K&W at Mission Viejo -- 21Jun2008

That went really well -- best I can remember at Mission Viejo, probably only because the sound, which is usually terrible there, was inexplicably quite good. We were in the corner again, but we did that last time, and it didn't help all that much. I think it was just that there were fewer conversations shouting over us (or is it vice versa?).

We'd played almost 5 hours the night before at Java Joe's, so I expected to be trashed, finger- and voice-wise, but, not so bad. We started at 7:00, and had negotiated a 10:00 ending time (as opposed to the mandated 9:00) with our pal the manager, Sally, but although my fingers and voice were holding up, 'round about 9:30 I was getting light-headed from plain ol' tiredness, and the crowd had thinned down pretty bad anyway, so I called it quits. First time I can remember that I voluntarily stopped playing (unless you count the night before at Joe's when I quit at midnight, but that was just craziness). I'm gettin' too old for this.

Sally told us that Mike, the Borders District Manager had been laid off. This is worrisome only because whenever the guy who does the booking, Bob, makes a mistake (reasonably frequently), Mike is our "court of appeals". But, we got a (mistake-free, this time) schedule for July from Bob, two weeks after Mike was gone, so the system is still chugging along -- although it seems weird that Bob, a volunteer, is booking all us volunteer bands into the Borders stores with no apparent supervision from Borders. Sally heard something about a woman named Leta who may or may not be taking over for Mike. I guess we'll see what happens.

Anyway, with the good sound, and a pretty nice audience, it was a good night -- and we made pretty decent tips, too. Sally had wanted to come up and sing "Rainbow Connection", but apparently got too busy (or chicken). Maybe next time -- I'm there again solo in two weeks.

K&W at Java Joe's -- 20Jun2008

It was our first "weekend" gig at Java Joe's, after two previous (pretty empty) Thursdays. We were both afraid that we'd be expected to be a rock'n'roll Party Band, but the Party never materialized, for better or worse. We had a dozen or so people at the peak, and small groups moving in and out all night, but it was never even half full. The upside was that we could just play our standard "mellow coffeeshop" stuff, so we did. And did, and did. We somehow ended up playing, without a break, from 7:15 to midnight. I guess "closing time" is when owner Chuck leaves, and he didn't seem like he had any intention to, so I just "called it" at midnight. My fingers, knees, and back had had enough, and I was starving.

Anyway, it was fun, if anticlimactic after all the anticipation/dread (and practice!) of the preceding week. Fun enough for me, anyway, but Warren is getting pretty discouraged at our lack of audience there. We were expecting to crash and burn in front of a huge party crowd. Instead, we did just fine, in front of a small turnout. The former would have been disastrous, but the latter is just boring. Actually, I guess when or if we try again is a moot point, since Warren doesn't want to bother with any more empty Thursdays, and there are no free weekend dates until December.

Still, I may go in solo for another Thursday or two as a solo, and see if I can get something going. We had about 8 people the first time, and essentially none the second. Chuck keeps apologizing, saying "I don't know what happened!", but I think it's just 'cuz we just don't have a following of any kind. I'm guessing that Chuck really can't tell the difference between people who come to see, a popular local band, and people who come just to see whoever's there. He thinks his crowds on the weekends are the latter, but I think we've proven that it's more of the former, alas.

But I'm not sure I can afford to keep doing both the Tuesday Open Mics and playing on Thursdays, at $13 in gas for the round trip. On the other hand, the Tuesdays are pretty big fun, despite only getting to do three (or two!) songs. I'm getting to know, and be known by, the other musicians, and am probably on the verge of having some of them join in on some harmony and/or percussion, and that'd be fun.

Or, this coming Sunday afternoon, there's gonna be a new kind of Open Mic there where the organizer wants people to try to group-up, so more people get to play, longer. I'll try to go to that, and see if anybody wants to play/sing along to some of my James Taylor stuff.

Keith at Java Joe's Open Mic -- 17Jun2008

We're playing at Joe's on Friday (our first "weekend night"), so we were obliged to come to the Open Mic to (theoretically) spark interest. Unfortunately, it was Warren's son's birthday, so I had to go solo. I play solo a lot, so it shoulda been no problem -- emphasis on "shoulda".

The owner, Chuck, booked us for Friday (and two previous Thursdays "sight unseen", and since then we've been getting the distinct impression that weekends (and Tuesday Open Mics, for that matter) are more "party" than "concert". We're not really a "party band", but we're already booked, so we'll give it what we got, and try to play what passes for "harder" songs that I'm willing to play.

Accordingly, the idea was to try to show that off on this Tuesday thing, but without Warren, that's even more unlikely. Still, I decided to go with "Mother Goose", "Carolina In My Mind" (I know, not very "hard"), and "Five O'Clock World". "Goose" to be my "rock cred" tune here, despite it being notoriously hard to get right. So, I practiced the heck out of it on my two 20-minute walks (with the electric guitar), and at home on the acoustic, got it down pretty well, and thought I might actually have a chance.

Emphasis on "thought". I have plenty of excuses -- the sound system, as noted here before, sucks, though last time it was tolerable. This time was the worst ever. I had forgotten that we'd learned that a big part of what's wrong is that my (and Warren's) guitar come out through the monitor speaker, but, for some reason, my head-mic does not. Other times, it was bad, but I could hear myself, somehow, enough that it wasn't obvious that the vocal was completely missing from the monitor. This time, *very* obvious. My guitar was coming through almost hard enough to knock me over, but I couldn't hear the voice at all. Scott the sound guy assured me that it was working, and I asked the audience if they could hear me, and they said they could, so I just had to go for it.

So I'm trying to play "Mother Goose", and instinctively holding back on the volume of my strumming, which screws up my ability to strum at all (which is tenuous under *good* conditions). The Intro/Interlude that's so hard (for me) to play goes bad, but not too bad. The rest of the song goes OK I guess, but I couldn't hear it, so what do I know?

Oh, to make matters worse, although Chuck usually puts us on the sign-up list fairly early, this time I was very late. Late enough, in fact, that you don't get three songs anymore, you get two. Of course, they told me that on my way to the stage, so I had to decide quickly which song to delete. It was tempting to scratch "Goose", since I was afraid to play it, but that was the very reason I decided to keep it and scratch "Five O'Clock" instead.

So I launch into "Carolina", chosen because it's got a cool "hard" guitar part, which I've played so much I can do it in my sleep, so I figured I could redeem the fiasco that "Goose" was likely to be. Emphasis on "figured", but I figured wrong. I got through most of it OK, but totally lost my place on the sheet (got cocky, no doubt), and stumbled through a big, and I mean big, chunk of the song. Kept singing, but was just fumbling with the guitar. You'd think (and I thought) that if you just play an "in this song somewhere" chord of some kind, you'd eventually come to a part that it fits to. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? No such luck, though. Somehow, eventually, I found where I was again, but what a disaster.

The cool part was that Scott, the soundman and frequent background singer with other guys in "the club", and Sandy, who usually plays mean fiddle with various guys, were standing off to the side, singing harmony. They didn't get on a mic, though, probably 'cuz they don't know me that well yet -- and I couldn't figure out a way to tell 'em it was OK while I was in the middle of the song. Come to think of it, that may have been the distraction that threw me... I complained vaguely after the song that they should have gotten on a mic, so maybe next time they won't be so shy.

Anyway, afterwards, several of the other musicians told me it "sounded good". Either they were being generous, or the mistakes weren't as obvious as I thought, or maybe they were just referring to the non-mistakey parts, but that was nice to hear. I think it really did impress some of those guys that I was playing "Mother Goose" -- that's not standard Old-Guy-Folk-Rock repertoire. And some of those guys are scary-good, so it's nice to get their attention.

As for the "we're not a party band" concern, as I was leaving, I said to Chuck, "See you on Friday, but, you know, we're not a party band". He was totally, "Oh, you guys will be great", and started telling the guy he was talking to when I walked up that we'd played 'til 11 the last time, and they had a great time playing "Stump the band", which, by his recollection, was "impossible". I remember them asking for lots of songs that I didn't know, but apparently, being able to pull "Red Rubber Ball" off deleted all the "don't knows" from his memory. He's really looking forward to Friday. Me too, I guess.

K&W at the Santa Ana Zoo -- 14Jun2008

Quite nice. This was our third time at the zoo (the second time "out front") and we at least broke the Santa Ana Winds curse. Nice breeze, and set up in the shade. The equipment was "out" this time when I got there, but the too-helpful guy had set it all up in the wrong place. Had to drag the stage platforms to the right place and basically re-rig the whole sound system. Not too bad.

We had plenty, if not lots, of kids'n'parents. Warren likes a few (only) of our kid's songs -- the ones that are written like "real" songs -- and kept hoping that we'd be able to play half for kids, and half for adults. Unfortunately, it's clear that no adults come to the zoo without their kids, so any adults that are nearby are only there for the kids. They don't want us to play to them, they want us to play to their kids. So, I tried to play adult songs, but really couldn't get away with it much. Warren admits that it's inevitable, so if/when I play there again, it'll be just me.

But, I'm not really sure that I want to, either. There were plenty of kids, but they were all really young kids, stroller age up to maybe 3 or 4. My theory is that the older kids know that they're at a zoo, and won't let Mom sit around at the picnic tables -- but the younger ones just do whatever's happening. They don't know enough to know that they ought to be complaining about that.

Anyway, it's pretty hard to play for kids that small -- they don't know any real songs yet. I faced this problem in Princesses, when I wanted to write a Princess song to a tune they'd already know. I went with "Puff, the Magic Dragon", because it's widely known, but also because it's incredibly repetitive, so if you don't know it at the start, you'll know it by the middle.

So, I played my kid's songs, but I don't think that such little kids actually "get it". But, I suppose their parents appreciate it anyway. It's just not as fun for me to play to kids' blank stares. I like playing for Princess age kids that understand and like my stuff for the content.

Playing there again may be a moot point, though. I can't play there if I have a gig at Borders on the same weekend -- the zoo playing time is right between where Friday and Saturday night Borders gigs are, and I just can't play two gigs so close together. I have one no-Borders weekend in July, but I think I might want to keep it free to do family stuff. We'll see.

Anyway, it was pretty fun. We had at least some kids there, all the way through. Played all the kid songs I have, several of 'em twice. I took video again, which looks like it turned out OK, but I haven't had time to clip it up into separate songs yet. The parents almost always stuff a buck in the kid's hand and send them over to drop it in the guitar case, so we did all right. And most of the parents are pretty attentive, and even the blank stares of the toddlers are pretty cute. Maybe I'll go back after all...

Keith solo at Yorba Linda -- 07Jun2008

Yet another quiet night at Yorba Linda. I'm beginning to wonder why I like playing there so much. I guess I like the nice open space, and the quiet environment. I also like it when the little girl behind the coffee counter squeals with delight when she spots me coming in -- apparently, I'm her favorite band.

I also like it when the lady at the front sales counter makes a point to catch me on my way out to tell me that lots of people mentioned how much they liked the music when they came up to buy their books. She's done that twice now. I don't know how many people "lots" is, but just her taking the trouble to come tell me makes my night.

I tried to take some more video, but the camera does its auto-focus thing as you start it up, and since I wasn't in the frame it focused on the back wall, so the whole video is blurry. Well, *I'm* blurry, the wall behind me is crystal sharp.

K&W at South Coast Plaza -- 06Jun2008

Mostly quiet and uneventful, which was OK because I had brought my newly-hacked digital camera (it can now do hour-long (instead of minute-long) videos), to take advantage of the always-good sound, and usually-good performances, there. I set it off to the side, so it fits both of us in a frame without the big gap between us, and it looks pretty good.

I clipped 11 good-take songs out of the footage I got, and put 'em up (here) on YouTube. It's kind of funny to look at the thumbnails and watch the backlight from the windows diminish over time (since the videos are posted in (reverse) time-order), so that we become more and more viewable as the lighting gets less harsh.

K&W at Mission Viejo - 31May2008

We set up in the corner again, where the sound is better, if not strictly "good". Pretty friendly crowd, in general.

I recently discovered a firmware hack for my camera that lets it take video for longer than the ridiculous Canon-imposed 1 minute. With that installed I can fit 84 minutes, at kinda-low frame size and frame rate, on the 2-gig card. I set the camera up over at the side so it's edge-on and can see both of us, without being so far away. The sound is a little flattened (probably by high- and low-pass filters on the audio in the camera (or a cheap mic)), and the video is necessarily low-quality, but it's still fun to have. I posted three songs that turned out pretty well, here.

I guess I'll try to get more video in coming weeks. With familiarity, I should be able to forget that it's there, and turn in some decent performances -- as opposed to my usual completely screwing up the evening just because there's a camera pointed at me.

Keith solo at Costa Mesa - 24May2008

I've been dreading Costa Mesa gigs lately, because it's usually just a bunch of older men there, but this time was pretty OK. I had a nice little family come by and listen for a few tunes, and then there was a cute young Asian girl, apparently there to study some pretty elementary English, who seemed very appreciative. Maybe she was just smiling and nodding in total incomprehension...

Anyway, the sound seemed better than usual for this place, and I was playing pretty well, and my SuperFan didn't show up, so it was a pretty good night.

K&W at Java Joe's -- 22May2008

Well, that was disappointing. Last time we played a Thursday, there were 8-10 people and we had a blast (or I did, anyway) and made $54. I was hoping that this time would build on that, since we played the Open Mic (3 songs) there two nights before to a packed room, and passed out a bunch of mini-flyers, which seemed to be well-received.

But, the place was essentially empty. Jean, a hard-core Regular was there as she always is, playing Scrabble with owner-Chuck, and a disinterested family were there to chat and watch the basketball game, but that was it. Jean's really nice, and she was half listening and asked for a few tunes, but it wasn't really enough reason to drive all the way out there.

The sound was pretty good -- we had our own equipment and it was my favorite sonic environment: total silence, but I prefer it when the silence is broken now and again by some applause...

Still, since we were there anyway, I kind of enjoyed playing, 'cuz it's just fun to play -- especially with the amp and reverb and all. And Chuck snuck a $20 into the tip jar while I wasn't looking, 'cuz he's like that. But Warren is discouraged by how hard it is to do a weeknight gig in the first place, and it's certainly not worth it to either of us if nobody shows. It may have been the threatening rain, or that it was Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, but who knows?

So, we're lined up for one more gig there, on a Friday, which, according to Chuck, will be "jammed". We're pretty obligated, according to Chuck's plan, to play the Tuesday Open Mic before that date, too. Warren's also frustrated by the Open Mics, because the sound is so terrible that he can't tell what he's doing. And those nights are essentially big parties, and only pretty-hard rock penetrates the group, and I don' play dat. This elevates Warren's frustration even more, 'cuz he wants us to play rock all the time, and while that doesn't really work at "real" coffeeshops, it's probably required for this place (which is really, at night, a (wine) bar), on Tuesdays at least, and, no doubt, on Fridays too.

Which means that we're in trouble for that Friday gig. I will, of course, give it a try, and play all my "hardest" songs, but we run out of those pretty quick. They aren't my strength, and not really my interest, and my guitar just doesn't "work" for strumming, and, for that matter, they aren't really appropriate in a bookstore coffeeshop, so I just don't bother to learn that kind of song. Even if I did learn some, I've got no place to practice "pulling them off" in a real-life setting. There's a big difference between my bedroom and a crowded bar...

Naturally, I prefer not to view all this as a shortcoming of mine, but as a mismatch in my capabilities and a gig we probably shouldn't have signed up for. (By horrible coincidence, this is sounding all too much like my work situation of late, where I'm being asked to do things I don't know how to do, and have no interest in doing or learning how to do.) I am pretty worried by it, though, which is odd because I played a pretty big party a few weeks ago in Long Beach, and it seemed to go well, despite my lack of rock-and-roll.

Anyway, we'll give it a shot, and see if we can persuade the audience to want to hear what we've got to play. It may be a disaster, and we'll quit playing weekends there, but maybe there'll be an opportunity to play on weekends (probably solo) when the mood is more mellow.

K&W at Java Joe's, open mic -- 20May2008

Just as we were walking up to the shop from the parking lot, we heard our names announced as "up next!" Whoops! So we scrambled our gear up there and got plugged in, and did our three tunes: "With a Little Help From My Friends", "Homeward Bound", and, despite not knowing it very well, "Mexico".

I made the expected mistakes on the tricky intro, and screwed up some on the other songs, just from losing focus, but the sound was the best we've ever had on one of these Open Mics using Scott's equipment, so I actually felt pretty good about my performance. I was able to hear, and with no time to get nervous, I relaxed into it and "let 'er fly" from time to time during the songs.

We stuck around to watch some of the other guys play, of course. Most are pretty good; some, not so much. After a while, an older (than me!) guy got up and was playing some classic blues stuff on a Dobro, not too well, with unintelligible vocals (partially due to the bad mix). Three women with haircuts and miniskirts that would have looked better on their daughters got up and started dancing with each other up in front of the stage. They were probably in their late 30's, but the wine was telling them that they were 18.

Everybody was pretty amused and/or scandalized, especially the guy's wife who was standing in the back next to me. She didn't know whether to be mad or to laugh, though she figured that her husband would be "loving it". I was jealous, myself -- where were the drunk groupie dancing lesbians when *I* was up there? I guess we just got there too early. Maybe next time...

Keith plays an Art Show -- 18May2008

Well, that was completely different. A lady who saw me play at the Costa Mesa Borders hired me to play her "Art Show", which really turned out to be a big patio party for all her friends and family. The place was a "décor" shop in Long Beach, which sells mostly home trinkets: wind chimes, sun catchers, pewter gee-gaws -- built out of an old bungalow. Laura had 10 or 12 of her paintings up in the various rooms, and set me up on the "patio" which was really the one-car driveway that used to let the car get from the street to the backyard garage.

That put me in the middle of a long narrow space, between the block wall and the house, which made for a pretty loud, echo-ey space. Laura specifically told me that I should play loud -- she wanted people in the house to be able to hear me, and come out to find the party. So, I cranked up pretty loud (for me), and played -- at first to nearly nobody, but people arrived, and only a few left, so it got pretty crowded after a while. There was lots of food, and sangria and wine, and it got to be a full-on party.

Nobody was really paying attention to me, so I just played -- even though it was really loud in there. People were standing right in front of the speakers, shouting their conversations, but they didn't seem to resent me for it. I figured that if I were a boombox, I wouldn't "care" that I was being obnoxious, so I just kept playing, party-style: loud music, shouting people.

But since nobody was paying attention, I didn't do any talking between songs, and nobody was asking for requests, either. This meant that I played almost the whole time, with hardly any time between songs. I even strung the with-capo songs together (since it didn't matter which songs I played when), and that kept the pauses for tuning down.

Which all meant that I played almost solid for the 3 hours she had me booked for, and, since the party wasn't really over at 7, a half hour more than that. I played almost every song in the book, and some of them twice. My fingers were just about dead, and my brain was starting to rebel too, towards the end -- I kind of felt bleary, like I'd just woken up or something, and was staring at the music and doing stuff nearly at random, in spite of what was right in front of me.

Anyway, Laura noticed that I was over-time and told me to quit. I had some of the food that was left, and she told me how perfect it was, and how all the guests loved the music, and she handed me an envelope. We had agreed on $250 for the gig, but when I opened it, there were 3 hundred-dollar bills in it.

It was pretty strange to play against such a wall of sound, but apparently it was "as expected" for the people there. I certainly prefer quieter places where I can tell what I'm doing, and people who actually listen, but for $300, I can make an exception.

K&W at Mission Viejo -- 10May2008

We tried a new location within the store this time -- over in the "corner" of the café, near the magazine racks. This made the sound reflections different (better?) and got us at least a little further from the grinders. I thought it was a bit better anyway, though it made it more crowded for the two of us. When we play in the middle of the side wall, the sound there is almost unbearable.

Anyway, we played for an hour, and then Warren had to leave to join another guy at The Spectrum. This was both "a better offer" for him (he's played with me dozens of times already), and a scouting mission to see if we might fit in and/or be able to play there. No report on that part of it yet, though.

I kept playing solo, and was getting some pretty good connections going towards the end there. After I'd packed most of my gear and was going around collecting the song sheets up, I fell into talking with an older couple who really seemed to like my stuff, and were somewhat educated about music, having some friends that play at various places. That was kind of nice. They really thought I should go down and try to get a job at some of the restaurant/bars down in Newport. Interesting thought...

Keith solo at Yorba Linda -- 03May2008

Pretty standard, quiet night. Polite applause most of the time, and a few people tuned in some of the time. Got some requests from the Asian study girls who seemed to be having fun.

Great sound, though. I love it when it's quiet and I can really hear myself.

K&W at Java Joes, full gig -- 01May2008

Encouraging. When we got there, there were already two groups of four people who had apparently turned out specifically to see either "us", or "whatever band Chuck's got tonight" -- probably the latter. There were a few other scattered people, but they were clearly there for the coffee, not the band.

It started off kinda slow, they were chatting amongst themselves, of course, but after a while they seemed to realize that "these guys are pretty good", and started asking for some tunes off the list. Having gotten good results from that, they got up and put some money in the tip bucket. As time went on, and their wine bottles got emptier, they asked for more and more songs, got more and more friendly, and then started going "off list", asking for random songs that they thought I might be able to do. Some of those were ridiculous, but some of them were tangent to songs that I did have (like an alternative Bob Dylan song).

But even the ridiculous requests indicated that we were getting to be pals, and somewhere along the line another lady showed up who was partying with one of the groups. They had apparently fallen into a discussion about their first records, and the new (blonde) lady, who was feeling pretty happy, said that her first record was "Red Rubber Ball", which everyone else found very very funny. Chuck, the owner, shouted out, "Hey Keith, do you know 'Red Rubber Ball'?" As it turns out, I *do* know it -- I learned it years ago as a classic pop song, and it's still in the book under "Kids Songs", although it's not on the list. So I played it, which brought on uproarious laughter, and another round of throwing money in the tip bucket.

I found out later that the blonde lady is Chuck's wife. That's why she knows everybody, and feels comfortable getting pretty deep into the wine, and laughing louder than anyone else. Coming through with "Red Rubber Ball" for one of the guests was a pretty good move, but coming through with it for the owner's wife was an even better one.

Anyway, we played *way* past the scheduled closing time, but everybody was having fun, including us, and the owner, so on we went. When we finally quit at 10:30 or so, there was $54 in the bucket. From about 9 people. Not bad. I can't wait to play a fuller room there.

K&W at Java Joe's Open Mic -- 29April2008

Quite a bit better this time, I think, than the last few. The monitor sound was way better, eventually. The sound guy, Scott, was trying to figure out how to make my mic louder, and to patch it through to the monitor speaker during the first half of the first song. This was screwing me up something awful, but once he settled on something, I could at least hear what was going on.

We played "Copperline" first. I wasn't sure how it would go over, because, although I play it pretty well, it's not well known. But this is a crowd of mostly "music people" and I could see that a lot of them knew it, and hopefully appreciated the novelty of an amateur attempting it.

Then we did "Crying". I like to show off my vocal chops in one of our three-only songs, but it clearly loses something in this "party atmosphere". I did see some people listening intently, though, so I think we got to some of them.

Last, we did "You Were On My Mind", at a bit faster clip than usual. This went over very well, I thought -- suits the room on a Tuesday night. I looked up to see Patrick and Jean, some new friends, dancing away, and apparently singing along, all the way at the back of the room. That was encouraging both because it meant that the song was working, but also let me know that the sound was getting out there. That part's hard to tell with this setup.

Anyway, I think we impressed some folks. I had made up some "posters" that Chuck will put up around the store, and some little quarter-sheets that people can take home to remind them that we're there for a full gig on Thursday night. I guess we'll see if any of them were impressed enough to actually come by.

(The picture is actually snagged from a video that new-friend Mark took last week. But I imagine we looked about the same last night...)

Keith at South Coast Plaza -- 28April2008

Another quietly appreciative audience. Got plenty of requests, though -- the first one from a friendly girl at the back named Michelle, who asked for, of course, "Michelle". A guy down front marked up a song list, choosing several James Taylor songs, which suits me fine.

Also, the lady that's hiring me to play her art show was there, and her boyfriend brought up a list with a dozen songs on it. She was there to listen to my set and she'd brought a highlighter to indicate songs that she likes. By the end of the night, she'd pretty much colored the whole sheet yellow. She discovered that she basically likes all my songs, so I guess I'll have to ask her if there were any that she *didn't* like, so I can avoid them.

She was there the whole night, and used the time to stuff invitations into envelopes. It's not invitation-only, but she was sending out "notices" to everybody she knows. Turns out, she's not "running" the show, like I thought, she's the artist. The shop is a mosaic store, but she does "contemporary florals". There was a sample on the invitation, and it looks like "toile painting" to me, but, whatever. She says that there'll be mosaic art, and several of her canvasses, both. Should be interesting, because the "shop" is a converted old house in Long Beach, and she didn't even really know where she was gonna put me, yet. We'll see.

I looked around the store when I got there, and didn't see the "no tip jar" manager, so I put the jar out, just sitting by itself on a stool. I didn't put the CDs out because I forgot to make some more and there are only a few left. So, since the little sign refers to buying CDs, and uses the CD stand as its stand, there was no sign at all for the jar. Still, I made $21, which is pretty good. There were quite a few people appreciative enough to walk up and stuff some money in, even though there was very little clapping.

There are a few "regulars" there that I'm starting to recognize. One nice old lady painstakingly walked up and asked me "Where's your partner?" in her Jersey accent, as if I'd had him bumped off or something. I assured her that he was doing just fine, but was home with his wife this time.

K&W at Java Joe's Open Mic -- 22April2008

We didn't have an upcoming gig to plug, but these open mics are so much fun we decided to just go out and play anyway. It's too bad the sound is so bad that it's nearly impossible to play.

We played "South of the Border" first, then "I Only Have Eyes For You", and then "Bus Stop". New buddy Mark Hermann had a video camera set up and has posted videos of all three songs (among others), here.

I didn't realize it at the time, but my voice is kinda wobbly at first -- I guess I was more nervous than I thought.

Anyway, it's always fun, even if it's scary (*especially* if it's scary?), and we made more contact with "the crowd" up there.

Keith plays for the Indian Princesses -- 19April2008

The Indian Princess Nation that I was in for 10 years as my girls went through the program asked me to come back and play a "concert" for them as their Saturday Night Campfire program. I've been "gone" for a year, so there were a few new dads and daughters, but most of them know me, have my CD and know all my songs, and are my biggest fans.

As soon as I got ready to play, they were already shouting "Waltzing With Bears!", so, although I had planned to save it for the end, I went ahead with that. The kids all jumped up on the benches, put their hands in the air and swayed back and forth, and held up their lit-up cell phones. Several of the dads said that it was like a Springsteen concert.

I ran through all my "hits": "...Bears", "Lollipop Tree", "Marvelous Toy", "Love Potion #9", "Last Unicorn", "You Got a Friend In Me", etc. Also, of course, my sing-along "I'm an Indian Princess" song with the cue-cards, and my Princess-themed "Three Mile Hike" to the tune of "Gilligan's Island".

I also did "Teddy Bear's Picnic" which is new (to them, 'cuz it isn't on the CD), and "Octopus's Garden" (which really just doesn't go over, somehow). I'd also learned a new song, "You Can't Be a Pirate", which is pretty funny and went over really well. I had set up my video camera on a tripod and just hit "record" to capture the whole thing, so I clipped out that song and posted the video so the kids (and you) can go see it. Click here.

The only downside was that the stage is a nice concrete platform with a fire-ring built into it at one end. That's cool, but they put the fire-ring on the upwind side (the campground is only a mile from the beach, the wind always blows one way). I was smothered in smoke half the time, which was affecting my voice. I had some real trouble on the high notes of "House at Pooh Corner", but I don't think the kids noticed. You can see the clouds of smoke blowing by me on the video and in the picture above.

I had been "assigned" to make a pitch for the older-girls (Trailmates) program that we're in now, so in the middle of the show I had all the near-graduation Princesses come down to the stage and get in a huddle for a "secret message". I told them about the program in a stage-whisper, sent them back to their seats, and then "realized" that my head-mic was on the whole time! Not so secret after all. (Of course, the intention was that the dads get the info, too.)

After the traditional final song of my new-lyrics version of "Goodnight Irene", I had some CDs ready for the girls that didn't have one already, and I had brought a Sharpie to autograph them. I had a crowd of girls around me, waiting their turn for an autographed CD. That was pretty fun, too. After a while, a guy in the crowd said "Can you get a CD if you're not in the group?" He'd come down from Ventura just to camp there, had heard the music, and come up to listen with his kids -- and now he wanted to buy a CD. Flattering.

Anyway, it was a terrific time for me, since they're the best audience I'm ever bound to have. Not to mention that kids are twice as demonstrative than adults, and they all know my stuff already, so they're ultra enthusiastic. After the show, I walked around all the campfires just to talk with old friends, and the dads were appreciative, too. With any luck, they'll ask me out again sometime.

Another paying gig!

Back in March, I played a solo gig at Costa Mesa that I thought had gone pretty poorly. I played well, but nobody seemed to care. But then at the end as I was collecting the song sheets, a lady asked me if I "played events". I've been telling myself to quit waffling on this point when asked, and just say "yes" -- so I just said "yes". She said that she had an art show coming up and might want to hire me. It seemed to me like she was needing to consult with someone else, or maybe was just gonna recommend me to someone else, so I just gave her a card, a song sheet, and a CD, and told her to email me if it came together. I didn't really expect anything to come of it.

But 6 weeks later, I get an email, and it's On, if I'm available May 18th, and what's my fee for 3 hours of playing? Surprise! Somehow, $250 seemed like a good number to ask for, so I did, and she went for it!

It's at an art "store" in Long Beach, in an old bungalow house in a little district that's becoming an art/craft/design center. The store actually does mosaic -- designs, installations, and lessons. So I guess it'll be a mosaic show, but whatever. She thinks there'll be 300 people coming through. Should be fun, and real money!

I feel a little weird about doing it without "inviting" Warren, but, like the wedding gig, she happened to "audition" me when I was solo, so that sound and band-size is obviously what she's expecting to hire. When the wedding-lady took me off-guard at Tustin, I stammered through offering a two-man band as even better, but she said that she liked what she'd been hearing just fine. She may also have been wary of what the cost might be if there are two guys instead of one.

Anyway, I had really thought that we'd get lots of offers to play "events" from people who hear us at a coffeeshop somewhere, but it hasn't happened much. But suddenly, two paying gigs in two months. I'm pretty sure I'm getting better, but I'm not *that* much better than I was a year ago, so it's probably just coincidence.

K&W at the Santa Ana Zoo -- 12April2008

Well, *that* didn't go as well as we'd planned. Started off poorly when I got there at 10:30 to find that the portable stage and amplifier that were supposed to be there at 10:00 were nowhere to be seen. So I sat around for 45 minutes, waiting for the stuff so I could start my own set up, and our 11:00 publicized start time was more like 11:45. Old friends Bill and Mary Jane were there on-time at 11, so they sat around waiting. My parents were clever enough to show up late, so they were there just before we started.

I gave my video camera to my dad, and he got a couple of songs, but he wasn't feeling well so they had to go home early. Not that they missed anything -- I was totally "off my game". I don't think I've played that badly in years. Partly, I was tired since we'd played a gig just the night before. I also just felt burned out, somehow. Of course, the new situation was distracting, it was hot and windy, and I always screw up when there are movie cameras around. I could go on making excuses, but, bottom line, I sucked.

My brother showed up a little after my parents left, and took over with my video camera, and Warren got a few songs with his little camera too, but again, garbage in, garbage out. Even the songs with no big mistakes in them are lackadaisical and dull.

Oh well. We'll try again, but without a gig the night before, and see if I can pull out of the dive. Warren, apparently, was playing as well as ever, although even though he could hear himself OK, the cameras couldn't. He must have been getting into it though, 'cuz he broke a string, first time ever, and had to do half the gig with 5.