind", which, in retrospect, is probably what he *meant* to ask for (anniversary-song-wise), but wasn't. And when they were leaving and I offered the CD "as an anniversary present", he said, "How did you know it was my anniversary?!?". He had told me when they first came in, not more than 45 minutes earlier.

"Mind" games

K&W - Yorba Linda 07May05

Not bad, for Yorba Linda. It's just such a big, bright, impersonal space -- more like a school cafeteria than a coffeeshop. It affords the people plenty of space to sit far away from us, and remain disengaged. It just doesn't feel like "we're here together".

Still, we got some response from several groups of people, especially a family that came in with a freakishly friendly young lady (17). She walked in with a big smile, looking directly at me (us?). The only (normal) explanation would be if I knew her, but, nope, she's just shockingly open. Refreshing, and wonderful. And she was a big Beatles fan, and asked for their songs all night. Made our night, really. Funny how it only takes one person to make the difference.

My voice wasn't quite as good as the night before at RSM, but my playing was (a bit) more focused. The disconcerting total silence at least makes for "good sound". Sometimes the bustle of the people's conversations and the drink-making machines are hard to play against...

I thought "Long, Long Time" went particularly well. And "First Cut..." was the best it's ever been. Some kind of slightly slower tempo, I think.

K&W - RSM 06May05

The gig went really well last night. It started off slow -- seemed "too early" since the sun was blazing through the windows, making it seem like early afternoon. It just doesn't seem appropriate to be doing mellow coffeeshop music so early in the day. So I played the faster, pop-ier stuff, and got into it eventually. It was more or less full most of the evening after a while.

The highlight was later on when I put my almost-full bottle of lemonade (graciously provided by Borders management) on the table next to the amp, and launched into "I've Just Seen a Face". Apparently, the vibrations were buzzing the bottle toward the edge, and just after the word "Falling!", the bottle fell, with a crash, right next to my foot. I, of course, froze, looked down at it, decided there was nothing I could really do that was urgent, and continued the song (albeit with an abbreviated last half). The irony of the timing was lost on no one. That's entertainment.

We cleaned it up (mostly), and got back going, but even though it didn't really seem to bother me that much, my concentration was shot for the next dozen or so songs. Weird.

Our new little fan ("almost 9"), Paige, was there again (with her dad) -- two weeks in a row. It's always nice to have someone to play to. There was also a lively high-school-age girl who listened for a while, asked for a song or two, and whipped out her cell phone to call and excitedly beckon her twin sister. Obviously more kids who grew up listening to their parents' playing of this "old music".

But the night was mostly notable (to me) by how well I was singing. With a microphone, you're hearing yourself from "the outside" so it's easy to be impartial to how you sound -- it sounds like someone else, or a recording -- so I know when I'm singing good, and when I'm singing bad. Last night, after about 9:00, I was hitting stuff I usually strain for, and more flexible than usual, both. A lady asked for "Pancho and Lefty" and it was, by far, the best I've ever sung it. I wish I'd'a had a recorder running.

Conversely, I was playing pretty poorly -- made a lot of "got lost" mistakes, seemingly always during the instrumental verse, screwing Warren. Concentration problem. Especially after the lemonade explosion. We're at Yorba Linda tonight -- we'll see if I can stay focussed...

KC - RSM 15Apr05

RSM was pretty good, as, I suppose, it usually is these days. Margie's boyfriend and his thirty-something daughter (Allison?) were already there when I got there, and Margie showed up a little while later. Patty from up the hill came in with her three kids, as did Princess dad Kevin with his three. But before any kids showed up, I handed a song list to Margie's party, and after reading it through, Allison wanted to hear "Rubber Duckie". Another familiar looking lady was there, who I eventually figured out was the wife of the Ovation Expert guy that we met there before. After "Rubber Duckie", she asked for "Last Unicorn", and somebody else wanted "Rainbow Connection". All these kids' songs were asked for by adults, but we were "pretending" that I was actually playing them for the one 10-year-old boy that was there with his parents, not really listening. So I gave him a sheet, and he asked for (adult song) "First Cut is the Deepest", to great amusement all around.

Later on, I was just finishing a song when a middle-aged lady came around the corner of the magazine rack and loudly proclaimed, "You mean that wasn't a *record*?!?" which sent the café into a stunned silence. I was taken aback, of course, but managed to say something about "No, it's just me...", followed by some lame jokes about there actually being a CD player in the amp, and I'm lip-synching. What I *wished* I'd'a said is, "Thanks, Mom, but you're laying it on a little too heavy!" but I'm not that quick-witted.

K&W - Mission Viejo - 26Mar05

It went pretty well, for Mission Viejo. Warren cut out at 9:30 for some previous engagement, so I was solo for a while, but getting over that first 10 minutes is the hard part, so it was no problem.

I hung out and played for another hour or so after he left -- they close at 11:00. A little girl (7 years old) and her mom showed up at about 9:50, and I was about out of Adult Songs anyway, so I played a few for her. She was way over by the window, but she came up to me and said "Thank you" -- I'm sure it was mom-induced, but cute anyway.

When my fingers couldn't take any more, I announced the Last Song, and played it. Then I said thanks &c., and said that we play "here" and "other local Borders", and that there were "cards with a website address on 'em up here on the table, so you can check the schedule and catch us again". *Four people* got up and fetched cards! Four out of about ten that were still there. Pretty flattering.

Vocal Ranges

Warren and I have been puzzling over the actual vocal ranges of people. Mostly, I suppose, due to my problem of pitching songs at Princess campouts so that both Dads and their Daughters can sing along. As always, the web tells all, of course. I found the standard choir vocal ranges, according to Rice University.

They did the staff notation, I drew it on a keyboard 'cuz I'm a visual kinda guy.

According to this then, C to C is the only shared range -- although, as theorized, that's with the guys (low-C to Middle-C) an octave below the girls (Middle-C to high-C). I guess there's only three notes (well, 5, if you count black keys) that are shared by everybody in absolute pitch, but that would make a pretty boring song.

I get the feeling that the shared part of the guys' two ranges is approximately the "inexperienced" guys' range, and similarly for the girls. Basically you cut off the low part of the basses, and the high part of the tenors, and you have a guy who's essentially neither. But, by experience, getting above Middle-C is tough for non-singers, so I'd say the low-C to Middle-C is pretty safe for, say, Indian Princess dads.

It's strange to me, though, that they expect basses and sopranos to span two octaves, but they go so much easier on the tenors and altos.

Anyway, the lowest note I (try to) sing at the coffee shop is in "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground": a low-low-E, same as the lowest string on the guitar. I used to could sing it, back when I was a stock E-to-E bass, but only early in the morning, and before I got too warmed up. Since I've been singing so much, again, ('course, not as much as two hours a day, back in school), my range has been moving up (or, at least, the bottom end has), so I can't really hit it anymore. Fortunately, the guitar's bass note is kind of fortifying me when I aim at it, so I think it gets implied, if not enumerated.

Difficulty/Complexity and Music

Sometimes it strikes me that I have some great songs that are a lot of work (and/or are so hard that playing them is risky), and then when I drag 'em out, they don't even go over all that well. And then there are songs that you could teach a monkey to play ("Teach Your Children", "Peaceful Easy Feeling") that people keep asking for. Obviously, this is really just a truism, a song is good or bad *not* depending on how hard it is, but it makes me wonder if it's worth it when I undertake a new song that's hard (e.g., "Martha My Dear", which just laid there), when I could just find some more campfire-hack-favorites. I'm just saying...

Living Tradition Jam - 22Jan05

Geneva and I checked into the Living Tradition Folk Jam in Anaheim on Saturday night. I hadn't really thought she'd be interested, so I wasn't planning on going, but at 5:00, we were just sitting around, and I glanced at the clock and remembered that the Jam was that night, and asked Geneva if she wanted to go. She was all for it! So we packed up quickly and jumped in the car.

Anyway, it was pretty big fun -- especially, and amazingly, for Geneva. She snuggled up to the whistle-lady to her right (and her music stand), and sight-read as best she could. She did OK on the slower ones, but she didn't seem at all frustrated by the fast ones that she couldn't catch up on. Patty had a feedback form to fill out at the end, and Geneva just wrote "More slow songs!" in the comments section. Other than that, she had a great time.

I just strummed along on guitar. At first I thought I could keep up by watching another dude's hands, but a lot of the songs change chords too fast. The guitar guy on my left figured that out and moved his music stand over closer, and I did all right from then on. I figured that guitar players were a dime a dozen so they wouldn't really need me, but when Patty asked my guitar-neighbor what song he wanted to do, he chose "Golden Slippers" 'cuz he's learning to flat-pick the melody. All the other guitar players took the opportunity ("Easy song!") to get out their respective melody instruments (mandolin, etc.) so I found myself the only one playing rhythm!

Patty (who ran the jam) was kind of going around the circle, asking folks what they wanted to play, and after a while decided to notice Geneva, asked her her name, and if she had a song she wanted to do. When Geneva asked for "Ashokan Farewell", they were all totally thrilled (and impressed) (and, probably, relieved that it wasn't, say, "Hot Cross Buns").

Unfortunately, our glory was short-lived, as Patty's gaze turned to me next, and by way of explanation, I told her that I play with Warren (who's been going to these for a while) at coffee shops. She asked what kind of music, and I said mostly 70's pop -- "not this kind of stuff". "Like what?" "Well, 'Fire and Rain', and such." "Play it!" "Now?" "Sure!" "Well, it's a 'singing' song." "So, sing it!" "Well, OK." "What key is it in?" "Um, F?" "Go ahead!"

So, without my songbook open (you'd think that, by now...) I sang the first verse, forgot the words to the first chorus, sang the third verse, second chorus, and quit. Flipped open the book and found the second verse, which they implored me to go ahead and do, as some of the better fiddlers were starting to get the hang of something.

Anyway, it just kind of landed with a thud. Even if I hadn't completely blown it, I don't think it was very well advised. Generally regrettable. If she'd'a asked "Do you know any folk songs?", I could have pulled out "Tennessee Waltz", or something. But she asked "what we did" and drove me down the wrong street. Made a bit of a fool of myself, I'm afraid, though they're quite forgiving, or at least well-practiced at ignoring embarrassing events. Hopefully, at the next one, we can pull something a little better planned out, and redeem myself.

But, I only really only drove out there for Geneva's sake, and she loved it, and really pulled it off far better than I did. And, of course, they loved having her. I think she's definitely in for another go next month, and if she wants to go, I'm inclined to take her. Unfortunately, it's another RSM gig, so we'll have to bug out early again. (This one broke up at 6:50-ish.) And the month after is a Mission Viejo gig. At least that one has an 8:00 start time.

Acacia's School Bus Pinecar

Three years ago, when we went to build the annual pinecars, Acacia asked for a school bus. It turned out to look kinda cool, even though it's so simple. A bit of Monster Truck feel to it, because of the big black tires on the "outside" of the bus body.

I had half tried to talk her out of it, since it was too simple to be a Design Award winner, but that was the year that Acacia was in 1st grade, and she was pretty intimidated by the (real) school bus. It was loud, and there were Big Boys in it, and only the presence of her big sister got her into it every morning. I think maybe it was a subconscious plan to "conquer" the thing -- her own personal Moby Dick. Bringing it down to scale, and "owning" it probably helped her deal with it in Real Life.

"Paper Moon"

I've lately added "Paper Moon" to my song list. I was inspired, not surprisingly, by a James Taylor version from the movie "A League of Their Own", in his sweet and affable fashion. It's got that great old Tin Pan chord progression, which defied/challenged me to figure it out. I've been working on it for a while, actually -- my first downloaded version languishing on my hard drive was from September 2001. I've been poking at it lately again, trying to get it by ear, but could only catch parts. But, while searching for some Christmas tune, I encountered a batch of jazz-chord songs' sheets, and there it was again. Combining hints from there, and my own sensibilities (created by my limitations), I worked up a pretty passable chord-set.

I've also been poking at, less successfully, "As Time Goes By", which I can do the verse of, but the bridge needs work. The jazz-chord site's version works (for me) for a while, and then falls apart. Strange how these Internet songsheets (and, almost as much, paid-for commercial songsseets) just never seem to work as is. I *always* have to tweak them -- usually for the singable key, but almost always also to get 'em to sound right.

Maybe it's just me.

"Martha, My Dear"

My brother suggested "Martha, My Dear", which sounded kinda easy in my head (ragtime-y, should work with Travis picking -- or so I thought). Turns out to be really strange -- the first part is in Eb, and the middle section is in F (on the record). And the verse is played, twice, on just piano (as intro and as an instrumental verse).

So, first I had to find a (pair of) key(s) that were playable (and, hopefully, singable as well), and then I had to work up a passable instrumental verse, which, remarkably, is coming along pretty well. Noting Juber needs to be worried about, but pretty OK. I can't usually play it well on the first time through, but I'm working on it. I ended up transposing it up (!) a whole step, and capoing two. I'm singing down an octave from there, of course, so it's really down a 5th or so. A fun challenge.

"Blatz Reunion" performance evaluation

I couldn't really tell how anything went, with the lights so bright in my eyes and all. I really thought I was singing unusually badly, because of the cold, and extra nervousness. The bass player was also throwing me off on the songs he played on, since he blew it pretty badly, especially on "South of the Border", which sounds easy, but the changes aren't as obvious as you'd think (and he thought).

Anyway, it was darn fun. I don't know how we missed doing "Let it Be", and I was hoping to get to "Hey, Mister", re-worked up just for the nostalgia value, especially for my Aunt Sharon. But I reckon she went away pretty happy with what we did manage to get done.

My old roommate Kendall is (still) a mechanical monster on the guitar. His fingering is so precise, and he insists on getting every note exactly right. It's funny (and amazing) to me that he still dissects every James Taylor album, decrypting every new trick that James picks up. But having Kendall as a roommate definitely brought me up from being a three-chord-strummer to being able to play with some class. And every James song I do came directly from Kendall, or from the James-sensing-capability I developed from Kendall's tutoring. I'd sure like to sit with him for 6 or 8 hours sometime and learn some more tricks...

Christmas Tunes

A lot of the Xmas songs are trivial, especially the kids' ones: Frosty, Rudolph, Housetop. But the old-time jazz standard types are a lot more interesting than most current (and by that, I mean "20 year old") pop tunes. Working those out is what got me to the level that I can do things like "You Don't Know Me", "Someone to Watch..." etc. (whether or not that's a good thing).

I'd be tempted to do only the jazz classics at Moxie Java: "Have Yourself...", "I'll be Home...", and maybe (if I can pull it off), that Eagles "Please Come Home for Christmas" blues tune. Seems like I learned two Elvis tunes: " Santa Claus is Back in Town" and "I'll Have a Blue Christmas" last year, as a joke, but they both worked pretty good. I'd expected to be embarrassed to do them, but they sound good, so I wasn't.

I guess I'd want to have the lamer songs handy, just for the kids, if any, by request -- that always bumps up the tipping.

I've had a spurt of new song learning this week (already) -- "Homeward Bound", "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (in D, I think), "Mister Postman" (haven't settled on a key yet -- maybe C (i.e., C, Am, F, G, all the way through)), and "All I Have To Do Is Dream" (in C (hey, it's C, Am, F, G, too!)).

The latter three are all trivial, but I thought they might be fun, in the vein of "Standing There". But "Homeward" is deceptively tough. Maybe I'm trying to play two guitars (and the bass) at the same time, but the chorus is hard (and fast). The verses are easy, at least half of the way through. But that intro/outro riff has to be right on the first try, which will take some practice, and luck. The original is too high, of course -- it's in G, capoed three, but if I just leave the capo off, I think I'll be OK.

Borders -- It's Working Out!

Last night I went by Borders RSM to drop off some posters, which I augmented by taping a copy of the "Round the Rancho" newspaper article to the bottom, with the "You could find a treat at Borders tonight" modified by "X-ing" out the "to" in "tonight" and writing "Saturday" above it, in red Sharpie. I don't know if anyone will read the whole article, but it might help to have the endorsement of an authority, an Actual Newspaper.

Cidne wasn't there, but I handed them over to Tom (the "event manager"), who very gladly put them both up immediately -- one taped to the window by the front door, and the other installed in a pre-made poster-frame that's up on a pillar in the middle of the store, pre-empting a "Something Percent Off Sale" poster (!). He said something like, "It's nice to finally get some *good* music in here", which was pretty nice of him. He also wanted me to bring posters in for the next one (Nov 26) when we come in on Saturday, and he'll put them up, too.

He showed me the November Borders Official Newsletter, which has, as he put it, "a pretty nice write up". I had to admit that it's "pretty nice" because we wrote it ourselves, but it prominently occupies the whole middle column of the three column page -- they used our "release" in its entirety. I suppose it helped that, because of the holiday, there are few events, so they needed to fill some space...

Thoughts About Playing at Borders

I was feeling intimidated by Russian-born, Hollywood-store playing, multiple Real (looking) Album recording, gorgeous, "Marina V", and noticed that she was playing at, of all places, RSM on Friday, so I stopped by. She sings pretty well, plays a big electronic piano and has a guy playing guitar along but mostly inaudibly. Writes her own songs -- I listened to 4 or 5, and they all sound pretty alike. I wonder if it's because they *are* alike, or if it's because the "sound" (her voice and the piano) is the same, or if it's because they're all songs I've never heard so they just run together. Mostly, they're all very earnest, very serious, very somber. She introduces each song with a little story about it ('cuz she wrote 'em), and they all have some very serious Meaning to her ("I wrote this song while thinking about my little brother, back in Russia, who I miss very much..."). I was hard pressed not to shout "Lighten up!" at her. The place was very sparsely populated -- probably only 4 or 5 people in the coffeeshop itself (and one guy was clearly working on some kind of chemistry term paper on his laptop). I think she essentially sombers people right out of the room.

She did commandeer a table at the "back" of the coffeeshop (by the magazines) (which she could afford to do, since there was almost nobody using them), and had a little display of CDs, a tip jar, some small posters, and a little sign: "Marina V CDs, only $10". I guess this allowed people to just serve themselves. It looked a little better than a table dedicated to holding just a tip jar (as our analog would be). I'd be very surprised if she'd sold any, though. Or made any tips, for that matter.

I think it points up the strong symbiosis between venue/audience-type and band/music-type. K&W and RSM "match". Marina V and RSM don't. Perhaps she's a big hit at, say, the Hollywood store. We may be completely humiliated in Hollywood tomorrow night. But, hey, it'll be a story to tell, whichever way it goes.

Name That Tune

This is pretty cool...

http://www.name-this-tune.com/

a.k.a. "Musipedia" (.org)

It's a music encyclopedia, built on-the-fly by its users, on the Wikipedia model. Uses a clever tune searching method called "Parsons code", where a tune is described only by its changes, up, down, or repeated. Seems to work -- I found "Over the Rainbow" with it. The tune was detail-described by another notation method called "Lilypond", which had the tune, but sans rhythm, so in the spirit of public interest, I figured Lilypond out and went ahead and put some rhythm cues in.

Good fun, and potentially useful someday -- check it out.

P.S. Here's the Parsons Code for "Rainbow", just to get you jump started:

*UDDUUUDUD

K&W - South Coast Plaza - 08Aug04

Inexplicably, the South Coast Plaza Borders has their music on Sunday afternoon. We were greeted by a room full of intensely studying Asian college kids, some of whom had earplugs in even before we got there. Since virtually all of them were (a) too young, and (b) from another culture, the response was, shall we say, underwhelming. On top of that, the Muzak wouldn't stay off -- we had to keep asking them to kill it, and it would reappear 10 minutes later. It was a pretty big waste of time, but I always say, "A bad day playin' is still better'n a good day watchin' TV". (And certainly better'n waxin' the car!)

A year or two ago, I'd'a been deeply annoyed, probably, but these days I'm pretty confident that we're Good, and the lack of response just felt like their *inability* to respond, not our lack of talent. So, it wasn't really painful, just surreal. What's hard to imagine is who decided that Sunday afternoons was The Time to do that -- both being Insanely Wrong, and bucking the rest-of-stores trend of doing music on Friday and Saturday evenings. I imagine that, even at that store, the vibe is completely different on weekend evenings than on Sunday afternoons.

Clearly, although it was amusing once, I'd rather not repeat the experience, but that store isn't even on the September listing, so there's no danger there. And none of the other gigs are afternoons, either, so hopefully we won't encounter that kind of environment again. And, clearly, we've learned another lesson -- stand staring at the Manager until the Muzak demonstrably goes off. They need to know that if the Muzak don't go off, the Band don't play.

In retrospect, and without the pressure of actually standing there, I think I might have been a bit more aggressive, too. That's easy to say now... At the time, it seemed prudent to be a even swap for the Muzak. Along the lines of a string quartet at a garden party -- just music wafting by. I figured the kids couldn't have more issue with us than they'd already have had with the speakers. At least three of them were wearing earplugs even before we got there. Still, even if I had been *able* to dislodge the kids from their books, I'm not sure that that would be doing any of them a favor. Even kids that would have rather been listening to music were probably aware that what they *ought* to be doing is knuckling down. So I felt better just fading back, and letting them be OK with ignoring me.

Anyway, however a gig goes, it makes for at least one good story. This one yielded two -- the "Day of the Dead" gig itself, and the skimpily-clad college cutie who sat right in front of me and leeeeaaaaned over, multiple times, to get into her book bag -- all while I was trying to play "You've Got a Friend" -- probably the most concentration-challenging song I play. That there was a Test sent by the Devil hisself!

JT Night?

I took Geneva over to Del Lago on Sunday morning to check out the "Neil Diamond Tribute" karaoke. It's not "come up and sing" karaoke -- it's a guy with all the Neil Diamond karaoke CDs and a system, and (only) he sings. He's actually pretty good, and the old ladies were groovin' to it. He doesn't really "imitate" Neil, but he sings a lot like him, and wears a fancy shirt and gold chain. He's probably 55 or so himself, pretty close to Neil's current age, I'd guess.

Counting us, there were probably a dozen people there at the peak (all *not* his wife and friends). The interesting part is that he got people out there (and his "steak house in Dana Point" gig, and a private party in the condo complex across the street later that day) on the strength of his "come hear Neil Diamond songs" promo. If the poster had said "guy singing along with karaoke box", nobody would have been there. But these folks showed up 'cuz they knew what to expect.

Makes me wonder about, at least, the Marketing/wording on our "poster", and, at most, possibly doing something similar but with a James Taylor spin.

To start with, I can replace "Family-friendly classic pop" on the poster with something more specific, like a list of Featured Artists. Sorting the List by artist yields clumps of James Taylor, Beatles, Paul Simon, and Willie Nelson. I'm willing to leave Willie off the list, since although I think people like his songs (or these few, anyway), most folks around here probably don't think of themselves as Willie Nelson Fans. Maybe something like " James Taylor, Beatles, Paul Simon, and many more". Maybe stick Chris Isaak in there, for the young(er) ones.

Or, more extreme, we could do some kind of "James Taylor Night". On the Long List, there are 15 JT songs, some of which we don't *really* do, but which I can kinda do, and might could be worked up better (Mexico, Sarah Maria, Daddy's Baby). And I can probably work up a batch of the easy but not compelling (to me) ones. We could advertise a "Tribute", do all the JT songs in one "set", and see if the folks roped-in thereby (if any) would hang out a little longer for some non-James-but-along-the-same-lines tunes. That JT hook sure seems to work on coffee shop owners, as an intro line...