K&W in Laguna Beach -- Sunday, 28May2017

We don't normally play Sundays, but it was Memorial Day weekend, which makes Sunday a "virtual Saturday". And it hadn't been "our turn" for the *actual* Saturday, so this was the next best thing.

And it went pretty well. The weather was good, so there were lots of people out and getting ice cream, so we had people to play for. Even after the sun set and it got kinda chilly, we still had people stop to listen a while, and some cute kids. And with surprisingly little interference from street people, we had a great time. Maybe even non-holiday Sundays will be viable, here in the summer. It'd be nice to get more time down there, for sure...

Keith Plays a Wedding -- Saturday, 27May2017

So this nice lady heard me playing at Dana Point and saw my little card that says "Yes! I play parties! $200" and emailed me to hire me to play her wedding. She was convinced that her mom would love my stuff. The wedding was going to be way the heck up in Downey, so I should have charged her extra for the mileage, but, you know, it's her wedding, so I decided to be nice.

Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, and they decide that I should not only play the Cocktail Hour, I should also play the Dinner. Unfortunately for me, these things are an hour and a half apart. Combined, I'll be there for 3.5 hours, a bit over my promised 3 hour maximum. I'm annoyed, but suppose that, with the break, I can go overtime some.

I looked up where it was at, and it was a golf course right around the corner from where my mom used to live. I can find that, easy.

Come the day of the wedding, I drive up there, find the golf course, but can't find where I'm supposed to be playing. There's a bunch of people setting up for a big wedding banquet, but they're all just workers, nobody that looked to be in charge. I settle down in the lobby, figuring the Planner will come find me eventually, but it never happens. She finally calls me (I don't have her number, but she has mine), and she doesn't see me in the lobby. I'm starting to suspect that there's something wrong, and ask her if I'm supposed to be at the Rio Hondo Golf Course. Nope, I'm supposed to be at the Los Amigos Golf Course. Who'd'a thunk that Downey'd have two golf courses less than two miles apart, on the same street?!?

I get there in time to get started just as people start arriving from the wedding to this Cocktail Hour, out behind one of the golf course tee areas. People are pretty nice, and some of them don't know anyone else, so they're looking for something to do and hang out with me. That part goes well enough, now I've got an hour and a half break.

I wander around, trying to figure out where this dinner part will be, and of course, the Planner is nowhere to be found. Turns out, it's 300 yards away, tucked into a grove of trees. I have to pack up the whole setup, drag it down there, and set it back up again.

Then the Planner calls me, wondering where I am. "Stalling." "Oh, but you could come down and start playing!" "You have a DJ. How can I start playing?" "Oh, we can tell him to stop!" "Really?!? Why'd you hire him, then?"

So she's mad at me for being "difficult", and I'm annoyed at her for being a Planner with no actual Plan. But, sure, I'd rather play than sit in my car, so I go down there and set up again (after much confusion about *where* exactly I'm supposed to set up).

The two "wild and crazy"-est family members are attempting to M.C. this shindig, and finally cut the DJ off and ask me to play. I do a few songs, and everyone seems happy with my music, but then the M.C. lady fulfills my greatest dread, and wants me to "play something faster".

I never made any secret of the fact that I'm not a "dance band", so I tell her, if she wants something faster, why did she shut down the DJ?

So we go back to what the original plan seemed to be: the DJ plays "party music" in the gap until dinner, and I play while they're eating. So the DJ plays a few songs, but then the wedding party finally arrives from their picture taking, and the bride wants *me* to play.

The M.C. lady still wants me to play "something faster", but she's not the boss of me, so instead, I play Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight". The whole crowd (about 200 people)lets out a collective "Awwww", and all the couples jump up and head for the dance floor (that they've been ignoring through the "party music"). Take that, Mr. DJ.

I play a while more, but they suddenly remember that they have a bunch of chores to attend to: bouquet and garter throwing, introduction of the "sponsors" (family they've hit up for big donations for wedding expense coverage), a traditional Pilipino wedding dance number, a friend's heartfelt but terribly rendered song, and who knows what all else.

Dinner finally arrives (late), but they're still doing all kinds of stuff, so the DJ is covering it all. I hang around, thinking that they'll want me to continue pretty soon, but it never happens. As they're cleaning up dinner, I wander "backstage" and snarf some food (nobody thinks of the poor musician, starving to death). Finally, around 10:00, I decide that it's definitely DJ from here on out, so I start packing up my stuff. While I'm dragging out to the car, several people come up and tell me how great I was.

I can't find the Planner anywhere, so I have to trust that they'll mail me a check, and they do a couple of days later. No mention of the fact that I was stuck there for almost 7 hours of my 3 hours max. And no "extra" for the overtime, either. I'm definitely gonna have to review my rates before I agree to another wedding...

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 06May2017

Another unfortunately-timed cold snap. Tim & Anna weren't there to save The Corner for us (maybe they've moved on?), but it wasn't necessary -- nobody else would have wanted to be out there in that weather. Including any kind of audience...

So we played to a mostly empty bench, people zooming by to the next warm spot: car or bar, and one intrepid couple who sat on the side bench and hung on for a really long time.

And one big extended family who stayed to let the kids hear several Disney tunes.

We stayed as long as I could stand it, but by 8:30, I was chilled through and had had enough. It's gotta get warmer pretty soon, right?

Keith at Mission Viejo "Arts Alive" - Sat/Sun, 29&30Apr2017

The lady who books me for the city's Santa's Workshop gigs asked me to play at the annual "Arts Alive Festival" (formerly known as The Chalk Festival). There are 68 chalk artists doing street paintings as you watch, and a bunch of booths with arts and crafts kind of stuff for sale.

They put up a nice big stage, right at the entrance -- but I wasn't on that one. That was reserved for weird stage bands and amateur jazz combos. Not sure why they always almost vindictively book music nobody wants to hear, but there you go.

Nope, I was on "The Little Stage", in the back corner as far away from that one as possible. Which is smart, sound-interference-wise, except that they'd set up big wireless speakers broadcasting the Big Stage bands Way Too Loud everywhere around the festival. Fortunately, the speaker nearest me had a volume knob on the back and was poorly supervised...

When she asked me to play, I said that I only had two requirements: AC power for the amp, and shade. And of course, when I got there, there was neither. The shade thing wasn't really her fault -- the night before was a freak windstorm that blew away and broke all the Easy-Ups they had installed. What was left of them were collapsed over by the building, so I snagged one of them and set it up by myself (no easy feat) to find it only had one broken and mostly non-essential strut.

And there was power coming from a distribution box out on the grass, but there were no free plugs on it. I negotiated an extension cord away from a nearby booth that had snagged two lines, and I was up and running. Good thing I always show up plenty early for a new-venue gig.

The windstorm presaged Santa Ana conditions, which meant it was *hot*. The Easy-Up provides shade, but it seems like the canvas itself gets so hot in the sun that it becomes a radiator of heat in its own right.

But it was fun, plenty of kids to play for, and people were friendly and generous with their praise and tips. Not willing to stand in the 90-degree heat very long of course, but the little patch of shade across from me was almost always occupied -- hopefully as much because of the music as the shade. Maybe it was just that my recognizable stuff was more agreeable than the annoying jazz band stuff coming from the other side...

All of the people on the Mission Viejo Activities Committee came by over the two days, and each of them said something about "I didn't know you did non-Christmas songs!" All I could do was point out, "You know, there *are* eleven other months..."

And fortunately, the artists and vendors that were stuck listening to me all day long seemed OK with it. Many of them came over to request songs. Some college kids a few squares over were hooting and hollering after some of the songs and came over to claim that I was what was keeping them motivated and buy a CD. One vendor lady came over to thank me for being there and the "great songs", and put a twenty in the jar to show her sincerity. Even the kids in the Kettle Corn booth next door gave me a free bag at the end of the day, so they must not have been too annoyed.

I sold lots of CDs, gave away lots of business cards, and it was my first chance to use the vinyl banner reproduction of the cards that they threw in for only $16 when I reordered a while ago. So maybe I'll get a party gig or two...? Nah...

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 22Apr2017

Finally, nice weather and lots of people out. Spring has sprung.

But not at first. I got there early again, and for the first couple of hours it was mostly grumpy old foreigners on the bench. Am I disturbing your grump-fest with my happy songs?

But after it got dark, it weirdly swung all the way the other way. Lots of people came by, and stayed for lots of songs, and attracted more people to stop -- it felt like the old days. And just in time, too -- with as good as Dana Point has been, and with the uncertainty of even getting The Corner to play, bums, cops' curfew, and general passer-by indifference, I was beginning to wonder if Laguna was even worth the trouble.

But it certainly was this time. I had several kids' parties with "Let It Go" singalong, and there was no wind at all so I was able to fire up the bubble machine without making too big a mess.

Inexplicably (and happily), no bums -- except Willy who was sober and on his best behavior. Warren had some friends over so he got there very late (~8:30?) which conspired with the big friendly crowds to encourage me to break the curfew, so we played until 10:00. And got away with it. Warren's theory is that, since universally-despised Sanchez and his too-loud droning guitar has given up entirely, the cops are backing off on enforcing the curfew. Hope so!

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 08Apr2017

You'd'a thought that a Saturday a week in front of Easter would be a "good one", but it was freakishly windy in the daytime, and freezing-cold windy once the sun set. It was pretty hard to get anybody to sit for a song or two.

So it was a pretty slow night, and that was reflected in the worst-in-a-while tip jar results. Good thing we're not in it for the money...

The guy who runs the annual "Fête de la Musique" street music festival came by and whined at me about having to miss it this year (due to a nephew's wedding). That's flattering, but it's actually not a very good gig anyway. I'm gonna miss the night-before musician's party more than the festival itself.

Anyway, it can only get warmer and better from here.

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 25Mar2017

Pretty good night. Lots of kids out at first, including a pack of girls who'd just come from the beach (with some parents). They were on their way past when the crosswalk signal stopped them and I hijacked them by handing out the song lists. And since they'd all seen the new "Beauty and the Beast" movie the day before, you can guess what song they wanted.

Now that my Vietnamese super fans know how to find me, they came by again. Phuong has to be the sweetest lady I've ever met -- there are probably a few adult women who will admit that "Puff, the Magic Dragon" is their favorite song, but how many also cry at the story of "The Boxer"?

But they didn't get there until about 8:30, and we're supposed to quit at 9. Warren says that he and Jim have been exceeding that deadline lately and getting away with it, and theorizes that, since Sanchez has apparently disappeared for good, and was presumably the cause of the curfew, the cops have relaxed their enforcement again.

That sounded OK to me, except that, right at 9:00, the cops' little golf cart was parked right across the street from us, while they were inside the gallery over there for some reason. It seemed a bit inexpedient for us to be observably playing through amplifiers when they came out, so I shut it down and just chatted with Phuong and Chris until the cops left. Then we went ahead and played until 10:20, with no further police appearances.

Still too many bums, and especially obnoxious drunken ones, for my tastes, but Warren tried to keep a lid on that, as best he could. It's a shame that we live in fear of the cops shutting us down, but (almost) never benefit from them helping keep the drunks out of our hair. This time though, for the first time, they came by and just hung around the worst drunk until he decided to go someplace less intimidating. More of that, please.

[My Stories] For Want of a Capo

Before my senior year of high school, I discovered that I'd already taken almost all of the "college prep" classes the school had to offer, so I had to fill the space with three electives. For the first two, I signed up for Electronics and "I R & D", which was the most advanced "shop" class. I was invited to take it by my Drafting teacher from the previous year, who taught both. (Drawings of machine parts! In pencil! On paper! *There's* a future-proof career path!)

Each kid in I R & D got to do a Project, but since all the other kids had come up the official way through the actual Shop classes, they were classic "shop kids" -- they could weld and saw, but they couldn't actually think so good. I ended up doing the design and plans for everybody else's projects -- which I suspect was the teacher's plan all along -- and never getting to one of my own.

Anyway, for my third elective, my girlfriend talked me into taking Choir, and my "next year" schedule was all settled at the beginning of summer. By the end of summer, she wasn't my girlfriend anymore, but a bunch of other girls in Choir wanted me to try out for "Mariners", the school's 12-kid pop group. What they call nowadays a "show choir" -- smiley happy kids singing pop tunes while doing choreography. Like "Up With People" or Disney's "Kids of the Kingdom".

My brother had been a Mariner two years before, but I hadn't paid much attention -- not my kind of thing. Still, the pressure of all these girls wanting me to join up worked, so I tried out, and got in (not actually too impressive a feat, since they need six guys and only about eight tried out).

I had to drop Electronics to fit the Mariner class in, which in retrospect, considering my eventual adult career, seems like a mistake, but I had the time of my life and don't regret it at all. It taught me a lot about really singing and performing, and incidentally got me started me playing guitar. Changed my life.

A couple of years after I graduated, the director/teacher of the Mariners decided to make a go of constructing a "professional" group. He recruited all the best of the previous few years' worth of kids, and I auditioned, but didn't make the cut as a singer/dancer. But by that time I was a (barely serviceable) bass player, and this group was to have an actual backing band, not just a piano player, so I got in that way.

They found a drummer and my best friend Bob was brought in to play guitar, and we were up and running. We learned a bunch of songs, and might have even played a few gigs, though I don't remember any. Nor getting paid, ever...

The director decided to do an actual Concert, and rented the Long Beach Elks dome. We sold tickets to our friends and relatives, and almost nobody else. But it was exciting nonetheless.

It was decided that "the band" would get to do a song -- probably just to fill some time. Bobby and I chose James Taylor's "Hey Mister, That's Me Up On the Jukebox", with me singing. To put the song in the proper key to make it singable, Bobby would use a capo -- the clamp that makes the guitar neck effectively shorter, and therefore pitched higher -- the same as how James plays it. But bass players don't use capos, they just learn the song in the key that the capoed guitar now sounds like.

We practiced the song until I was presumably ready to do it in public for the concert. We got to the Elks Dome and set up on the huge stage under the spotlights. Our amplifiers were at the back of the stage and Bobby and I stood by them while the 12 main performers sang and danced out front.

When it came time for our song, the kids cleared out, and Bobby and I walked out to the front of the stage and up to the microphone standing there, dragging long cables behind us. I was nervous, obviously. I looked over at Bobby to see if he was ready, and he said those four fateful words, "I forgot my capo."

Time stopped. The implication was clear -- without his capo, we'd be playing in two different keys. I had two choices: sing it with only guitar, or only bass. Only bass would be in the right key, but sound lame -- obviously, singing with only guitar is more "complete". So, that choice made, I further decided it would look dumb for me to stand there holding my bass but not playing it, so I walked the half-mile back to the amplifiers, put the bass on its stand, and walked the now three miles back to the mic at the front of the stage.

Bobby started the song, and I sang it -- a little low sans-capo, but not out of range. One best-kept secret about playing guitar (or bass) is that, secondarily only to its use as a musical accompaniment, it also serves as Something To Do With Your Hands, and just as importantly, as a psychological shield between you and the audience. Without my bass I was naked -- nothing to do with my hands, and nothing between Me and Them. Multiply the stage anxiety by ten.

But I got through it. People say I did good, but how much can you believe your relatives in this regard? I wouldn't know -- I was in shock.

But the kicker was, when we finished the song and walked back to our places by the amplifiers, there was Bobby's capo, sitting on his amplifier. Sitting. On. His. Amplifier. By "forgot", he meant, "left it back there on the amp". Within arm's reach of, say, my bass stand. Instead of me walking back and forth to put down the bass and being left to sing the song without it, he could have walked back there and gotten the capo. And yet, somehow, he remains unmurdered.

If I recall correctly (though I'm pretty sure I don't), that was the last gasp of the professional song-and-dance group, though probably *not* really due to our little capo fiasco that I'm sure the audience barely noticed. But it did prove to be a somewhat inauspicious start to my solo singing career -- though that would be on hold for 25 years to let me get good enough on guitar to not be reliant on someone else's capo...

Keith at Festival of Whales -- Sat/Sun, 11-12Mar2017

The lady in charge of the Festival of Whales told me that she had gotten so many good comments about me that she was going to find me a better place to play (and double my pay!). So on Saturday, she put me in the "Dana Wharf Plaza", near some restaurants and the dock where the Whale Watching boats are.

The big plaza certainly looked like a better place to play, but it was actually a little *too* big, which made it too impersonal. Lots of people came by to listen, but they were so far away that there was no actual interaction. Only the brave ones came all the way over to look through the list and request songs.

But I was able to pry several sets of kids away from their lunch at the fish & chips place to dance out front for a while. And enough people came over to sit at the side benches nearby to make it fun enough that I stayed for four and a half hours.

On Sunday, she tried to get me into my usual non-Festival place in front of the coffee shop, but they already had someone else booked there, so I was back where I was the previous Sunday -- along the walkway around the harbor. This time the classic cars they'd scheduled actually showed up, so there was a perfectly restored 1973 Jaguar XKE right next to me. It was a little awkward -- my music made it hard for them to talk to people about the car, and their talking kind of interfered with my music, but we got along OK.

What was much worse was the "Whale of a Concert on the Water" at Baby Beach, which, despite being 400 yards away, was *really* loud. First there was a cover band, then a girl-singer cover band, then a U2 tribute band, all on a floating stage in front of the beach. Cool, but, wow, really loud. Several people coming from that direction told me that they preferred my music to "those guys", but I'm sure that anyone with the opposite opinion just kept it to themselves.

My strategy of putting the colorful Kids' Song lists on the ground right at the edge of the sidewalk worked well again. Lots of kids got sucked in, which made their parents stop to let the kids request a song or three. And sometimes it was the parents that noticed the lists...

At one point a guy came up with a fiver in his hand and said he wanted to buy a CD. I said, sure, just take one, and he said that there was none left! I had set six of each ("Favorites" and "Kids' Favorites") out there, but sure enough, they were all gone, so I dug some more out to give him one. I'm pretty sure that's the most CDs I've ever sold at a single gig.

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 11Mar2017

Despite playing long hours at the Dana Point Whale Festival on both Saturday and Sunday, it was "our turn" on The Corner in Laguna, and I can't pass that up. So I quit Dana Point at 4:00, drove through some fast food and up the coast to play some more.

Traffic was terrible getting there, but I got lucky with parking and The Corner was empty when I rolled up. I set up and tried to play, but my amp was all but dead -- and I knew exactly what was wrong. Earlier in the week, I had opened it up to replace the dead battery inside, and, by the symptom, I'd clearly knocked one of the wires to the speaker loose while I was in there. Fortunately, the guy in the ice cream store had a screwdriver I could borrow, so a field-strip right there on The Corner later, I was up and running again by 6:00.

It was strangely foggy down there, and still not a lot of foot traffic (but why were there so many cars?!?). Unfortunately, the bums were out in force. I don't know where they spend the winter, but they're apparently back. When I started playing, I could have thrown eight rocks and hit eight bums. Including good ol' Josh, who sits at the side bench mumble-chanting "Aloha, aloha!" and holding up his Legalize Marijuana signs. Somebody should really tell him that he's won that one and can go on home...

Warren had a guest visiting from Back East, so I was solo for the first two hours until he showed up with the wife and guest in tow. I tried to play songs that would let him show off a bit for his friend, balanced against the not-so-showy tunes requested by other people and his wife.

And my Vietnamese superfans, Christopher and Phuong, showed up again after an almost two-year absence. They had apparently come by last week looking for me, and Tom told them to try next week. So they did -- such dedication! I tried to play new songs that they hadn't heard before, but Phuong kept requesting classics from the CDs. They're such fans that they always ask if I have any new CDs, which is fair, since I recorded the "Favorites" one six years ago...

Keith at "Festival of Whales" -- Sat/Sun 04-05Mar2017

A couple of weeks ago, the lady who runs the Festival of Whales (Andrea) happened to see me playing in front of the coffee shop, and essentially asked me, "Do you play for the Festival? Would you like to?" Of course I said "No, and yes!", so even though they were already booked up, she's finding me places to play anyway.

She must really like my stuff, 'cuz even though I volunteered to play for free (since I do every weekend anyway, and I really just wanted to not be shut out for two weekends), she got me some money -- and after the rave reviews she got after my first day, has up and doubled that. And more importantly, she's intently trying to find me even better spots to play in for next weekend.

On Saturday, she put me down at "Baby Beach", where they were having the sandcastle building contest. It was a bit weird, since there's no real traffic, and the people were kind of far away, but I had a lot of people come up and thank me for making the day special, and I sold several CDs.

Then on Sunday, she moved me down along the "Harbor Walkway", where the classic Woodies were supposed to be, but they got scared off by the predicted rain and didn't show. I played for a while over by the Harbor office building (ironically literally right outside the window of the lady who gave me so much trouble getting the Permit to play down there), but it was a little too far away from the people going by. Seeing this, Andrea suggested that I move down the way a bit and closer to the walkway, which worked much better but had no shade, so she called someone and had them bring me an Easy-Up.

But like 15 minutes after they came and set it up, the weather made an abrupt change and instead of keeping me from getting sunburned, it was keeping me from getting rained on. I was OK with waiting it out for a while, but since it had sent any potential audience running, there wasn't much point. Andrea (and her mom!) helped me toss the stuff into the back of my car, and I went home, having only gotten to play for two hours.

Next week: better weather, and an even better spot!

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 25Feb2017

We had a real cold snap so it was low-50s all night, which caused low traffic and an even lower stop-to-listen ratio. Oddly, after no bums at all for the last few months, there were several this time, but they were just in the way, not terribly obnoxious. As a concession to the heart repair procedure I'd had the Monday before, I brought my stool, which has the added benefit of allowing me to use my foot tambourine, though I seldom remembered it was there...

Three little girls and their dads came by for ice cream and a few songs. The girls all had wrist-bouquets, so I asked what the deal was -- they were on the way to the Father-Daughter dance at the school. Cute.

We did have some nice people at times. A couple of young ladies came by and wanted to take pictures of Warren. After a while they were picking songs, but apologized for not having any cash, to which I said my usual, "Don't worry about it -- if we were out here for the money, we wouldn't be out here."

But I guess they dug through their purses and found some emergency gas money or something because they both ended up producing five-dollar bills to buy CDs with.

At the end, a crazy-looking guy came by and was standing way too close and intensely staring at our hands and guitars, and asking questions about the equipment and chords and stuff. Warren has run into him before and he apparently plays hard rock down there occasionally, so I guess it was "professional curiosity", but it was just a bit too intense...

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 11Feb2017

It never actually rained, but it was threatening to all day, and it was cold again, so the crowds were pretty thin. Our new friends Tim and Anna had promised to hold The Corner for us against any other challengers until we got there. It was nice to not have to worry (much) about whether or not we'd actually get to play...

With the thin crowds, it was a pretty uneventful night until right towards the end when two nice ladies and their friend showed up. He was pretty drunk (and loud) from the whiskey in his hip flask, but the ladies were nice and loved the music, and kept us playing requests until we ran up against the new 9:00 deadline. Warren thought we could probably fudge a bit over the line, so we did, but I decided that it wasn't worth the citation, and besides, "leave 'em wanting more".

While we were packing up, the ladies kept telling me that I ought to be playing at "the hotel", meaning the Hotel Laguna where they were staying, across the street. I didn't know they had a bar/lounge in there, with live music, but the ladies insisted that I was better than the band they'd seen in there earlier, and they wanted me to go over there with them and see about getting a gig there.

That didn't seem likely, but after I'd taken my stuff back to the car, I thought, what the heck, and walked back to the hotel and found them in the bar. Two guys were playing some rowdy blues-rock, exactly as I had told them was what Management in these places want, as it supposedly sells more drinks, and I can't/won't provide, so I never get hired.

But the ladies insisted that they knew some other woman who sings there, and they'd talk to her and get me an audition. They also said that they'd come see me in the morning in Dana Point. Spoiler Alert: Neither of those things happened.

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 14Jan2017

When I got to The Corner, there was a little duo already set up there: Tim & Anna, aka "Kangaroo Rat". Tim plays accordion (really well) and Anna plays along on a glockenspiel. They play soundtrack music (their "Game of Thrones" sounds *great*!) and some originals, but everything sounds like a French rom-com movie soundtrack, or maybe the background music for a surreal Czechoslovakian stop-motion short.

Anyway, Warren talked them into moving up the street at 7:00, which would leave us half of what we were expecting, but better than nothing at all.

They actually quit around 6:20, though, because a lively little six-year-old brought down the house with her dancing, eventually joined by Anna, and they figured they couldn't top that and bowed out.

Wonderfully, the family came back after a while to let her dance with some of my music.

Otherwise, a pretty subdued evening. We had enough listeners to keep it interesting, but it was pretty cold so people didn't want to stay for long. Frankly, sometimes that new 9:00 curfew saves us from ourselves...

Keith Plays a Cruise Ship -- Saturday, 07Jan2017

A high school bestie of one of my kids invited all of us to her wedding on a cruise ship, followed by the actual four day cruise to Ensenada. I ponied up for all four of us since getting everyone together for a family vacation is getting more and more unachievable.

I love these cruises 'cuz I get to see several darn-good bands play, and see how other guys do it. Indeed, it was on a cruise that I discovered the harmony box that's changed my life as far as songs I can successfully cover.

Right away, I came upon "Solo Guitar Sounds with Nathan" in the Atrium bar. He was *really* good, and fascinating to watch since he builds great renditions of (modern country-ish) songs using a looper. He sits on a cajon (wooden drum box), and would record a drum track loop by banging on it, overlay a bass track loop on his guitar with a octaver, start singing a verse while playing and recording the guitar chords, and then he could let the drum, bass, and chords loops run while he played lead over the top. With the vocal harmony box singing two extra voices on top of his own, he could potentially be a 7-piece band, by himself, with (arguably) no pre-recorded "backing tracks".

I was amazed and fascinated, and the only one really listening and clapping for his efforts. When his set ended, I went up and I told him how impressed I was and we talked about how it was all done. I somehow revealed that I had brought my guitar on the trip, and he invited me to "jam with him" sometime.

Which turned out to be the next afternoon, out on the "Serenity Deck" where he usually just sets up some simple chord loops and noodles around with lead guitar on top of them -- he's found that vocals "don't work" out there. When I got there, he plugged my guitar in, and I played the chords from my songs while he supplied ever-more-ornate melodies on top.

That was pretty fun for both of us, and gave him faith to invite me to get up on stage the next day and actually sing some.

Now, the cruise people put all of the wedding attendees together at the dinner banquets, and my wife and I ended up at a table with 8 of the groom's friends, all around 22 years old. But they were really friendly and after two long dinners with them, we were all great friends. That night it leaked out that I'd be playing at the "Dream Bar" stage the next day, and they all said that they'd come.

And they did! Nathan set me up with a mic (but unfortunately not through his harmony box 'cuz it would have been a nightmare to change his intricate wiring setup) and plugged in my guitar, and off we went, with Nathan promising to provide harmony himself when he could.

I started off (as always) with "Hotel California", which the kids, parents, and other adults all sang along with, and, emboldened by that, I went to "I'm Yours", which all the kids know, and out they came to dance and shout along to. Nathan was thrilled, since he's used to playing to a largely indifferent crowd (as most bar gigs go). Not to mention the kids clapping and shouting "Keith! Keith! Keith!" at the end of the songs. It wasn't a huge party, but it was definitely a party.

I had expected to play my usual mellow stuff, but since I was clearly running a party here, so I apologized that I don't know any party songs after "I'm Yours", "...but maybe this one...", and did "Wagon Wheel". After that I said, again, that I really don't know any party songs, but put that to a lie by firing up "Margaritaville". I hadn't intended to create a running joke, but there it was...

After a couple more I-Don't-Know-Any-Party Songs, I announced that I wasn't really an employee here, and only up there because Nathan was good enough to allow me to come up and spoil his set(s). I'm just a passenger along for the wedding cruise, and the bride's name is Layla. I fired it the song, and everybody cheered and the kids danced some more (and Nathan did an amazing job on the lead -- I guess after playing 4 hours a day, every day, for five years, you get good).

Then, since I really was out of party songs, and since during the wedding and reception it became clear that the happy couple's "song" was "Over the Rainbow", I said, "This one is also for Layla and Cameron" and they (and the rest of the kids, and her parents) got all romantic and slow danced.

Unfortunately, Layla had already set up a cocktail party that evening, so after a way-too-short hour, all the kids left to go do that, leaving Nathan and I to play to the actual bar patrons. So my party was over, but the remaining people seemed pleased to listen to my more mellow songs. But the cocktail party was only an hour, and Nathan was set to play for three, so the party came back after a while -- fortunately ready to listen to a mellower set this time.

I was a little afraid that Nathan would get in trouble for letting an amateur get up and do his sets for him, but the Musical Director (who's also the bass player for the 80's/90's band) came by, seemed pleased at the big dance party I had going, and took pictures and video. And later that night, I ran into the 80's band's singer, and he told me how much he'd enjoyed my stuff, and as I was leaving the ship the next morning, the Cruise Director said he'd come by too and thought I was great. So I guess Nathan's job is safe...

I've been harboring a fantasy of actually getting a job on a cruise ship, but I can't figure out how to even audition for it. Their website shows audition schedules, but it's always for Broadway-type show people, never Guitar Guy. Nathan thinks that they do need people, but at random times, and to just keep checking. He says, "But if you want the job, you'll get the job" so he thinks that I'm good enough, I just need to get (video) auditioned. The Musical Director said that it's just by the website, but she gave me the name and email address of the guy in charge of Carnival's booking.

We'll see. But maybe we can just call this Enough to get it out of my system. If I had a Bucket List, this would definitely have been on it. But maybe it wouldn't be quite so much fun, day after day after day, for literally months on end.