I played well last night.
Friends stopped by to listen; diners I don’t know stayed a little longer: probably, the bar made some money.
I fear irony.
Really, I do.
Be careful what you wish for — you might just get it at the worst possible time!
🙂
Or not.
I’m going to have to replace covers with my own material, perhaps fashion material for the venue specifically, but I’ve never been happier about holding on to a handful of songs (a few handfuls, actually) for forty years.
Hard to believe last night the same would turn back the clock twenty.
The Georgia Boy Cafe at Park Circle, Hagerstown, Maryland. My line: “Western Maryland’s Best, Most Authentic and Soulful Southern Cookin’!” My night: “Too Sweet Tuesdays.”
J. S. Oppenheim -- All Together 
what kind of music? i am a crazed flatpicker. play all the time. sutton, rice, daves, watson, etc.
I busted an important (also vocal) finger this winter, and that’s going to make it a little harder finger picking my way through “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (Ella Fitzgerald’s version), but I’ve learned in the past week that I can hold a pick (and a large camera). My repertoire starts with Stephan Foster and moves through the decades, and then I have my own material. I’ve had a long dream and could play a lot of small places (I’ve always been invited back to venues), but I’ve got a lot money in the camera gear, a little more mileage (and padding) on the body than I expected at this time, and I view that industry as having its own ecology in living.
Until last week, Hagerstown had a lively Tuesday night music circle on the North End at Port City Java, and that drew a share of flat pickers. Now the town’s a little too quiet for after hours casual players. Skyla Burrell and her band have been hosting an open mic at the Georgia Boy (Tuesday nights), but my crowd got in there as hosts last week (after Port City) and had some fun with it.
Music on the ground floor is ever a tough business, still a gypsy business, imho, and with 2,000 books in this small space and a lot of media rig besides, it’s good to “hold ’em” at life’s poker table and make the most of the planted assets (even though I could do with some highway time right after tax season).