K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza – 17Sept2010

It's been awhile since I've played with Warren, or at SCP for that matter, so it was a fun change. Unfortunately, my voice is still a little messed up, so I had to do most of the songs with my guitar still down-tuned a half step. This has the effect of changing all my guitar-friendly keys into worst-case-scenario keys for Warren to try to play along in. But he hung in there, and called it all "educational", which I imagine it was. Towards the end, though, I figured I was warmed up enough, and there were few enough people there anyway, that I could go ahead and tune back to normal key and give him a break.

As always, not many people there, and during the second hour nobody was paying much attention, but early on we had an Asian couple sitting right up front, definitely there to hear something. They just stared at me blankly when I'd ask if they had any requests from the list that they appeared to be reading, until finally the lady asked for "Rhythm of the Rain", barely understandably.

She had some odd mannerisms -- all through "The Boxer" she held her hands out and twiddled her fingers as if she were (faking at) playing the piano. And through another song, she alternately banged her fists on each other, to the beat, sending the hit-upon fist around in an 18-inch loop to come back and hit the other, sending it on its own loop. Some weird kind of drill-team move, maybe. But they must have liked us, 'cuz they bought a CD on their way out.

Later on, a college girl came in and joined in pretty well -- singing along (to herself, of course) with several of my songs. Her two friends showed up and they all requested a few tunes before they had to leave.

But, as I feared, the terrific acoustics of the place made it very clear (to me at least) every time my voice missed its mark. Fortunately, there was hardly anyone listening, so I wasn't too embarrassed. I probably *shoulda* been, but I'm too far beyond that anymore.

I did get to play my new "Nature Boy" in a quiet mellow setting. Works much better than last week at Spectrum. I don't know how easy it is to play along with, since it's all vague-rooted spacey jazz chords, but Warren seemed to like it in general.

We made $12 to split, which was pretty good considering how few people were there. Obviously, it's not a very lucrative place to play, but it's good to play someplace where I can actually hear myself, once in a while. As opposed to Spectrum where I'm so drowned out by the fountain noise that even *I* don't know if I'm singly badly or not. I guess it's good to have the camouflage while my voice is trashed, but it's a lot less artistically satisfying if I'm actually doing well.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum – 11Sept2010

Well, school's officially started, and the Food Court is pretty dead. Maybe it'll pick up again after all the excitement's over, but every week for the past 3 has had fewer people than the one before. Note to self: If you're gonna have a trashed voice for a 10-15 week stretch, don't do it in the summer next time. I up and missed the best playin' time…

I was hoping, again, to be able to tune my guitar to concert pitch, maybe after a while warming up at a half-step down, but I never really got the impression that I'd get away with it. But it was pretty comfortable singing down the half-step, so maybe I'm very slowly approaching "fixed".

Never a lot of people, but an occasional friendly group to play for. One 30-something couple sat and listened a long time, and the girl unexpectedly and raucously joined in singing/shouting the chorus "Time After Time". That was odd.

I have a section in The Book of songs that I mostly-know, and are there in case someone asks for them, but not on The List 'cuz they don't seem that popular. I occasionally run through them to remember how to play 'em, which I did on Saturday. That was lucky because out of the blue, a guy asked for "If You Could Read My Mind". If I hadn't run through it earlier in the day, it would have been a disaster.

Anyway, pretty fun, even without much of a crowd to play for, and $44 isn't bad (especially considering how few people were there). Next week is South Coast Plaza, and then I'm out for a while for my vacation, so it'll be a while before I'm back at Spectrum.

"Flyer" at Buster's Beach House -- 05Sept2010

It's been years since I've dragged myself out to see Todd and Nancy play. They have a new third member of the band, Kurt, who, coincidentally, also went to Marina, a year behind me. And the guy is good -- really good.

Anyway, Daleen and I sat and watched anonymously for a couple of songs before Nancy noticed me, and started saying that they'd have to have me up there in a while. I never know if that's "cool", for them to bring up other people, but apparently it is. On that chance, though, I brought my guitar, just in case.

It's strange that, the night before and almost every Saturday, I play for 4 hours and it never even occurs to me to be nervous about it anymore -- but Nancy even suggesting that I come up sent me into a cold sweat. Most of that was undoubtedly just unfamiliar circumstances, but part was also my still-not-fully-working voice, made a bit hoarse by the 4 hours of singing the night before. And the fact that my guitar is tuned down a half-step (so I can reach the "high notes"), and I was worried about Todd trying to play along when I'd be in a really odd key.

Luckily for both of us, he wanted to just go out and listen. I played "You've Got a Friend", quite badly. I was nervous, and my guitar sounded funny and distant through his system, and I'm not used to singing into a fixed mic on a stand (I have a "head mic"), so I was completely thrown. I kept thinking, "Who *is* this?", 'cuz I couldn't recognize my guitar, my distracted and bad playing, or my voice.

I tried to snap out of it and just play, and maybe had it partially together by the ending. I thought it was a total bomb, but I got a *huge* round of applause, surprising me a lot. They (the crowd and Todd) seemed to want me to play another one, so I chose "Leaving On a Jet Plane", because (a) it's really easy, (b) my arrangement is unique, and, I think, pretty cool, and (c) I get to put some spin on the vocal. Todd had reappeared, and I warned him not to try to play along ('cuz of the weird key and guitar arrangement), but to definitely sing harmony, which was really great. Amazing to think that the first time we harmonized together was 39 years ago...

That one went way better, and people seemed impressed. Nancy seemed to want me to do "Sweet Baby James" (so they could both sing harmonies), but two was enough, and we might get to it later on (though we didn't).

Of course, it takes me at least two songs just to get warmed and loosened up, but it's pretty cool to play for people who are actually there to hear music, as opposed to my usual gigs where I'm essentially an interruption. I'll definitely have to go back down there, when my voice is better, and sooner than a couple of years this time.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum – 04Sept2010

It's Labor Day weekend, so I wasn't expecting many people out, but it was the opposite -- lots of people, all evening long. It was pretty hot in the day, but a pleasantly warm night, so people seemed to just stay -- it was the most people I've had still-there all the way to the end, ever.

My voice has gotten noticeably better over the past week (finally!), so I took a chance and brought my guitar back up a half-step, so it's only a half-step down from normal pitch. That helped a lot as far as it, and me, sounding really low, and most of my songs were sing-able there. I even felt like I occasionally had enough "left over" to actually *sing* parts of some of the songs, as opposed to just hitting the notes.

Two sleeve-tattooed, black-T-shirted guys sat down at the very front table even before I got started, and, far from heckling me with requests for Ozzy tunes as one might expect, they asked for classic stuff off my list, very politely. Their first request was "Hotel California", which I've been opening with anyway, so that worked out well. Then "Hey Jude", "Help From My Friends", and a lot of others, until finally the girls that they were apparently waiting for showed up, and off they went. Great way to get started, though.

Lots of nice older people out too, quietly hanging around, though most were too shy to request anything (or, as they invariably insist when called out, "You're doing great -- I love all these songs!"). Some couples sat and listened for an hour or more, I'm sure.

And, especially early on, lots of kids playing in the fountain. That makes it crazy and pretty noisy, but I'm starting to think that I have a symbiotic relationship with the kids -- the fountain brings the families out, and my tunes keep the parents less bored, so the kids get to play longer. Especially on such a warm night -- there were kids still playing in the fountain way past dark, with their parents smiling and nodding at me.

Towards the end, there was a cheerful guy shouting great ("Eagles!") and crazy ("Boz Skaggs!") requests. He audibly liked my rendition of "Old Man", so I took the opportunity to play "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" for someone who'd recognize it. Seemed to go over with him, but not so much with everyone else. Bummer -- I'm really liking playing that one. Then, when it was almost 10:00, I decided to play "Nature Boy", just to get it in, but it just completely flopped. Wrong mood and setting -- it still might work at a Borders. I did *not* get the chance (or the guts?) to play Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You", which I had worked up earlier in the day. It plays really well, but it's a bit out of my wheelhouse. But if I get a pack of tweens out there one of these nights, I'm gonna whip it out and blow their minds. Or not.

Anyway, it was a great night -- basically no "down time" the whole 4 hours. That's never happened before. I'm pretty sure I had more tippers (though less actual money), than last week. More singles, fewer fives, but still $55 ain't bad.

I wish I coulda played later, but I had warned the crowd that I'd have to quit at ten, and they apparently believed me and started clearing out at 5-'til. Actually, I can usually play another 10 or 15 minutes before the Maintenance guys show up, but my left-hand fingertips were really hurting, so, since most of the crowd was gone anyway, I went ahead and shut it down just a little after 10.

I hadn't even noticed the pain in my fingers until 9:45, when I looked at the clock and realized that I only had 15 minutes left. Now I know how Wile E. Coyote feels when he's run out over the ravine and doesn't fall until he looks down.

Keith (finally!) back at Spectrum -- 28Aug2010

It's been 10 weeks since my voice mysteriously quit working right (I'm beginning to suspect foul play), but it's been getting slowly better, despite the help of modern medicine.

When you're young and you hurt your knee, you "walk it out" to get back in the game. As you get older, you reach a point where you do the opposite -- immobilize it. Since the doctors were no help, I've been trying to figure out if I should "work out" my voice (by singing at home a lot and/or playing a gig) or if I should take a vow of silence for a couple of months.

I guess I've decided on the former. Most of the warbling/lack of control is gone now, so the main remaining symptom is loss of the high end of my range. Unfortunately, it's not accompanied by a corresponding increase of range at the low end, but the only way I could come close to singing my usual songs was to play them lower by tuning my guitar a whole step down, and hoping for the best with the low notes.

Naturally, this makes my guitar sound growly, and takes away a lot of the "sparkle", but I didn't have much choice. It also makes me sound a lot more profundo -- not a very "pop" sound. Most pop songs are sung by tenors, and I've already transposed them down for my baritone voice. This further-drop takes them into scary-low range, down in Caiaphas territory.

I was hoping that, as my voice warmed up, I would regain some of the high range, but it really didn't happen. Usually I gain about 3 half-steps in the first hour or so, but last night it may have been only one. This is somewhat distressing, 'cuz it may mean that the "work it out" method isn't working.

But it sure was nice to be back up there again, and people didn't seem to notice much. The mostly-high songs sounded OK, 'cuz they weren't too low in the tuned-down state. The medium-range ones sounded pretty funny to me, but nobody threw any tomatoes...

I had forgotten how much *stuff* have to set up, and take down. Or maybe it just seemed like more hassle 'cuz I'd lost the routine of what goes where. I'd also forgotten how much 4 hours of playing trashes my back and knees...

The good news was that they've moved the stage again, almost back to where it started. The little candle/jewelry shop in the middle of the food court went under, so the stage is now right in front of it, using its front doors as a backdrop. This puts the stage "front and center", and it's nice to have a wall behind me, ever since the "hat stealer" incident (q.v.).

Had some nice people there, and got some good reactions (and 66 bucks), especially during the last half hour. I'm starting to wonder if they'd let me play from 7-11, instead of 6-10. I keep having to quit just when it's getting good -- all the 7:00 movies let out around 9:30, and some folks are looking for something to keep the evening going.

But I finally got to play the song I was working (and working and working) on when my voice quit: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". The "suite" part indicates that it's really 4 movements, strung together. I'm hoping that my dazzling Spanish (born of Two Whole Years of high school classes) in Part 4 keeps people from noticing that I'm entirely skipping Part 3, just 'cuz I can't make it sound like anything on guitar. (Besides, canaries are yellow, not "chestnut brown" anyway, right?) Unfortunately, it's one of the "low, so now even lower" ones, so, kinda not OK until my voice catches up.

I also played my new Obsession Song of the Week, which I'd just really worked out earlier in the day: "Nature Boy". It's from 1947 and very jazz-chord-y, but I worked out a way to play it that sounds pretty good to me. It's OK, I waited until nobody was listening, but it seemed to "work".

Had a young couple come up and ask me if I used to play at the Borders in Santa Margarita. Absolutely -- it was my favorite place to play. But they shut it down, like, 5 years ago. It was flattering that they remembered me -- and Geneva. They asked if she still played with me, but I had to tell them that she's 18 now, and wouldn't be caught dead...

Another couple came up as they were leaving and said that they'd missed me (during my 10-week absence). Also flattering. And a guy asked if I knew "Still Crazy", which, why yes, I do! It's not on the list, but it's in The Book. It's great when that happens. But what's with little kids waving at me during songs? Can't they see that my hands are busy?

Anyway, I'm up again next week, and we'll see if my upper range comes back over time. The "exercise" doesn't seem to have helped, but at least it doesn't seem to have done any damage, either. But I don't want to have to play/sing so low forever...

Geneva Goes Hang Gliding -- 17Aug2010

We finally got the chance to make good on the Birthday Present promise to take Geneva hang gliding. The Present/promise was delivered on her 18th birthday back in December, but we were waiting for good flying weather -- and since summer's almost over and we were on our way out to Palm Springs for a few days' vacation, it was the perfect chance.

The idea occurred to me because, of the few things she's let me read of her Creative Writing stuff, half of them feature "girls with wings". Seemed to be a big fantasy of hers, and this seemed like the closest I could come to fulfilling it.

The hang gliding guy operates out of San Bernardino -- you basically drive up the mountain, jump off, and land back down in the flatlands. The "flight" is really "Lesson 1", and after 2 or 3, you're ready (if you're *ready*) to fly one solo. As much as she'd like it to, it's probably not gonna become a real hobby for Geneva, but it's still more interactive as a "lesson" than just as a "ride".

So, we showed up at the landing site, and the guy took Geneva away for an hour or so, and we finally spotted a tiny white wing up above the mountain. We watched it circle and glide around for half an hour, until they swooped in and dropped right back down, standing up, no running required. Pretty impressive.

She had a terrific time, of course, though afterwards she said that she was getting a little airsick up there. She was too proud to tell the guy about it, though. And despite that, she'd do it again in a heartbeat, I'm sure.

(Click any image for bigger version.)

Keith (not) at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Jun2010

I had to cancel (aka "no show") at the last minute for the first time -- due to a sudden, mysterious, and frankly scary, near-total failure of my voice. I don't have a sore throat, but there's a "sore gland"-like pain in the left side of my neck (though without any swelling), and I simply can't make my voice go up to even slightly-high notes. I aim at 'em, but my voice won't go there. My neck/throat feels "tight" when I try.

I discovered the problem on the way to the gig, singing along with myself (on CD) to warm up. But I never got warmed up. I can't hit high notes, and the medium notes waver radically. I sound like someone who's purposefully making fun of singers -- completely off half of the notes, and all wiggly.

I've never felt (or heard of) anything like it, I have no idea what it is, what caused it, nor when (or if) it'll go away. It's been 4 days as of this writing, and it's just about the same, still, so I cancelled next Saturday's gig already, in hopes that they can book someone else.

I'm considering going to the doctor, but there's nothing to see, and no symptoms to report except the sore spot in my neck, a tiny bit of scratchiness, and "I can't sing anymore".

I can talk fine ('cuz that's lower in my range), but I dunno. Maybe it's Goiter. Maybe it's a "pulled muscle", (though it's not like it happened while I was tryin' to sing a double-high-A). Maybe it's a new, weird, non-hurty Cold. Maybe it's thyroid cancer. Maybe I just slept on my neck wrong. It's really scary, though, 'cuz, like, what's the point of knowing how to play all this guitar if I can't sing along with it? So I guess I'll have to go let the doctor stick some needles in it/me, 'cuz, you know, that's what they do.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Jun2010

An even more disinterested crowd than usual. I guess it's essentially random -- sometimes there are people who think we sound pretty good, and sometimes there ain't -- but I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth setting up the stuff there.

I guess it wasn't *that* bad -- there was a guy down front who (somewhat reluctantly) picked out a few songs, and a period near the end when a pretty girl in the back (friend of the guitar-playing coffee-guy?) was asking for songs, and actually listening to them when played. But most of the time we were just playing into a black hole.

On the other hand, it may have been just as well that nobody was listening, 'cuz I was playing pretty badly. Or was I playing badly 'cuz nobody was listening...? I set up some video cameras, but didn't bother to start them up until the sun had set behind us, because the video's unwatchable until the glare behind us goes away. (Hmmm. I wonder if that's part of why we can't get any connection going -- nobody can bear to look at us.)

Anyway, I don't think I managed to play a single song all the way through without a huge mistake for that last hour when the cameras were running. But that's OK -- it'll save me a lot of time this week, not having to edit movies together...

Towards the end, a 50-something lady came and was listening, sort of. When I announced that we were almost out of time, she got up and came over to show me a CD she was carrying around, to ask me if I knew any of the songs on it. The artist's name was in a fancy font, and, apparently confused by the lady's outrageous eastern European accent, at first I thought it said "Grace Jones". That seemed pretty crazy, but then I realized that it actually said "George Jones", which was slightly, but not much, more reasonable. She wanted to know if I knew "Picture of Me Without You", which I've never heard of, but figured "Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground" might be a reasonable substitute (plus, it gives Warren a chance to play harmonica). But apparently she'd never heard that one. I guess she's just a George Jones loyalist -- no Willie allowed.

It occurred to me afterwards that I should have attempted to remember and play "Bartender's Blues", which James Taylor deliberately wrote to sound like George Jones, and which George subsequently obligingly recorded. She'd'a probably known that one.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 12June2010

Not a lot of people out there, but I had a great time. It was a little gray out all day, so there were fewer little kids screaming in the fountain, and somehow I could hear myself noticeably better than usual for this very noisy outdoor venue. Was the amp just up louder, or the house music quieter? Dunno, but whatever it was, it sure helps.

Geneva had taken two of my cameras to her Grad Night party, and managed to leave the main one I use for the "close shot" and the audio with a friend. I found this out only an hour before the gig, of course, so I had to just forego trying to take any video this time. I was pretty unhappy with her, of course, but it turned out to be unexpectedly liberating to not have that pressure. I like to think that I'm getting immune to it, but clearly not.

To start with, it saved a lot of time in the set up and tear down. And, since I never start the cameras up right at first ('cuz it takes me a while to get warmed up and playing halfway decent), it saved me having to interrupt the show to start 'em all up. But mostly, I was just a lot more relaxed and able to just "let 'er fly". I don't know if I'm actually better that way, but it seems to me like it, and it's definitely a lot more fun.

There weren't a lot of people, but there was nearly always somebody tuned in, so I had someone to sing for (and, despite the low attendance, made $57). And my brother came by for quite a while, which is always nice. He got to hear my first, very flawed, attempt at a new arrangement of "Over the Rainbow". I worked up (that day) a ukulele-less simulation of the version that was in the season finale of "Glee", which is based on the version by Hawaiian legend Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, heard these days in dozens of movies and commercials.

It's interesting, musically, to me because "Bruddah Iz" rebuilt the chords and melody, but also rearranged (aka "butchered") the lyrics, scrambling bits and pieces of the real words as if he was simply lost but remembered some of it. The "Glee" version puts the words back where they belong, and reworks the chords to be more accurate to the original, while retaining the feeling by using the same ukulele track and rhythm pattern. This makes it far more palatable to me, because I have a hard time deliberately singing it "wrong", with the words messed up so much that the verses don't even rhyme anymore. And it's hard enough trying to remember the "new melody" after singing the original one to my very hard-earned jazz-chord version all these years.

I can play this very-simplified version on my ukulele, but that would require the hassle of (a) bringing it, and (b) amplifying it, so I'm just putting a capo up high on my guitar and strumming in a ukulele-like way. It'll have to do. And it apparently does work out, 'cuz I played it two more times, getting better each time, with good response. Late in the evening, a white-haired gent came up and, without checking the list, asked if I knew "Over the Rainbow". I told him I knew two versions, the classic one, and a new one on ukulele. He immediately asked for the ukulele one, "for [his] granddaughter - she loves that one". I guess that clinches it.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 29May2010

Nice and warm, finally, and well-attended. Unfortunately, the warmer it gets, the longer I have to endure the screaming kids that parents bring to play in the fountain. It's really becoming what we had as the "city pool" when I was a kid. I don't begrudge them getting to "play int he sprinklers" on a warm summer evening, but I wish it wasn't so close to where I'm trying to play.

I did have some friendly people, and some definite admirers. One Persian family was there almost the whole night -- they were there when I got there, and left around 9:00. They didn't interact with me much, but the kids asked for a few songs later on. The ancient gramma, with her walker and brought-along camp chair (so she wouldn't have to sit on the metal ones), had the dad ask me to play Lionel Richie's 80-s hit, "Hello". I only just learned that one (because of it's showing up in "Glee"), so it's not even on the list. They musta heard it two weekends ago, but it was still quite a surprise to get it requested by 90-year-old gramma.

A guy came up and asked if I knew any "Bad Company", but settled for "Hotel California". And another Farsi-lady asked if I knew any "Bee Gees", and settled for "Lucy In the Sky". At least I'm not *entirely* disappointing.

I set up 5 cameras this time, so when one failed (my fault -- forgot to put a memory card in it), I had 4 streams. This time, my mistake was not pointing the lights at myself (it was too hot when I switched them on!), so I'm just a silhouette against the ice cream store's lights. That's OK, I wasn't terribly inspired anyway, and this saves me a lot of time with the video editing software, not having to create any videos. I still have one or two to finish from last week at South Coast Plaza...

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 21May2010

A pretty good night -- not a lot of overt audience response (as is usual for this place), but some good performances for the cameras, and we sold all 6 CDs that I put out and took home $14 each, so someone must have liked what they were hearing.

The video equipment malfunction trend continued with my not being able to find the memory chips I needed (I found them later -- they fell out of my jeans pocket in the closet), so I had to use the low-capacity spares, which meant more trouble and less video. And I carefully set one of the cameras perfectly straight, but with its adjustable-angle lens inadvertently tilted at 15% off of horizontal. I'm just gonna pretend that it's "artistic", and not a screw up.

The others were in pretty good spots, with pretty good framing and zoom levels, so there's something to work with there, except that the backdrop is a white porous window shade, facing west into the sunset. The first half of the night is radically backlit, so we're little more than silhouettes. This may also explain why no one would look at us until the last half hour...

But I got some decent stuff in the later parts, so I'll be working those up into multi-camera videos this week.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 15May2010

Unexpectedly low turnout, compared to recent weeks. I think it was the weather, which was warm and sunny in the day but turned chilly and windy, forcing inadvertently inappropriately dressed shoppers to go home early.

And those that did show up were unusually subdued. And a lot fewer teens than usual -- Prom season? I played to a lot of dead silence, but there were patches of enthusiastic people, and somehow there was almost $50 in the jar, so I must have sounded good to somebody, sometime.

I put up 4 video cameras this time, and caught some decent footage in several of them. Unfortunately, now that the experiment of "Can I do it?" (meaning, cut several cameras' footage into one, more interesting, video) is over, I'm left wondering "Why am I doing it?"

I suppose each one I've done is a little better than the last, since I'm getting beyond just making it work and into making it "pretty". And I'm getting bolder with the zooming and panning effects, as I see that they really do work. Of course, now I'm probably pushing them too far...

Anyway, I guess each one I do can be a replacement for previous ones, if they are a better performance or video take/edit. I'm compiling them onto a sub-page of my home page, where they could be an "audition page" if some venue would ever deign to enter the modern age and accept a URL instead of a physical CD. So far that's never happened, but someday...

Check out some new videos here.

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 08May2010

Fun, but short! It was the usual (these days) half-full coffeeshop, but we had several friendly faces out there. But after a while, long-lost cousin Vanessa (and family) came by, and really gave us someone to play for. And not too long later, my brother also arrived, upping the ante even more!

I was torn between playing for her and visiting with her, but she had to leave at 9:00, so we reluctantly took a break at quarter 'til. By the time she broke loose and we started up again, we only had time left for 3 songs, 'cuz they close at 10, and it takes at least 20 minutes to tear down. With the early closing time and the rare "break", I think that's the least I've played in years.

Still, all the attention (from Vanessa's family and Roy) had roped some other people who were left wanting more when we had to quit. They asked about the price of the CDs, and were beside themselves when I told them "Whatever you want to put in the jar" -- this was far too good a deal for the Jewish Mothers Club to pass up! I made Vanessa take a pair of CDs, plus a specially-made "Tribute to My Dad" CD that I'd brought for her, but we sold 4 more, presumably a pair to each of the Moms. And did pretty well in the jar, accordingly.

I'd brought a stack of video cameras, and set three of them up to try to catch some decent footage if there happened to be any decent performances. And did, it turned out. My new cutting between several camera approach really makes the videos more fun to watch (if 10 times the work to produce), but it really shows the difference in quality between different brands of cameras! When it cuts from one camera's output to another, you can really see the color and sharpness differences -- although I can minimize it some in the software.

Anyway, you can check some of the new videos out on my webpage. Click the "Videos" tab. The "Hallelujah" and "Let It Be" takes at the bottom are from this outing.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 01May2010

It was a nice warm day, and I had a big "dinner crowd" to play for. And with my voice almost completely cleared up, I had a great run for a while there. But when it started to get dark, a cold wind came up and it was pretty empty for the mid section. And then, again, the "night owls" start to show up at 9:30 and I'm bummed to get cut off at 10.

During the empty gap, I fired up three of the cameras I'd brought, but both Flip cameras flaked out on me entirely. I think one of them had a legitimate excuse, 'cuz I'd neglected to delete any of the old videos and it was full (though I sure thought it would hold more than what was on there). The other one is clearly just broken, 'cuz it records for a while and then just hangs. Last time it got (and then lost) 35 minutes' worth, this time it hung in only a minute and a half. Good thing I (a) didn't pay for them, and (b) know the Product Manager, who'll be getting quite an email later today.

So instead, I ended up running my very short recording time camera which puts proportionately more pressure on me to "get it right", which, of course, causes proportionately more non-rightness. I'm gonna have to abandon that approach, 'cuz I end up with no video anyway, and a bad performance to go with it. If there were no cameras at all, I'd have the same amount of video (none) but at least I'd'a had a decent night for the people in the house.

Anyway, I had fun, as always, impressed a few people, and made 32 bucks -- not bad for a cold, windy night. And I might be able to squeeze one halfway decent song video out of the footage I managed to get.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum - 23Apr2010

A slow but very fun Friday night. I had some kids come by right off the bat, so I got a good start. Most of the night was pretty empty, but even then there were at least a few people really listening and joining in with requests. It got really good toward the end, with lots of people into it. I happened to look around and saw the maintenance guys standing there. Whoops -- I checked the time and it was 10:15 already. Time flies and all that...

The ice cream bar place behind me has a new employee, who came out and asked if I knew "Michelle", 'cuz it was "the best song in the world", and, not so coincidentally, also her name. I do -- or *did*, it's tricky to play, and I haven't for a long time, but I got through it OK. A while later I confused the heck out of a, in retrospect, *different* long-and-very-blonde haired girl by asking her what her *middle* name was. It was Taylor, though she was baffled as to how that was relevant...

The New Song of the Week was Paul Simon's "American Tune", which I've been "learning" for 20 years, but I think I can sing high enough now, and I've finally decided that the way I play it is the way *I* play it, and it's fine. I played it twice, and the second time through it went quite well.

I tried to capture some video, and just to make my life even more complex, I brought 4 (!) cameras: my old standby on its boom on the top of the amp (to my left); my old still camera clipped to the music stand, pointing (theoretically) at my guitar-playing left hand; and two Flip cameras from work, one strapped to the back of the amp, and one on top of the other speaker, to my right.

The first one performed admirably, as always: got great sound and recorded two 1:40-long battery's worth of good video. The other still camera turns out to record at a very low-res 320x240, and it inexplicably gave up quite early, but at least it got something. The Flip on the amp worked OK, but quit (as it's unforgivably designed to do) after an hour, and when I tried to restart it, its memory was full.

The Flip on the speaker froze up after 35 minutes, and when I hard-rebooted it, lost that file. On restart, it ran only 12 more minutes and quit. Massive fail. Luckily, of the three songs it caught, "Carolina in My Mind" was a pretty good take, so I can salvage that, at least. The big problem, of course, is that I can only set the cameras up pointing vaguely towards myself, start 'em up, and hope -- I can't see if they're properly aimed, or even actually working, 'cuz I'm on the wrong side.

Not sure why I had such bad luck with the cameras, but it was probably because I was singing and playing the best I've been for a month or more...

Or the cold. It was plenty chilly out there, and I had some trouble with the more intricate fingerwork towards the end, but at least I wasn't shivering. I made $40.04; half of that was from a guy who had been transmitting me live to a girl on the other end of his mobile video phone (!) for a half-dozen songs, and then bought one of each CD with a twenty. I could see her face on the little screen as he was pointing his phone at me. Is it the future yet?

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 16Apr2010

Started off really well, with several nice people already in the up-front comfy chairs, including one guy who I've seen before and apparently also remembers me, since he told a cellphone caller, "I'm gonna hang out here a while -- there's a guitar player setting up and he's pretty good".

That gave me someone to play for right off the bat, which helps a lot. And a lot of people heard the little intro speech that it was possible to make, given someone to make it to. So then a lot of people were willing to step up and request a song... Snowball...

In fact, I hadn't expected such participation, and my plan was to play my second-string material for a while to warm up/clear out my voice, and then start the video cameras to record the Good Stuff. But, all the requests were unerringly for the good songs, so I'd already done them all before I got a point where I could start the recording. I also couldn't afford to crash the momentum by stopping playing to start the cameras, so my plan was out the window.

Which made a great night, performing- and fun-wise, but not so good recording-wise. I did manage to get a few decent song takes towards the very end, so not a total loss, but it's more about the moment than the recording thereof. And it was good to have my voice back to near-full strength, after so long.

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 10Apr2010

We've been playing at South Coast Plaza exclusively on Fridays for over a year now, and I was hoping that this special-permission Saturday would be more lively. I was wrong.

Same usual group of Asian kids studying (or pretending to), and bored, lost, or ex- husbands hanging out in the bookstore for lack of anything better to do. I failed to get any connection started off the bat, and played to stone silence for most of the night. Nice acoustics, though. And no interruptions...

I tried my best to win someone over -- playing my biggest hits, but they weren't interested, and my voice was still pretty clogged up so I wasn't really getting anywhere. After a while, since no one was listening anyway, I took the opportunity to play some new stuff. That's always fun, and good practice.

But finally, the judicious black guy who asked for some great songs last week came in and gave me someone to play for. And as soon as he started clapping, several other people joined in. See? That wasn't so hard!

Unfortunately, he got there pretty late, and with the new early closing time, it was over before it made up for the previous hour and a half.

Probably because his own hair and beard are prematurely white, as I was packing up, he mentioned that he liked the color my hair was turning. I've been thinking that whatever amount of color "dirty blonde" originally claimed is essentially fading out, but he said it looked like it was "turning to bronze". I like that.

I have a new "Flip" digital camcorder on permanent loan from work, and I had an idea -- I set that one up, and also my usual point-and-click camera in Movie Mode, at two different angles, and ran them both for the last half-hour or so. Yesterday, with a lot of fiddling, I was able to make a video of "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" that cross-fades back and forth from one view to the other, with a little "Ken Burns" slow zooming thrown in. Makes a far more interesting video. You can check it out on my Facebook page (since my YouTube account got shut down...) http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1393143159307

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 03April2010

Started off crazy, with 3 teenage girls (who I've seen hanging out there a lot) sitting right down front, impatiently waiting for me to finish setting up so they could have me dedicate a love song to the "hot guy" who works in the ice cream bar shop right behind the stage -- despite them not even knowing his name. Not exactly what I'm there for. Between them and the guy who owns the BBQ shop in the Food Court, who, for several weeks running, has tried to get me to hype his shop in return for a free dinner (which I don't need, 'cuz I eat before I get there) -- it's too much pressure!

They stayed for quite a while, until I got my camera out and they leaped out of their chairs. I thought they were gonna get together and pose, but they were really jumping up to run away! I sure didn't expect that these particular girls would be camera shy...

But the night was generally very slow (only $35 in tips). It was surprisingly cold, and I'd only brought my vest, because last weekend it was nice and warm. This was a huge mistake, 'cuz I was freezing and shivering long before it was even half over. I kept telling myself that I could just go home, but there was always just one or two people really listening somewhere out there, so I couldn't do it. I'm such a sucker...

Finally a nice couple came and listened for a while, and after a couple of songs the girl jumped up and suddenly asked "What's your favorite hot drink?" Taken off guard, I said "Hot chocolate", and she said, "I knew it!", and took off. A minute or two later, in the middle of a song, she set a Starbucks hot chocolate down on my table, and then she and her boyfriend waved and left before I could even thank her. That was amazingly nice.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 02Apr2010

I usually only play South Coast Plaza on the third Friday (the standing K&W gig there), and this one would normally have been Jim & Warren, but Jim couldn't make it, so I filled in. Maybe I shouldn't have -- my cold had evolved away from the sore-throat phase to the full-of-crud-throat phase, and I had a really hard time singing. It would clear up a little occasionally, giving me (false) hope, so it was kind of off and on.

Anyway, there was a nice lady there right at first who was really interested in hearing us, but she had an appointment to get to, so we tried to play the songs she wanted right off the bat. But there was also a 11-year-old girl there (with her parents) who wanted to hear some songs, so there was a bit of a bidding war going on for our time. That made it fun, and created a good start, but they both were gone too soon, leaving us with the usual only-partly-interested crowd.

There was one guy later on who had a particularly specific set of requests, all great classics that have been on the list for a while, and that I've been neglecting. That was pretty fun, trying to get those de-cobwebbed. Didn't do too bad on 'em, either.

And we must have been doing something OK, 'cuz we made 16 bucks to split, which is pretty good for a Borders gig.

The weird part is that I'll be back there next Saturday (just to have somewhere to play 'cuz Spectrum was unavailable), and then the next Friday for my usual monthly SCP date. An unusually SCP-intensive couple of weeks...

A New Guitar Trick

I seem to have invented a new way to play a guitar. Now, I'm not stupid enough to think that I'm the first guy to find this trick, but in 38 years of playing guitar, I've seen a lot of guys do a lot of different stuff and I've never seen it before. So I've probably only "re-invented" it, but whatever. This won't make any sense at all to non-guitar-players, but if you play, read on.

The trick, simply, is to put a capo on the guitar's second fret, but only covering the 5 highest strings, leaving the bass (6th) string open. (You have to use a C-clamp style capo -- the stretchy kind obviously won't work.)

At first glance, this is very similar to just lowering the bass string by a whole step, which is probably the most common non-standard guitar tuning, called "Drop-D", and well-known to almost everybody. In fact the trick does act a lot like Drop-D, (though up a whole step), and some of what you learn in Drop-D does apply -- especially the big grand sound of the normally-anemic D chord (though it's now an E, because of the capo). In both Drop-D and this trick (which, I suppose, could be called "Drop-E"), the usual D chord (xx0323) with its very weak bass (caused by the two unusable low strings) becomes 000323, with a huge bass end, and great Travis picking potential.

But the beauty of the trick is that it does *not* change the fingering shapes of other chords that use the 6th string. Unlike Drop-D, the G chord is played completely normally: 320003. Same with F#m, or even the alternate bass note of Bm. The only weirdness, and this is very weird at first, is that you have to manually fret the "0" fret of E chords. Em is still 022000, but that bass note 0 requires a finger, because the open bass string is really "-2" (see the picture). So you do have to set the capo back in the fret (unlike the usual practice of putting it kinda forward, to avoid buzzing), so you can fit your finger in beside the tip of the capo.

Since I came up with this, it's been surprisingly useful and I'm using it for several songs now. I "invented" it while working up "Peaceful Easy Feeling", but now I use it for "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lyin' Eyes", "Dear Prudence", "Can't Find My Way Home", and probably a few more that I'm forgetting.

One disadvantage is that, because it relies on the capo to start with, you can't "capo up some more" to get a different singing key. (Unless you want to use *two* capos (one all the way across, and one not), two frets apart.) But it's occurred to me lately that my vocal range is about a third or fourth lower than most (tenor) pop stars'. I very frequently have to transpose popular songs down a fourth (an interval that is very convenient playability-wise on the guitar), but sometimes that's a little too far, so I end up with a capo on the second fret anyway. (Transposing down a third usually results in unplayable chords.) With this trick, I get that same amount of down-transposition (down a fourth and back up two frets), and a big fat bass note on the D chords (actually D shape, E sound) for free.