Wednesday August 12, 2009
Red Light Cafe
Atlanta, GA
One of the things I am being reminded of about Open Mics is just how much they are like going to school. You really learn something every time you play one. One of the best things about Open Mics is that you get to play in front of a new audience every week. They are rarely the same audience and they almost always have a different response. This is a positive thing because you can learn how to perform to people that get you and some that don’t get you. This week’s crowd was a different crowd. The previous weeks audience was one that seemed to be entertained by the banter and stories. This week, not so much. They just kinda stared and listened but then again, during the songs they were dead silent and applauded graciously after each song.
As I’ve been saying so far, performing these songs solo is quite an experience. Some feel more natural than others. “Crescent City Girl” is one of those songs that was not written to be played solo but it made a great transition over to being performed solo. I was told after my set by an audience member that it had a Neil Young vibe to it. I felt a little shaky doing this one but it’s definitely got a ton of potential to be a great solo song. The next song, “The Night Gram Parsons Died” is a song that I haven’t played live since my CD release party back in 2007. It felt so good to play that one and it sounded like it had so much more life than it did before. I’ve been playing a lot more harmonica since then so the addition of that harmonica to that song really gave it more of a folky flair to it. This song got the best response of the night without a doubt but closing my set with “Angel From Montgomery” was a bit emotional for me. That was a song that John Madden (RIP) used to sit in on with me and play slide guitar and sing harmonies. I dedicated this one to John and played it with as much heart as I could put into it. At one point I even choked a bit when thinking of hearing his voice on this song. It was a great memory and a great night.
