New Songs

To keep the gigs interesting (to me at least, if not to the audiences), I'm constantly learning new songs. In the last few weeks, I've added Hal Ketchum's "Past the Point of Rescue" -- a great, if not well known, up-tempo tune to the book, though not The List, yet. I've also been working on James Taylor's "Country Road" (for what, 30 years?), and may have finally cracked the amazing right-hand technique he uses to get "that sound". It's (apparently) a variation on Travis picking that I'd never thought of: pick with two fingers at the same time, but still within the pattern. Seems stupifyingly obvious now, but it eluded me for a long, long time. I wonder what other songs it might come in handy for...

After several requests from my buddy Dave, and its coincident appearance on the new James Taylor CD, I've learned "Wichita Lineman". As stolen from James' version (but transposed down a bit), it's got one of the most amazing chord progressions of any song I've ever learned. It doesn't really sound like anything magical is going on back behind that melody, but there is. That Jimmy Webb could really write 'em. I mean to make Dave come up and sing it, next time he comes out, but until then I guess I'll have to do it myself.

About 6 weeks ago, we went to the Golden Horseshoe in Disneyland and saw their comedy-hick act, "Billy Hill and the Hillbillies". They're masterful musicians, of course, beneath the hick routine, and they did a terrific bluegrass version of "The Letter", by The Boxtops. I went home and built a version for myself, not so hick, but not quite rock, either. I kind of like it, and having another up-tempo tune doesn't hurt.

Lately, I've noticed a really good reaction whenever I do Beatles songs. The older folks love it, of course, but there's a whole new generation of kids that are into the Beatles, too. I get good reactions from older teens and 20-somethings (possibly due to the recent Beatles-music movie "Across the Universe"), and a surprisingly lot of recognition from 10 to 13-year-olds, too.

We have several Beatle songs already, and I worked up and have been closing with "Golden Slumbers" for the last couple of months, which seems to really "work" -- at least I love playing/singing it. So I've been trying to add even more Beatles, starting with my new slightly soft version of "Hey, Jude", which I was reticent to try because the original is so deeply ingrained. But, it seems to work OK with people, and it's fun to kind of imitate the style of Paul's piano playing on the guitar. And occasionally I can even see people singing along with the "Na, Na" part at the end. I also recently worked up an acoustic version of "I Should Have Known Better", which seems strangely OK even without the prominent harmonica breaks in the original. Haven't tried it out in public yet, but I intend to this weekend.

I've worked up "Dear Prudence", and when I say "worked", I mean it. It's a finger-buster. But it's Acacia's favorite Beatles song, so I thought I ought to know it. Problem is, it's actually pretty repetitive and boring, without all the extra magic that the Beatles pour on top in the recording -- instrumentation changes, lots of vocal harmony -- all stuff I can't really bring to it. So it may have to fall out, sadly. Luckily, Daleen and Acacia showed up at my last gig, and I pulled it out (with limited guitar success), so at least Acacia got to hear me do it once.

But I've decided to go ahead and add "Blackbird" to the list. I've been able to play it for years -- the incredible guitar part is a kind of Holy Grail of guitar players -- but singing along while playing it makes it even more of a challenge. But, it's nothing a few jillion hours of practicing can't fix, and I think I've got it down. People ask for it sometimes, and who am I to deny being able to play it? And when I have, it's been a pretty good crowd-pleaser, so I'll just have to keep it practiced-up. The only real issue is that it's un-transpose-able, because of the magic guitar part, and that "Into the light..." line is way too high for me. I'm just kind of shooting at it, though, and something comes out that's over with before it gets too embarrassing.

All this last week, I've been playing nothing but Paul Simon's "Graceland", after being inspired to try it out by Alison Kraus' sweet and slow(er) version as seen on TV (though I'm not able to keep it as slow as she managed to -- nor do I especially want/need to). I'm not sure how audiences will react to it, though -- it's a big favorite if you're into Paul Simon at all, but I'm not sure how much of the general public has heard it. We'll see.

Trailmates at Yucaipa Regional Park

We haven't been camping with the Princesses/Trailmates in quite a while, so this was pretty fun. Oddly, in my 11 years in the program, we've never been to this particular campground. It's very civilized. In fact, too civilized -- the only way to get the girls off of their cell phones is to take them somewhere that there's no signal, but this place is really a "city park", so we had plenty of signal there. Oh, well -- taking their phones away is tantamount to torture.

We drove out on Friday at 3:30, so it took 2 hours to get out through Riverside and all. Sunday morning, we got home in only 1 hour. There were only 18 families there and there weren't a lot of planned activities, which is fine with me. And since Geneva's hurt foot is in one of those big plastic boots, she wasn't going anywhere far, either.

But I had her bring her violin, and we ran through some of her fiddle tunes in the afternoon. That was big fun, but she's all paranoid about bothering people with mistakes and/or playing the same song more than once or twice. But I think that every single dad told me at some point how cool that was, and how great she plays.

On Saturday evening, we had our traditional campfire, with skits and such. Three little girls had written a song about "My Dad" (something like: "Dads are stinky, Dads are gross, but my dad is pretty cool -- My dad, my dad, my dad *rocks*!" (Talk about playing to the crowd!)), to a set of two chords that one of them could remember from her guitar lessons. When it came time to do it, I offered to let her play it on my electric guitar, which went over pretty big -- with her, and her dad.

It started to sprinkle Sunday morning during breakfast, which got steadily stronger as we tore down the camp in record time. We all got into our cars just as it really started coming down, and we drove on home. I usually like to hang out as long as possible on Sundays, just to get my money's/hassle's worth, but with the rain we were home by 10:30, and that's OK too.

We're camping again (at the beach!) in 5 weeks, and then we might go on the Colorado River canoeing trip three weeks after that, depending on how I'm feeling about all this by then. The "front door" zipper on the tent that I bought 10 years ago is pretty well shot, but I'm figuring if I can just limp through these last two campouts, I might be out of the camping business entirely. I'm not sure how active we'll be next year -- we'll see.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 14March2009

Not a whole lot more people than last weekend, but much more fun for me, somehow. I was singing inexplicably well (and high!), so maybe that made the difference.

Right at first there was a guy and his wife, waiting for me to start. He immediately started requesting songs, and they were all the really old ones -- "standards". "The Way You Look Tonight", "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "I Only Have Eyes For You", etc. Turned out he was a player himself, and was basically scoping out the competition, or sniffing up repertoire ideas. He wasn't really being sneaky though -- he declared himself and gave me his card as he was leaving. I guess he plays for money, and we're not really competitors at all, since I won't get his gigs, and he wouldn't play mine.

Later on, a mom, a dad, and 5 or 6 twelve-year-old girls came by to eat their pizza. That was fun for a while, 'cuz these are My Peeps, but they had to get to their movie. Then I had a group of 5 or 6 Chinese college kids, who mostly ignored me until I did a Beatle song, which perked them right up. About the same time, a family with a cute 13-year-old red-headed girl arrived, and she was a big Beatle fan, too -- I could see her singing along. I sung up what I had, including my new "If I Fell", and the unlisted but in the book, "Yesterday", and "Hey, Jude".

About then Daleen and Acacia arrived (with Duffy and Anabelle), so I tried out "Dear Prudence", which I know is one of Acacia's favorites. I've been learning the finger-busting guitar part all week, and it's not really ready for prime time yet, but it was such an opportunity that I had to take it. Virtually all the other Beatle songs I do, I've had to transpose down a fourth or so, but this one is so tied into the guitar part that that's not really possible. I've just been singing it down an octave while I'm learning it, but it was a bit of a shock to see just how low that really is when sung "out loud". Probably it's just not do-able, 'cuz of that, unless I just throw away "the sound" of the original and do something very different, so I can get away with not playing in the original key. We'll see.

But it was remarkable how The Beatles (and *only* The Beatles) songs cut across time and space. I pick up people from around here, but also Japan, China, Persia, and everywhere else, and also 50-somethings, but down to 10-somethings, too. This is far from the first time that Beatle songs have sparked some audience connection, and I'm definitely gonna have to learn some more, and move some of the ones that I don't play much up into hard rotation.

To start with, "Yesterday", which I learned a long time ago, but kind of feel like it's Too Done, not to mention Too Cheesy. But it always goes over well when I do it, so it's gotta go on The List. And I've known how to play "Blackbird" on the guitar for ages, and though it's hard to sing and play simultaneously, I've licked that in recent years. When someone (who's not looking at The List) asks for it, it gets a big reaction, so it's gotta get moved up too. Problem is, I don't think there's anything Warren can do while I'm playing it, and I already feel bad every time I play "Scarborough Fair" and he has to put his guitar down and leave the stage. But even the Beatles knew there was nothing that could/should be added to the crazy-cool guitar part Paul came up with for "Blackbird", so I don't think Warren can/should overlay anything on it, either. Maybe it's just a solo-gig tune.

There was also a group of college dudes who were hanging out, and occasionally whooping at the end of a song, but generally not paying much attention. But when they got up to leave, they came over and were wanting to buy some CDs! I had recently decided to amend my "Whatever you want to put in the jar" answer to the "What do the CDs cost?" question, by adding "... most people put in a 5 or 10." (People who read the sign can comfortably get away with just a buck, but the penalty for not reading the sign and asking is guilt if you think a buck is enough.) Anyway, they bought 2 or maybe 3 CDs, and are probably the guys who stuck 4 fives, folded together, in there. Wow.

I had brought the electric along, and had it out, and was in fact staring right at the yellow-fur insides of its case all night, sitting out in front of me as people threw money into it. But I plumb forgot to actually fire it up. Oh well, it's a cool stage decoration, I guess.

And I brought my new camera out, too. I got one similar to Warren's because it (a) has better quality audio and video, and (b) takes a big-enough RAM card to record a whole evening without intervention. With the small cards I have now, I only got an hour's worth, but it's a start. The videos are way bigger and clearer, with great sound (even though it was right in front of the amp, and I'd expected it to be blown out. I'm pretty pleased. I set it up over to the side, so people wouldn't steal or trip on it, but unfortunately since I'm my own cameraman, it was exactly where the head of the guitar is in front of my face half the time. Doh! But I brought it out precisely to start making the mistakes you have to make before you figure something out, and now I know that one... I clipped out and posted 4 songs up on YouTube, if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/y7alanzo

And I made 64 bucks in tips. Very good for another cold, sparsely-attended night. We went to Costco the next day, and I was dying to spend some of it on something, but I couldn't find anything that I wanted. I said so to Daleen, and she said, "You can just consider it a partial payment on that camera." And I guess she's right, but she's no fun...

Guitar Discovery

I've been fingerpicking (aka "Travis picking") for so long that I can't even remember how to strum. Typically, there's a pattern of eighth notes that you pick with your thumb and three fingers. Most of the time, it's one note at a time, with occasional exceptions where the thumb and one of the fingers play at once, in a "pinch" motion. This makes an intricate, pretty, refined, musical stream -- think of "Scarborough Fair", "The Boxer", or (my latest song/obsession) "Dear Prudence".

James Taylor also fingerpicks nearly everything he plays, including "Country Road". I've been trying to work that one up for a while, but I couldn't get it to sound right -- "big" enough -- unless I went to some kind of hybrid thumb-picking but fingers-strumming, right-hand method. It's big enough that way, but it's not the way he's doing it, and leaves the finesse behind.

Yesterday, I was poking at it again, and somehow started fingerpicking it, but I was (accidentally?) using two fingers at a time, inside the pattern. Eureka! My "training" has disallowed picking more than one finger at a time, so I've never done it. It'd be like signing your name with the pen held between the wrong two fingers -- you *could* do it, but you never *would*.

But, bam, it sounds a lot more like what James is doing, and solves that mystery. I feel like an idiot that I never thought of/discovered it before.

"We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere... and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys."

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 07Mar2009

Well, I dunno -- that was a weird one. It was just so extremely *variable*.

Before I was even set up yet (I got there too early, and was waiting for the previous guy to clear the stage), this sweet little apple-doll of an HR lady from work and her husband showed up. They were gonna listen to me for a while, and then go see "Watchmen". She seemed to really like my stuff, but wanted me to play something "peppier", and when I did, they got up -- and danced. To that one, and two or three subsequent songs. That doesn't happen very often (or at all, before?). There was basically nobody else around, and after they left, that's how it was for most of the rest of the night. Admittedly, it was darn cold.

We did get the customary roving bands of teenagers, many of whom are tempted, if usually not quite bold enough, to harass us for the crime of being old. Sometimes they come around -- after the obligatory "comic" requests for shred metal or punk bands, followed by the oh-so-ironic requests for "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and "Rubber Duckie" -- to actually asking for some classic tune that they like: "Let it Be" or something.

But my voice was sometimes fine, and sometimes just trashed, and then OK again. Never seen it like that before. My playing was good, whenever my fingers were warm enough to play. We started out with no heater, but the maintenance guys finally showed up with one. It worked for about 10 minutes, and went out. There was nothing much we could do about that, but a nice lady in the audience (at that point, she and her husband *were* the audience) went inside the Food Court and somehow found a way to get the guys to come back out with a new propane tank. Wow -- that was beyond the call of duty.

One odd thing -- a lady asked Warren how much the CDs were (as they do since he's close to the CD table), and he told her "Whatever you want to put in the jar", and she ended up putting a twenty in there, and taking 3 CDs -- 2 "Live" and 1 "Bears". First time I've seen anyone decide they needed multiple copies.

Anyway, overall, it was pretty good, and pretty bad, in turns. I think maybe I was just tired.

Keith at Borders Mission Viejo -- 28Feb2009

Quite nice. Warren couldn't make it, so I was solo, in complete contrast to the gig the night before with both Warren and Bobby. Smaller, quieter, indoors. Warm.

Lots of friendly people, off and on, through the evening. Starting out with Daleen's new next-block-over dog-walking friend and her husband (and later on, Daleen herself). They apparently don't get out much, and she was grinning like a schoolgirl the whole night, asking for songs, and taking pictures.

Towards the end, a little girl (about 10) showed up (with two boys and a dad), who plopped down in the table right next to me, and joined right in singing "If I Fell". She was apparently a big Beatles fan, so I ended up doing several Beatle songs for her/them: "All My Lovin'", "Octopus's Garden", etc., and my new "Hey Jude" (which I'm deciding does work better capoed up 2). She sang along quietly on most of them -- that was fun.

I was singing pretty well, and feeling a lot more in control than the night before, and had a pretty widespread, if low key, response most of the night. But I guess they liked me more than they were showing, 'cuz there was $25 in the tip jar, which is pretty good from so small a group.

K&W with Bobby at Spectrum -- 27Feb2009

OK, that was a blast. My old buddy Bob Knight came out from Minnesota for the week, so I quickly set up a Spectrum date so he could "sit in". It was an unfortunately cold Friday night, so almost nobody was there -- except for the friends who made our night (heck, month!) by showing up anyway. And there were lots of 'em -- our families, my parents' best friends from the old days (who've known me since I was "a musical proverbial knee-high"), people from high school, college, Toshiba old days, and Indian Princesses -- too many to list! We had 20 or so friends, and only 4 or 6 "other people". But that was cool, too -- it was practically a Private Concert!

Back in the 70's I was just a beginner on guitar, so I wound up on (borrowed) bass behind Bob, or Bob & Jim, who both played amazing guitar and sang. I was too shy to sing in those days, and singing while playing bass is nearly impossible for me anyway. I eventually bought my own bass, which I still have and Bobby played on Friday. But it's been 30+ years and I've learned a few things on guitar and gotten a bit braver, and in the meantime Bobby's been off in Minnesota becoming a bass-playing monster, so this time it was reversed -- I played and sang with Bobby adding a bass line and harmony vocals, all right off the top of his head; we didn't have time to rehearse anything.

And it was amazing! First off, just having a bass there adds incredible depth, if that's not stating the obvious. And I've been yearning for vocal harmony in the act for years. I've had to stay away from songs that need harmony or they lose their essential character, but I still have lots that can certainly benefit from some. And they did. In spades.

I did a bunch of my normal songs, but I also added several that I've tried before but couldn't make work. I thought that with Bob added to 'em, they might fly better. And they did. So that was fun. Bobby was apparently surprised by some of the weirder selections I pulled out -- songs that maybe don't seem do-able, but that I've worked up some crazy arrangement of anyway.

I also re-worked up an "in-joke" (too long a story to go into here) song, "Hey Mister, That's Me Up On the Jukebox", just for the irony of doing it again with the reversed roles. Except I guess I sang it both times. Let's just say that I do it without a capo these days.

Anyway, it all went by way too fast. I really should have gone through and planned which songs to get to, rather than just flipping through the book and finding one. I guess I wasn't sure what was gonna work and what wasn't until I was there to hear how it was going. We'll just have to do it again sometime to get to those other couple dozen songs.

I set up my little camera to take video, but didn't get very much of the show, not to mention the difficulty of taking pictures under so much backlighting. But there are 7 songs to choose from. They're a little rough (Bobby was playing bass and singing with no rehearsal, and the mix was completely different than what I'm used to (with the really loud (from where I was) bass), so I was over-singing, etc., etc.), but really fun -- http://www.youtube.com/y7alanzo

Bobby, come back to California! All is forgiven!

K&W at Borders SCP -- 20Feb2009

Not a lot of people, but several who were tuned in, and that's all we ask. We had one couple who we've seen there several times before, and who were waiting in the comfy chairs when we got there. They apparently deliberately seek us out. And there was another elderly couple who were really into our stuff, and stayed most of the night. Later on, a young family with a cute little toddler listened for a while, even with having to intercept the baby every few minutes when she'd break free and beeline toward my tuner or music stand. And a nice college girl snapped a few pictures with her nice camera, and sent them to me. (Click them for bigger versions.)

I got to trot out several new songs I've been working on. I've been working on Hal Ketchum's "Past the Point of Rescue" for several years, and it's not hard to play, but it's got some high notes that I'm stretching for. With as much as I've been singing, though, my voice is more limber and I can hit 'em, mostly anyway. I've also been playing "The Letter", and tried it last week on the electric, but, as predicted, it works much better on the acoustic. I also assembled the nerve to play "Hey Jude", which I've been playing for myself for a few weeks, but thought it was too silly, and/or firmly entrenched with Paul's iconic rendition to "cover". My version is a bit "lighter", and fun to play with my imitation-piano strumming pattern. It actually seemed to work pretty well, though. Unfortunately, it turned out to be lower in range than it seems when I sing it to myself, but I can capo up a few and it'll be OK.

This was our first time at South Coast Plaza since I've had the new pickup in my guitar. For some reason, the room has the best acoustics of anywhere we play (or have *ever* played), and my guitar sounded *terrific*. Impossible to describe, but just way "fuller" than before. Nice.

The funny part was that Dave was there. He hasn't come out to see me in about 3 years, but old-buddy Bobby is coming out and gonna sit in for a gig next weekend. Dave heard about that, and bam, he's coming. I'm trying not to be insulted by the fact that Dave won't come see me, but he'll drop everything to see Bobby -- but hey, no problem, at least he's coming.

Now Dave calls me several times a week, just to talk, and he usually asks if/where I'll be playing the coming weekend. Not that he's coming -- he's just being sociable. On Thursday he calls, and suddenly apologizes for the appearance of it, that he's committed to coming out to see Bobby, but hasn't come out to see me in so long. He doesn't want it to look like he's only coming out to see Bob -- which is, of course, *exactly* what it looks like, but whatever.

Then on Friday, he calls and we chat for a while, and he asks where I'm playing, like always, but says that he'll try to come out. I'm thinking he's trying to make up for the whole Bobby thing by coming out this weekend (no Bob), and also next (with Bob). Nice effort, at least.

So we're playing for a while, and sure enough, in walks Dave. I'm thinking, "Wow", "Cool"... and "Finally! He really is trying to make it up." So I play some songs I know he likes, and he listens for a while, and takes pictures with his iPhone, and posts one on Facebook, and seems to be having fun. He even brought along a little "field recorder" to capture the night, but its batteries were dead.

But after a while, he holds up his phone and asks, "Hey, you want me to call Bobby?" I'm like, "Why? He's still in Minnesota." He's confused/surprised by this, and I realize that he thought that this was the weekend (and gig) that Bobby was gonna be here. I thought he was trying to make up for the appearance of only wanting to see me if/when Bobby was here, but he was really just (inadvertently) tricked into coming out a week too early. Sorry, Dave.

But, for whatever reason, he was there, and to his credit, he hung out for a long time even after figuring out that Bobby wasn't gonna be there. And I think he had fun. I actually wish (and continuously ask) he'd learn a couple of songs' harmony parts, and come up and sing with me, but he always feels like he has to be playing an instrument, which he doesn't, but he's hung up about it. Someday...

Anyway, it was a great gig. Several, if not lots, of people listening, and Dave there to show off to.

And I guess the final punch line is that Dave can't make it to the gig next Friday, when Bobby really will be there...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 14Feb2009

When I got there, the stage was covered with a big plastic sheet, which was covered with water (though it hadn't really rained for a while). There was no table, and no "stage lights", but there was an umbrella heater -- unlit. I just dragged one of the patio tables over to use for the tip jar, sign, and CDs, but I couldn't seem to get the heater lit. It wasn't *too* cold (yet) at 6:30, so I decided to just go for it without the heater.

I had *lots* of people right at the beginning, including super-friendly Melissa (and friends), who asked for several songs right off the bat to get me started. Then a group of 14-year-old Beatle-fangirls materialized off behind me, and we had a bit of a bidding war, trying to get their respective requests played. Nice to be wanted!

But the dinner rush tapered off, and it was pretty darn cold, not to mention being Valentine's Day. I guess that worked both ways, though -- lots of people stay home, but I did have several couples wandering through. I played a lot of love songs.

Since Warren wasn't there, I brought the electric guitar again, but didn't get to it much. I played it for my new "If I Fell", for which it sounds great. But it sounded awful for "The Letter", which I learned recently after hearing "Billy Hill & the Hillbillies" play it Bluegrass-style at the Golden Horseshoe in Disneyland. I meant to try it again on the acoustic, which I think will work, but never got around to it. It also didn't really work for "Oh Very Young", which I've been working on getting "down" so I can play it more regularly by being able to play it more rightly. It's a tricky devil, and I've been reticent to play it much for fear of messing it up too badly, but now I think I can get through it pretty clean. But it'll have to be on the acoustic.

I play the electric all the time while I'm walking around the block at work, and it sounds OK (to me) on lots of songs, but out "live", through an amp (instead of just headphones), it sounds different, especially in that it rings (way) longer. I do want to figure out a mini-set of songs that work on it, so I can bring in some variety. I'll keep on it.

Anyway, it was pretty empty through the middle section, but I always had at least a few people to play for. I eventually got so cold that my stiff fingers were making me play badly, so I took another swing at the heater's startup controls, and got it working this time. That helped a lot.

Towards the end, I had a 60-something couple from the Middle East who were, inexplicably, huge James Taylor fans. They were really appreciative, and I deliberately held them up from wherever they were clearly trying to get to, by playing more JT songs that they couldn't walk out on.

And then at 9:40 or so I had another couple come in and sit down right up front. I played a few songs, including "Old Man" (by request of a mohawked kid (?)), which the lady apparently really liked. After a few more songs, she asked for "more Neil Young", but "Old Man" is the only one I know. She asked for "After the Gold Rush", which, again, I don't know, but she wanted me to just play it anyway. Um, don't know the chords, and don't know the words. "Play it anyway." So I finally gave up trying to explain that it doesn't work that way, and just played something else, which was apparently OK, 'cuz when I played my last song at 10:00, she wanted me to keep playing. I was reticent, 'cuz usually the maintenance guys come around right at 10 to take down the stuff, but they weren't there, so I played some more. And more. And more. She finally let me quit at 10:20 (with a $5 tip).

It seemed like a higher-than-usual percentage of listeners were tossing something into the jar this time, overall, so I made $63 -- pretty good for a sparsely-attended night. That includes $7 in change, which was surprising -- usually the change is under a buck. Lots of teenagers kind of emptied their pockets as they went by, which was actually quite nice of them. It's the thought that counts.

This could certainly turn into a terrific place to play, when it warms up. Problem is -- when it gets warmer, they're gonna start charging $50 to play there. Puts a pretty big ding in my take.

Duffy, Apparently Cured!

The results came back from the lab, and they're pretty sure they got all of the cancer when they cut out the big tumor from Duffy's neck a couple of weeks ago. The 4-inch long cut up his chest and throat (17 stitches) is healing up really well, and the fur is growing back to cover it up. He's happy and doing just great. He still doesn't want to go crazy-romping through the house with the younger girl dogs, but he's too dignified for that kind of nonsense anyway...

I'm "For Sale" again!

It's time for the annual auction to support the art programs at Geneva's high school, and since it worked out OK last year, we donated "An evening of music" (i.e., me, playing at your party) again. Last year, the minimum bid was $75, and one lady bid on me, and won. I guess the only thing more embarrassing than only getting one bid is not getting any bids.

Oddly though, this year they combined my donation with two others, a 12-pack of Cabernet, and a $100 gift card at an Italian restaurant. They're calling it "Insta-party... just add guests!" The Opening Bid is $150, which may or may not be the minimum ("reserve") winning bid -- experts disagree. If somebody can actually win the prize with a $150 bid, though... Seems like the $100 gift card is worth, say, about $100. And the wine's gotta be worth at least $50. That means that the guitar guy is worth exactly zip. Thrown in for free. Thanks for playing, here's your parting gift.

To illustrate the "item", they captured some pictures from the Keith & Warren webpage (including the partial image of Warren's guitar), and pasted on pictures of some lasagna and a wine bottle. Classy stuff.

It's been "open" for a little over 48 hours now, and they sent an email to everyone they know. So far, no bids. Seems to me like they priced the "package" out of range, and there won't be any bids. Suits me -- playing parties is always kind of weird (last year was a backyard pool party, kind of awkward really). If it doesn't sell at all, it's no loss for me -- I fulfilled my obligation to donate something -- but what are they gonna do with the other stuff?

Duffy Cured?

Probably a year ago, our dog Duffy was diagnosed with nerve sheath cancer, which was showing up as a lump on the front of his neck. He's 10, and the doctor said he had probably a year to live, and that cancer treatments for dogs are just like cancer treatments for people -- just as painful, and just as expensive. We reluctantly decided to just let it go, and not run him (and our budget) through the suffering of trying to postpone the inevitable.

But when Daleen took him in for a checkup two weeks ago, the doctor was surprised to find that the tumor had grown out, and not in like they "always" do. And that meant that we might be able to just cut that thing out of there and be done with it.

Unfortunately, with Duffy it's not that simple, 'cuz he has a doggie equivalent of hemophilia. But they gave him some plasma to kick up his clotting, and cut the tumor out yesterday, and it seems to be pretty OK. When we picked him up yesterday evening, he was good and ready to get out of that scary place, but he seems perky and good. His neck's all shaved, of course, where it's supposed to be his big fluffy ruff, but it'll grow back.

We're not out of the woods yet, 'cuz there's a risk if internal bleeding (especially in Mr. Hemo Dog), so we'll have to keep an eye on him -- and keep the puppy away! But if that snagged all of the cancer, I guess he's "cured". We sure didn't expect *that*!

Borders Mission Viejo -- 24Jan2009

Much more fun than last week, which isn't saying much, but a pretty good night. The audience started out pretty shy, but warmed up as we went along, and towards the end a foursome showed up that were so friendly that Warren assumed they must be friends of mine.

It was the first outing with my new guitar pickup, and it was a little tricky at first, but I think it's gonna work out. There are new controls to mess with, and the issues of the combination of the controls on the pickup versus the ones on the amp to work out. But it sounds quite good -- at least it doesn't have the "quack" of my old under-saddle pickup. It has two ways to boost the bass, which, even when lightly deployed, gets me bass response like I've never had before, and reminds me of James Taylor's sound (which is, obviously, a good thing). And there's an indescribable "clarity" that was both amazing and occasionally threw me off.

I'm sure I'll be able to work out a good set of settings, and get used to the sound. There is some occasional bass feedback that I'm sure I can cut if I re-insert the extra "DI" box, but I was trying to simplify. And another old related problem came back -- because I'm not using the soundhole plug (though I did try it for the last hour), I can hear my guitar, quite well, directly. This leads me to believe that it's louder than it really is from the speakers, so I end up with the guitar too quiet. Warren pointed this out, but I'm not sure how to solve it -- even if I know, intellectually, that I have to turn up more, it's hard to perform when, from my point of view, the vocal is being drowned out by the guitar. We'll have to work on that, somehow.

Daleen and I had dropped by the Irvine Spectrum last Saturday, partially to "check out the competition". The kid that was playing there had a quite big "tip jar" that was really a flower vase -- and it was plenty full. We've had a few (but not enough!) nights where the jelly jar that I use has been jammed full, so it occurred to me that it might be discouraging people from tipping, if they see that we've got "plenty of money" already. We had also gotten advice from old friend Jessica Ching that we should have a "huge tip jar", and she may be right that making the tip jar more visible would make a difference.

So I found a flower vase like the kid's, and tried it at Mission Viejo. Didn't work. We still only made 8 bucks each. And transporting a big glass vase is a hassle. But maybe I'll try it again at the next Spectrum gig (on Valentines day!), and see what happens.

Acacia happened to be hanging out with an Indian Princess friend that night, and her dad brought the girls out to Borders for a while. I only saw Acacia flit by when they got there, and wave bye-bye when they left, but it was nice to have Kevin there, clapping loudly.

There were also two young guys there, looking like shaven-headed "cholo" gangsters, though not quite so tatted up. After listening for a while, the big guy asked for "Love Me Tender" (Huh?!?), and later on, "Dream Lover" (double Huh?!?). His smaller friend was a big James Taylor fan (?!?), and asked for "More James", and then specifically "Going to Carolina" (sic), and sang along with gusto. Like Buck Owens said, "You can't never tell".

I'd recently reconnected via email with old Toshiba friend Jeffrey Friedrichs, who's "back in OC", and said he'd try to come out to see us. But unless he was disguised as a 90-year-old Chinese lady (or a cholo), I guess he couldn't make it.

One disappointment -- I had worked up "Hey, Jude" during the week before, but I was having so much fun at the end that by the time I remembered to check the clock, we were way over so I knocked out "Golden Slumbers" and we were out of there. I'm even more unsure than usual that it'll "work" in person, but I'd wanted to try it out and see how it went over. Next time, I guess.

Adventures in String Changing

After I installed the new pickup in my guitar, I was putting on the new strings. I usually do that sitting on the bed, 'cuz it's easiest to hold the guitar with it standing on the floor between my knees. Anyway, I had 4 strings installed, and the tools and 2 remaining new strings are spread out around me on the bed, when Bonnie and the "puppy" Annabelle (she's now bigger than either of the two adult dogs) come romp/tussling in, as they do constantly, unless they're asleep. They look just like that comic strip "fight" where it's just a spinning dust cloud with hands and legs sticking out of it.

Anyway, they tumble around for a while, and take off again, romping down the hall. I try to get back to work, but when I look for the next string, there's one missing. I look around the bed, next to the bed, under the bed. Spreading the search out -- bathroom, hallway. Turns out it's on the floor in the office, at the plumb other end of the house.

Jeez. Only in my house do you have to hire security just to change your guitar strings...

New Playing Opportunity?

There's a new little wine-bar near our house that reportedly has live music in it. Daleen and I peeked in on Saturday night, and it looked like it might be fun, so I dropped by to talk to the owner last night. I had to wait 20 minutes or so as the owner was putting together an order for an indecisive lady who was hosting a party or reception, and needed lots of hand-holding choosing wine for the party itself and as gifts.

When I finally got to talk to him, he acted like I was on his front porch trying to get him to read a pamphlet about my personal savior, so I'm not really expecting this to go anywhere. He has a standup sidewalk chalk board out front that claims "Live Music Tues thru Sun", but when I asked about that he admitted that he doesn't really have anyone on Tuesday and Wednesday (and maybe Thursday?). I said that I'd prefer to play on either Friday or Saturday nights, and he said that he already has someone on those nights, affirming when I asked that those guys are booked indefinitely. I'm surprised (and dismayed) that people are giving out "every Saturday from now on" (or, in the Food Court, "every Friday in March") commitments. I would never have the temerity to even ask for such a thing...

Anyway, I left him with a CD and a card, and he said he'd listen to it and get back to me -- though it didn't feel like he actually would. I think I'll try to compose a follow-up email to him today with some of the details/qualifications that I was too tongue-tied to relate last night. (I really suck at interviewing.) It seems awfully degrading to have to be begging some guy to allow you to work, for free, at his tiny little place. Part of "The Dues", I guess, though since I'm not expecting to "go" anywhere, I don't know what I'm paying dues *for*.

K&W at South Coast Plaza -- 16Jan2009

Well, after the great night I had last week, this was pretty disappointing. It was really dead the whole night, and the few people who were there were mostly uninterested, and completely quiet.

But, as I've said before, playing to nobody is still better than not playing at all, and I tend to take the opportunity to play new stuff that I'm not entirely sure is gonna work, which is fun. Unfortunately, and oddly, for the fist time since I can remember, no new songs were lodged in my brain forcing me to learn them this week. So I had no completely new songs, but there's always the big stack of kinda-new ones to play with.

We did have an occasional friendly face. Two ladies were looking for a place to settle down with their coffee and snacks, and I happened to be in between songs, so I gave 'em my traditional, "No extra charge for the comfy chairs down front!" line, and dragged them in. They were good about it, and asked for a few tunes, but didn't stay long. And at the end we had a couple of old guys (you know, my age), who really liked our stuff, but it was closing time so they were only there for three or four songs.

Actually, Dave was supposed to come by too, but, of course he didn't. Every once in a while, he asks if I'm playing this weekend, which, since I play almost every weekend, I usually am. Then he acts like he might come out, but he always cops out at the end. I don't know what the problem is, but I also don't know why he bothers to pretend like he'll show up when it never happens. This time, he called me that morning to warn me that he "might not be able to make it", because his wife's uncle was sick. C'mon Dave -- really? You're going with "sick uncle"? You can do better than that.

And he did. At 5:00 he called to tell me that there had been a computer virus outbreak, and he'd have to stay by the phone, just in case. That's much better.

Anyway, we'll assume that the place was empty 'cuz it's a three day weekend, and look forward to next week. I'd hate to have to give up on Borders entirely, but that was hardly worth the effort to drive out there. Especially with the Spectrum Food Court calling my name...

Keith at Spectrum -- 10Jan2009

Wow -- one of the craziest gigs, ever. Started out with a lot of people already there, including lots of kids. I like kids, and am used to dealing with kids, so that was fine with me. There was one little boy, 5 or 6 years old, who was really interested in my stuff, and kept jumping up on the stage to play my guitar (I always hold a chord or two and let kids strum a bit), and running around with his brother and big sister (though they were much more subdued). At first is was kinda cute, and I expected some embarrassed and apologetic mom to appear and gather him up pretty soon, so I was tolerant. But it went on and on, and his mom, finally realizing once or twice, would take him away -- but he'd be back just a few minutes later. Definitely not Parent of the Year.

It became a running joke between me and the audience -- me putting up with the interruptions, and letting him strum the guitar one more time, and trying to keep the songs going while the kid was running around below and behind me, threatening to trip on the wires, and playing with the knobs and switches on the electric guitar which was sitting behind me on a stand (about which, more later). He'd run off and let me do a song while he played in the fountain, then show up again to jump onstage, strum my guitar a few more times, then gone (using my padded guitar case down front as a landing spot), then back during the next song to mess with the electric guitar again. I managed to keep the chords and words together, regardless of what the kid was up to, but it was a challenge.

It really went on a long time, and some of the adults in the audience were starting to wonder if these kids didn't actually have a mom in attendance, but finally, she reappeared and took them all away. I swear she called him "Shaggy", but maybe it was something Persian that sounded like that. He was cute, and not really destructive (he never *actually* tripped on a wire, just came really close, and never *quite* managed to knock the electric guitar off the stand, though that was pretty close too), and he never directly interrupted a song, but, wow, that was tough on the concentration.

Anyway, overall there was probably two or three times more people in attendance than the previous couple of shows -- the much-warmer weather obviously helping. For a while there, every table was full, with some folks sitting on the planter-box benches as well. I've never seen it "sold out" before. There seemed to be waves: families with young kids at first (there for a cheap dinner at the food court itself), then older people and couples (possibly hanging out after a dinner in one of the real restaurants), then finishing out the night with lots of teenagers in roving packs.

Those can be problematical, of course, but I managed to strike a balance of fulfilling the (girls') honest requests, and ignoring the (boys') "funny" ones (they tend to ask for "Puff, the Magic Dragon", etc., thinking that they're being oh-so-clever). But I think the boys started to realize that the old guy wasn't half bad, and stopped trying to start up some fun at my expense. There was a table with three boys at it that weren't part of the big group, and they were genuinely asking for James Taylor songs. And then a Jim Croce song, one of which, by luck, I had just (re)worked up. And I had a sweet little Asian girl nearly swooning over any and all of my Beatles songs. When the pack of 20 or so kids showed up, and the boys started (loudly) dragging chairs over to sit smack-dab in front of me with their "Entertain me, I dare you" attitudes, I thought I was in trouble -- but I managed to turn it around and we all had fun.

Earlier in the week, it occurred to me that, although I can't use my electric guitar when Warren's with me because then the two guitars sound too much alike, I should be able to use it when I'm out solo. So I brought it this time, expecting to have a nice empty plaza to test it out on. But it never did get empty, so I just kept playing the acoustic until the very end, when Geneva and her friends (and Acacia) were there, and I wanted to try it out (and show it off) for at least a song or two.

So I switched over and played my newly-rebuilt ultra-minimalist "Wicked Game", "Come Together", "The Wind Cries Mary", and my now-standard closing song, "Golden Slumbers". They all worked out pretty well, except, oddly enough, "... Mary", which is the most "electric" song of the bunch. I guess, since I'm *not* Hendrix, that it requires a Very Different approach, and doing it on the electric made it Too Close, but, of course, lacking. It needs to sound like a "Hendrix Unplugged" version.

Anyway, there are probably other songs on my list that could be done on the electric, and I think it was successful enough to keep experimenting with it -- especially in outdoor settings. If nothing else, it keeps the challenge (and therefore, interest) level up for me. And it's nice to have *some* kind of variation in The Sound, though the changeover time is prohibitive to do it more than once or twice a night. I guess I'll have to have a little electric "set" in the middle with 4 or 5 songs, then back to the acoustic to finish out.

So -- interesting, crazy, extremely variable, challenging, and very fun, night. I sold one or two CDs, and made $58 in tips -- still not enough to want to hand $50 back to the Spectrum people, but darn good. At one point I looked out and realized that there were several groups of people sitting at the tables, without any food, and with all the people wrapped around the "far side" of the tables so they were all oriented towards *me*. They were listening to me, *on purpose*. I don't often get that impression from more than a few people at once. There's usually one or two people per night that are clearly Listening, and they're what keeps me doing this, but this was 10 or a dozen people, at the same time. Wow.

K&W at Spectrum -- 03Jan2009

Cold, but fun. They brought out an umbrella heater as promised, but it had to stand behind me, so although my back was toasty, my hands kept freezing up. I could warm them between songs, but they'd get cold again before the song was over. You can tell it's pretty cold when your breath turns to fog as you're singing.

But it was still fun. Not a whole lot of people, of course, but enough to play to most of the time, with occasional bursts of quite appreciative folks. And in the empty spaces, I got to play the new songs I've been working up during the vacation.

One of which is "Come Together", which I worked up a few years ago, but it's kind of silly even in the real recording, so I've been to embarrassed to play it. But there was literally nobody there, so I thought I'd do it for fun, and naturally some people show up and plop down to hear it. Turned out to be a couple of twenty-something Beatles fans, and they seemed to think it was pretty cool. So, I played several more Beatle songs for them -- the ones that aren't embarrassing. Perfect timing -- I guess I'm on some kind of Beatle kick lately, 'cuz I've also worked up "Hold Me Tight", "If I Fell", and "The Night Before".

The oldest thing that happened, though, was when this sullen punk-boy strolled up and dropped what turned out to be fifty cents in the jar, and took a CD. Warren commented, "You never know..." as he walked away, but then he stopped about fifteen feet in front of the stage, and threw the CD at the ground as hard as he could, shattering the case and sending plastic pieces everywhere. I guess you really do "never know".

Apparently, he figured be was making a stinging social commentary, but I was already pretty aware that everybody doesn't like the same music that I like, so it didn't bother me much. Actually, I thought that be should have been grateful that we made it so cheap for him to impress his friends with his grand gesture.

Anyway, pretty fun. I hope they keep the Food Court free to play at even later in the year when it gets warmer. They're threatening to charge a $50 set up fee, but we're not really prepared to lose money on the deal, although, with better weather we'd get more people, and would probably cover it. But still. Playing for free is one thing -- paying for the privilege to seems a little usury.

Disneyland -- 02Jan2009

I wanted to go to Disneyland one last time before they de-Christmas it, including the newly-re-opened Small World Holiday. The kids had made other plans, and are, incredibly, burned out on Disneyland, so Daleen and I went without 'em.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a surprise cold snap day, and we froze to death. The crowds were not-too-bad. We did Small World first, and then wandered into the re-done and re-opened (for the zillionth time) Sleeping Beauty's Castle. They've added the floating-in-space video technology that they're using in the new Finding Nemo-ized Submarine ride to have short loops from the movie in the little alcove scenes. Pretty cool -- and I'm still totally mystified about how they do that.

We also went over to California Adventure to see the "What we're up to" exhibit where they're showing off the plans to rebuild big chunks of the park. It's pretty neat, but I'm a little concerned that they've fallen into a habit of adding "Lands" that are purely based around a single movie. They already have "Bug's Life" Land, and they're adding "Cars" Land. They never did that in the old Disney days -- a Land had some kind of generic theme, and featured attractions tied to that theme, whether or not they tied into some sell-able Disney property. There was no "Tom Sawyer" plush as you got off of his island. And no character tie-in for the Flying Saucers or Mission to Mars...

But the character-fication of Disneyland has been intensifying for years now. In the old days, they could build a ride just to be fun -- rides were just rides, not vehicles to sell more branded merchandise. But now, every ride has to have a (or several) character tie-ins.

Anyway, we also went on Daleen's favorite ride, "Soaring Over California", and the new "Toy Story Mania" (more characters!). The lines were kinda long, and it never warmed up much, so we came on home in the afternoon. It was kinda pleasant, without the kids...

Playin' in the Parking Lot

We used to have a "Walking Club" in the company that went for two 20-minute walks a day -- some for losing weight, some for keeping their cardiologists happy (ahem), and some just to get out of the building a bit. At one time there were 10 or 12 of us, but it's dwindled down to, well, just me.

To keep myself occupied, I started bringing my cheap electric guitar with me, plugged into a little battery-powered headphone amp. I can hear it fine but it makes almost no noise externally, so I can walk and play and not bother anybody. And not embarrass myself, except of course for the general embarrassment of walking around the block playing an electric guitar like a crazy person. But I've gotten over that, and the extra playing time every day has noticeably improved my playing. Besides, once you're over 50, who cares anymore? When somebody asks, I make a little joke about needing to get me one of those new-fangled iPods so I don't have to do all the work...

Anyway, just before the company shut down for Christmas, I was walking back through the parking lot, and a car pulled up next to me and stopped. It was the ultra-sweet, gramma-like H.R. lady, and she rolled down the passenger window and said "Play me something!"

I'd had to take the headphones off to hear her talking, so they were already in my hand. I mumbled something about it only plays through the headphones, and before I knew it, I had handed them to her. I'd been running through "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas", so I started it up, more as a demonstration of how it worked than anything, but since I had the key in my head already, I started singing it, even though I couldn't hear the guitar anymore. (I *presume* I was singing in the same key as I was playing in.)

I ran through the first verse, and she said, "That was *wonderful*!", and handed me back the headphones. Then, "Merry Christmas", etc., and off she went. I was like, whoa, what just happened? But I put the headphones back on and finished my walk.

Keith at Santa Claus -- 21Dec2008

I got rained out of my officially booked night playing for the line waiting to see Santa Claus, but I had the notion to ask if maybe the act for Sunday wasn't gonna use up the whole time, so I could fill in the rest. The coordinator lady set me up to play from 5 to 6, in-between sets of some classical violinist and/or his classes. Turned out that he was playing in the conference room inside anyway, so I got to stay the whole night (5 to 8).

It was a blast, too. Most fun I've had in a long time, though it was, again, *freezing*. For the last hour, that wasn't vibrato, that was shivering.

But there was a pretty long line all night long, with families where the kids were just the right age, and the parents were very happy to have a distraction for them while they were waiting to get up to see Santa. Which is exactly why I wanted to play there -- it's perfect for me.

I played "Rudolph" and "Frosty" and "Jingle Bells" a few dozen times each, and the others a few times, and over to the regular kids songs for "Lollipop Tree", "You Got a Friend In Me", "Rubber Duckie", etc. I had kids coming over to "help" -- singing along with "Jingle Bells" mostly, but they'd also sing along on some of them from wherever they were standing in line. They all especially like to do the "Like a light bulb!" stuff along with "Rudolph", and a lot of them were Fa-la-la-ing with gusto when I'd do my country-style fingerpicked "Deck the Halls".

Right off the bat I had a little girl, Katherine, who must have been the daughter of one of the Rec Committee people, who was busily passing out the song lists (which I had far too few of, not anticipating having a helper), and collecting requests and bringing them back to me. She also sang along on "Up On the Housetop" and several others, before she came up with this new "job" for herself. Very cute. I miss having little girls around...

I played "Blue Christmas" a few times, too. It's pretty short -- just 3 verses, and no chorus at all, so I have an instrumental verse in it, which Warren normally fills in. But he wasn't there, so I was just playing through that verse anyway, and surprised myself by turning to Katherine's little brother, Gavin, and, while keeping the chords going (which I didn't think I could do -- singing and playing is easy, *talking* and playing is hard!), asking him if he'd brought a harmonica. He said no, so I said, "Saxophone maybe?", which he also didn't have about his person, so I said "Didja bring your electric guitar then, 'cuz this verse really needs some kind of solo", but no luck there either... and it was time to start the next verse. This went over pretty big with the parents waiting in line. As comedy routines go, it was no "Who's On First", but they seemed to enjoy it.

Anyway, I didn't get a lot of applause, but I could tell that the kids were fascinated, and everybody seemed to be pleased. The Rec Committee workers went on and on about how nice it was, and even Santa called out "Great music there, Singer!" as he was leaving. I had my table with hat and CDs out again, but they were in a kind of awkward place for the parents to notice. Still, I sold 4 Christmas CDs (one to the Mayor!), and one "Waltzing With Bears" CD, and made $40. The Rec Committee Coordinator was hugely grateful that I could and did stay the whole evening, since she was apparently unaware that the first guy she booked wasn't actually going to be playing for the crowd. I'm sure she'll be contacting me for other city events through the year, now. Turns out that with 36 years of practice and perseverance, you *can* build a career out of playing music for free. Oh, wait.

Keith at "Santa Paws" -- 20Dec2008

The lady that coordinates the "talent" for the Mission Viejo Recreation Committee called me up at the last minute to see if I wanted to play for the annual "Get a picture of your dog on Santa's lap" Animal Shelter fundraiser on Saturday afternoon. Heck, I'll play anywhere, so I said yes.

Not a whole lot of people, but a pretty steady stream of nice folks with their dogs, and the ladies who were working the camera and printer and such were appreciative. I was already booked for the next night, and it made a nice preparatory rehearsal and desensitation for me. Lay of the land and all that.

Daleen came down and took some pictures. I'd expected it to be freezing again, which I guess I'm getting paranoid of after the AC fiasco at Borders the night before, so I started off wearing my red sweater and leather jacket. But it was really hot out there in the sun so I ended up playing in my "Lime in the Coconut" T-shirt, which is a cool shirt and all, but I don't normally perform in such casual dress...

I did have a little table with a hat and some CDs, and I somehow made 20 bucks -- quite good for as few people who were there. Must be some kind of Christmas Spirit thing.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 19Dec2008

Quiet, but fun. We played to a lot of dead silence, but it was nice to get a chance to play the Christmas music indoors. Unfortunately, the air conditioner was apparently stuck on full-blast cold, so my hope of playing, after two weeks outdoors, in a warm place were dashed. We were freezing in there!

Anyway, when it's quiet like that, I take the opportunity to play through my newer stuff, including my *finally* workable arrangement of "The Christmas Song" (aka "Chestnuts Roasting..."). I've been trying to find a set of chords that "work" for me, or my style, or my limitations, or something, for 15 or 20 years now, but I finally crunched some pieces of several kinda-working chord sets into one that I can play, and that sounds mostly like the actual song. And it's pretty much in my singing range, too. I set up my iPod to record the night, and you can check it out here.

I came home the other night and the kids were watching "Across the Universe", a movie that kind of chronicles the 60's and 70's, amid a backdrop of all Beatles songs. The main love-interest girl sings "If I Fell", against a very simple guitar part, and without the vocal harmony that's so prominent in the Beatles' version, which they get away with because the harmony line is cleverly carried by the guitar. I thought, "Hey, I can do that -- maybe". So I worked on it, trying to find a key that I can sing it in, and play it in, and also could work the harmony line into the guitar part in. Found one, too. Wanna hear it? It's not a terribly good recording, and I'm not bringing out the harmony very clearly yet, but click here. Either it wasn't as hard to do as it sounded, or I'm getting pretty good at this...

Anyway, overall, a pretty good night. Even Warren, who normally doesn't much care for the Christmas tunes, didn't seem to mind playing 'em, just this once.

I Finally Get To Play for/at Santa

For years, I've been trying to play my Christmas tunes for the lines of families waiting to talk to Santa Claus at the annual display that the city sets up. It's always been down at "Four Corners", and the line wound down a narrow sidewalk, so I brought my little portable amp and stood in the gutter, playing to only a small section of the line. Far from ideal.

And worse, a few years ago when I tried it, a clearly-former-military member of the MV Recreation Committee came over and asked me, "And who are you supposed to be?" I didn't really think I was in disguise, but I tried to explain that I was just trying to entertain the line a little, but he said that they already had music (a boom box with a Christmas record playing, up at the house itself, barely hear-able back where I was), and made it pretty clear that I wasn't welcome. I haven't tried since then.

But this year, they moved Santa's house to the plaza between City Hall and the Library, which is bigger, safer (no traffic), quieter, and nicer. And they put up a stage next to the house for "local performers". Unfortunately, this was a last-minute idea, so the info about how to go about becoming one of those performers was hard to come by.

But we went down for the big to-do on Santa's first night, and there were little-kid dance studios, and a *terrible* local band of high school kids (when we got there, the two guitar players were theoretically playing "Winter Wonderland", but the chords didn't fit the tune, and the girl singer, not being able to tell what was going on, was singing in some random different key. Ouch.), and a poster with the phone number of who to call.

So I did, and got booked for last Wednesday, but the rain came and canceled that. I asked the coordinator if maybe the Sunday act wasn't planning to use the whole time, and she set me up for the violin player's "break from 5-6. That'll be tricky, 'cuz it takes me 20 minutes to set up, and another 20 to tear down, so I don't know how I'll work that.

But then, a while ago, she emailed me asking if I'd like to play on Saturday mid-day, when they have the annual "Dogs on Santa's lap" picture-taking event. I reckon there'll be a line of people waiting for that, same as when it's the kids' turn, so I'm in. Never played for dogs before, but we'll see how it goes!

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 13Dec2008

It was pretty darn cold, and a pretty low turnout, but I had a great time. With the economy and the temperatures so down, there were few people there at all, and the even fewer that were eating at the Food Court were sitting indoors, of course. But, I still had a few small families come by, and they get roped in pretty good when I launch into "Rudolph" and the kids light up.

I had one extended family stop while their 6 and 3-year-old sons watched and danced. The smaller one had downs, and was really into the dancing (with her gramma's encouragement), but instantly broke into crying when the songs stopped. I had to flip through the pages as fast as I could to get another song started. It started to feel like I (and the rest of the family) were puppets to this kid's whims, but he started to understand that there were gaps, but more songs would come, and settled down some. (The family may have partially understood this, and kept adding to the tip jar, again and again.) But they eventually ran me out of danceable kids' Christmas tunes after 6 or 8 of 'em, and wandered off.

I played to empty tables for a while, but dang it, just having all that volume behind you is fun, all by itself, even if nobody's there listening. Sure, I can go home (where it's warm) and play to nobody, but I can't CRANK IT UP! I don't really get that *power* effect at the indoor venues, but out there, it has to be loud to carry any distance, and to compete with that fountain. Of course, there were occasional passers-by and packs of high-school kids out, too. And I knew I had some scheduled visitors a'coming.

My brother came by, as promised, and braved the cold for quite a while. Since there was near-nobody else there, I could talk to him, and played a bunch of Christmas songs, plus all my recent songlist additions for him. He makes a good judge of what's working and not, so it's valuable to me for him to come by.

After he left, a pair of ladies from work (Kristy and Tammy) finally made it, just as I had decided that it wasn't the first, nor the last, time I'd been stood up by pretty girls. I was starting to get a bit cold and stiff-fingered by then (the little heater I'd brought from home had given up at the hour mark, for no apparent reason), but with a real audience, I kept going. Of course, I had to play all my Bestest Tunes for 'em. They stayed a long time, but at 9:00 or so they decided that they really had to find some dinner, and left.

But not before asking me if I'd give them guitar lessons during lunchtime at work. I said that I could give that a try, sure. Might be fun to see if I can teach them something useful. After 20 years or so of guitar playing, I realized that I'd learned a whole bunch of stuff that I don't, or only rarely, need. I think I can filter out what they'll really need to know, and get that much into them pretty quickly. There's *way* more mechanical skill (which you can only get by practice) than there is intellectual facts to know, anyway.

Anyway, I made an astronomical $68, but that's only because my brother threw in a twenty, even though I told him not to, and Kristy did the same thing, even though I told her not to. Discounting them, I guess $28 from the very few people that were there was pretty good.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 6Dec2008

I remember playing/singing at Tully's with a cold, but I've managed to avoid getting one for the last few years -- until now. The sore throat started Monday, and I was hoping to get over it (and I held off canceling), by Saturday night, but no such luck, but I forged ahead with lots of pseudo-ephedrine, couch syrup, and lemonade. I figured I would be able to sing at least for a while, and just quit whenever I fell apart.

I got there kinda late, stalling for the drugs to kick in, but there weren't many people there anyway. In fact, it was by far the smallest crowd we've had there yet, all night -- despite it being a fairly mild night for December. That was kinda bad for me, but bodes even worse for the retail industry...

But there were several friendly happy families out, and I played my Christmas tunes for them, and got some good response. Sold a Kid CD, even. In my delirium, I hadn't even remembered to burn any of my Christmas CDs, but it didn't really seem like anybody would have bought one, anyway. (I'll bring some next week, though.)

Later on, I had some uppity teenagers who vacillated between wanting me to play some songs they'd like, and being Too Cool hecklers. I think I managed to mostly win them over, ultimately, despite not really being in any mood to suffer idiots.

I guess I'm not really sure what the official schedule is -- I think they give us 4-hour blocks, but we've never figured we could/should fill it all. I thought I was supposed to start at 6, but I really started at 6:30, and by 9:30, I was getting pretty raspy, and announced that I was gonna do one more song. I thought I had done pretty well to survive that long, but a friendly college-age kid came bouncing along just as I was announcing that, and was begging for more -- especially Beatles. Well, since my last song *is* Beatles ("Golden Slumbers"), I figured, OK, I'd do a different Beatles song, then that one, so I did "Something" first, then "Golden Slumbers", and by then his friends had shown up, so I did *one* more, "All My Lovin'". It was nice to close with some people still "wanting more", as they say.

And I came home with $46 in tips, plus a free movie pass, tossed in by a kid who said he "didn't have any cash, but here's a movie". Seems like that's about the same (in cash) as last time, but with far fewer people, so, pretty good.

But I'm glad I decided not to bail out, as I was tempted to do. Even to empty tables, I had real fun playing those Christmas songs, though a lot of those are only sellable with a best-as-you-can Bing-it-up vocal. Maybe next week I'll be well enough to do them half-justice. But I also got to try out my new-this-year "Christmas Waltz". I've always liked the Hofstadterian self-reference in the lyrics where it informs you that it itself is in "three-quarter time", but upon learning to play it, I'm also impressed that it's an almost-constant (boringly overused standard) 4-chord loop, all through the song, until almost the end where it throws in one extra chord and a fermata... and finishes out with the lines being one half-loop out of phase to the lyrics. Accident, or genius?

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 22Nov2008

Pretty good. We had a reasonably attentive crowd, featuring several people who we've seen before (and they, us). They *could*, actually, be coming out specially to see us. A boy can dream, can't he?

"Special Guest Star" Melina joined in again, but this was the first time that she's played when Warren was there. It was a little awkward, since she does essentially what Warren does (play little figures and licks over the top of me), but they worked it out quickly. We had meant to try "Ashokan Farewell" again, but somehow I managed to accidentally take my sheet out of the book in my last clean-out (it was about to break the stand!), so that didn't happen.

There was a period late in the evening, the last 45 minutes or so, when we were hitting on all cylinders, and had a lot of people along. That was really great. I also, inexplicably, learned a Jimi Hendrix song, "The Wind Cries Mary", during the week. It's not exactly up my alley, sound-wise, so I didn't think I'd actually try it in public, but it was feeling good, so I went for it. There wasn't a huge response to it, but no tomatoes, either, so maybe I'll keep it in for a few more tries, anyway.

I also tried out my new "Peace Train", which I had worked up for the (canceled) Brea Downtown gig, and which pretty much bombed here. I didn't play it *that* poorly, but I think it needs a more "loose" crowd/location -- and a bookstore ain't it.

New Material

I'm nearly constantly learning new songs, both to spice up the act, and to keep myself learning, and interested. Frequently, a new song idea will present itself from my environment -- I hear a cool old song on the radio, or in a TV show or something. Sometimes someone will request a song that, they're right, I oughtta know.

We've been watching "Life On Mars", which is set in 1973, which is a great music year for me. They introduced a "free spirit" hippie girl character, and she reminded me of "Ruby Tuesday", which I've always loved, and have tried to play before, but could never get to work. I don't know if I'm that much better now, or if I just forgive more lameness in my results than I used to, but I'm really liking "my version" this time.

Also, oddly enough, the results of the recent election brought, unbidden, a great old song to mind, so I've been learning "Peace Train". I've been struggling to learn how to strum, which is just physically tough on my Ovation because it's really a classical, but I've been getting the hang of it on the old electric guitar, and some of that technique is translating over. So I'm getting the skill together to do it, but I would never have been able to play it in public before, 'cuz the message would have been so out of place anytime during the last eight years. But now, I think it may be a song whose time has come -- again. I'll be trying it out on Saturday at Brea Downtown, and we'll see how it goes over.

Tinker Bell and Disneyland -- 26Oct2008

Because we're Annual Pass Holders, we were offered a chance to see a preview of the new Tinker Bell direct-to-DVD, all computer-graphics, movie, in the Mister Lincoln theater on Main Street. It was kinda cool -- we got Tinker Bell stickers, pins, and collectible tickets.

The movie was actually pretty good. Turns out that fairies all have their sorting-hat style chosen role to play: water fairy, flower fairy, ice fairy, etc., and Bell, to her initial dismay, is chosen to be a "tinker", a maker/fixer of things. It's not as glamorous as her friends' jobs, but, of course, her talent saves the day (and the fairy-initiated coming of Spring) in the end, and she (and we) learns to accept that her talent makes her who she is.

It's weird to me that when J. M. Barrie wrote "Peter Pan", he clearly intended "Tinker" to invoke "tinkle", not "repairman", but these guys have (deliberately, no doubt) misinterpreted that notion, and run with this alternate explanation. But, being a "tinker" myself, I'm OK with it.

After the movie they brought out the director and the screenwriter, who told us some stories about finding the voice talent for Bell and her friends -- you'll recall that Bell has never "spoken" before -- and how fun it was to make, etc. And they also told us that this was just the first of four planned movies, one a year, and one for each season.

Then they brought out one of the Disneyland Attraction Planners, who told us that they'd been rebuilding the area between Tomorrowland and the Matterhorn, where Ariel used to sign autographs. Now it's Pixie Hollow, where you "shrink down" as you walk up the walkway, and get to meet Tinker Bell and two of her new friends. It wasn't officially open yet, but they were having sneak peeks, so we went right over from the movie. It took a while to get in, 'cuz everybody else did, too, but we felt like we ought to get the whole experience while we were there.

Obviously, it would have been more fun for the girls five or eight years ago, but it was still pretty cool.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 07Nov2008

A generally pretty good night. I had that (or another?) voice thing again, where I my voice wasn't doing what I was telling it to, and wouldn't go into "head voice" (I think?) so I was singing pretty poorly for the first hour-and-forty-five -- but then it cleared up. Unfortunately, just because it was blocked somehow, doesn't mean it wasn't getting "used", so by the time it got fixed, it was also tired out. I'm frankly starting to worry.

Anyway, once my voice was working, it was pretty fun. There was hardly anyone left at that point, of course, so I just kind of kicked out the jambs and belted the last batch of tunes. It's really fun when I manage to just let go like that -- it only happens if there's somebody listening, or *nobody* listening. I'll have to try to let 'er rip more often -- it's too fun to let it wait until it happens by itself.

For the first half-hour or so, we had several people right up front, listening and asking for songs. That made for a great start, even without a cooperating voice. The settings on the amp had been tweaked for the outdoor event last week, and sounded new and cool here in the quiet of that store. And I had the tip jar out more blatantly than usual, which may have helped sell two CDs, and make us $22 overall, which is pretty good for a store, on a Friday.

I got to try out my pretty-new "Ruby Tuesday" and "Sweet Dreams" again -- still working OK for me. And I had my new iPod set up to record the whole thing, with its little $10 mic, and the result is pretty OK. It's sure a lot easier to set up than a whole notebook like we did a couple dozen times to collect the tracks on the "Live" CD. I thought that "Golden Slumbers", which I learned recently, and am using as a closing number nowadays, came out quite well. Listen to it here. If the link doesn't work, type in: http://tinyurl.com/6y5w4j

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 01Nov2008

My favorite outing at this venue so far. Not a lot of people, but we fairly consistently had at least somebody Actually Listening. It was kind of cold, and had threatened to rain earlier, so the turnout was as you'd expect, but it wasn't really unpleasant up on the stage. And the sound, after some tweaks, wasn't half bad, so I didn't feel like it was just a mess.

Had one guy ask for "Mister Bojangles", which I've looked at several times over the years. Because I keep poking at it, I happened to have a copy of the song sheet in the book, so I was able to do it for him, with only one major screw up where I just forgot how to read English for a line. This actually happens more often than I'd like to admit...

Towards the end, three 15-16 year-old girls came over and plopped down right in front. They were listening pretty well, and having fun with us, but when I started "With a Little Help From My Friends" they lit up, spun their chairs around, and sang along all the way through it (which is a little tough, cuz I do James Taylor's version which is pretty different from the Beatles one). After the song, I asked then if they were in a choir or something, buy they weren't -- just big Beatles fans, apparently. Their parents had arrived, though, and they had to leave, so I did "All My Lovin'" as they walked away.

We've been considering whether to try playing at the other stage, where you have to pay $50. When I counted up the tips and CD money, we'd made $55, which, as a one night take is probably in the top ten, but in light of the decision, was just cruel. I think that we'd probably better wait until the Spring, and then give it a try, but in the cold and with the economic crisis, it would probably be ill-advised to try it now.

The other weird part is that the maintenance guys that came to take down the stage asked why we don't try the other stage, and said that the guy that was there that night wanted to play the Food Court where we were. Huh? Either he thinks the Food Court is still free, or he's thinking that having a semi-captive audience ('cuz they're eating) would be better than the high volume, but too mobile, crowd he'd gotten. Interesting...

Halloween 2008

We had a fun Halloween this year. The first event was the Trailmates party on the night before Halloween. Costumes are required, even for dads, and I'd already worn my "Space Cowboy" outfit last year, so I had to come up with something new. Which was, "Shaun of the Dead", a romantic-comedy zombie movie about a London electronics-store clerk who ends up killing zombies with his cricket bat, that you've either seen, or you haven't. I think that only one dad recognized it, but he was impressed. (The pose at left is straight off the movie poster.)

Geneva was "Susan" from "Desperately Seeking Susan", a character played by Madonna in her 80's heyday. Geneva's new short haircut curled up really nice, and she customized a jacket to exactly match the iconic one in the movie.

Acacia wore Daleen's last-year home-made "Princess" dress, but added a pair of wings to make her a fairy. With make-up -- the best part.

Daleen was working on a new costume, as a schoolmarm, but got it finally finished about 8:30 on Halloween night, so almost nobody got to see it. In fact, she had it on so briefly that I didn't get a picture of her in it.

I took Halloween day off of work (I had accrued too much vacation time anyway), and we went to Geneva's high school at lunchtime to check out the costumes there. Those "artsy" kids really get into it, and have a lot less inhibition than the normal kids. That was pretty crazy. And about a dozen of the kids recognized my Shaun costume, and were totally and noisily thrilled by it. Made my day.

On Halloween night, Geneva went off to a friends' house in Nellie Gail, 'cuz the rich people give out the best candy. Acacia threw a party for 9 of her girl friends, with pumpkin carving, doughnuts-on-a-string "bobbing"-equivalent, and a round of trick-or-treating in the middle. And some vegetarian chili for dinner (Acacia and half of her friends are vegetarians now). Pretty fun, all around.