Playing and Performing

Last night we went to Little Flower Open Stage.  We hadn't been there since before Christmas.  Getting to Fiddlers Roost (an odd name for a club that is in the basement of a commercial building) right now is a challenging task. The usual route across the North Saskatchewan River that runs through Edmonton is under construction, so I have to go way west or way east to get there.  The same road in front of Fiddlers roost is closed too.  that means you have to find you way down the side streets and miraculously find a parking spot. I lucked out on that one and only had to walk a long block and a half. 

I took my guitar and Banjo and we had planned earlier in the day to play My Dream Automobile, Two Feet in the Water, and Clouds of Alberta.   Normally, we'd play these songs in this order, but I'll tell you later what we did.

Before I tell you about the performance, let me tell you about the few hours before the Little Flower Open Stage.  I decided to sneak out of work earlier than usual to get some grooming.  Yeah, my hair was getting a bit long and strangly, and I figured I should try to look at least neat if not short.   So off I went.  got my hair looked after, went to pay the lady, and no wallet. no money.  I phoned home and luckily Wanda was on the way to work and was going right by, so she stopped in to pay the bill. that took 20 minutes out of my day.  So then I went back to my office,  30 or 40 minute drive in rush hour, to get my wallet. Of course I worried all the way there that I wouldn't find it.   After all I was leaving for Nashville in two days and without credit cards I'd be screwed, and replacing them in one day would be highly unlikely.   Luckily it was there.  But on the way, I got a work call that ended up taking more of my time.

I still had to get home, get my stuff and find my way through the alternate routes across the North Sask to get to Fiddlers Roost.  Hadn't eaten yet, so grabbed a burger at Rotten Ronnies and headed home.  Got home, packed my stuff, and off I went.  I decided to go across the High Level Bridge and then down Saskatchewan drive. That would take me right in behind the area where Fiddlers roost lies.    Great idea, until I got across the bridge and found myself in the wrong lane and ended up going right back down a 1-way into the river valley instead.  this meant I had to loop around to get back over the High Level Bridge again.  I convinced myself not to make that same mistake again, and I didn't.  So I eventually got to Fiddlers Roost. 

Bored yet?  

So at the Little Flower Open Stage.  Now there wasn't a lot of people there, but they were filtering in.  Even with all the trials I went through, I still got there before Don and Brian.   So when our name came up on the list, we headed up to the stage. Breezy, said hold on, Amanda wants to go up.  We got bumped for Amanda.  Well, that was OK, we'd be next.  

Well.  We decided to play the songs in a different order than our normal routine.  We played Clouds of Alberta first.  that's the song that is an aggressive tempo with me on banjo, Brian on bass, and Don on Guitar.  I said to Brian before we started ' this should be interesting, my fingers feel like lead tubes tonight'.  And that's exactly how I played too.  First part of the song, I was off tempo, and got off the song.  I got into the song on the second verse, but lost my place a couple of times later in the song.  Was able to quickly recover though. 

Then we did My Dream Automobile.  This is one of those folksy easy going songs.  I'm on guitar, Brian on Bass, Don on the piano.  We started off.  Brian counts us in.  Brian's on, I'm playing the right chords, but I didn't recognize what I was playing.  Don's trying to figure out what I'm doing so he's off.  We just kept playing until I got the right song going and we all got on the same grove.  Then the song went good.   As Brian said, the harmonies sounded great.  I wasn't very proud of my vocals between the harmony parts though.  So we had a disaster start, but we got on track and got thru the song. 

Last song.  "Finally" I'm thinking.  This should go well. I play the song Two Feet in the Water all the time. I'm on guitar, Brian still on bass, and Don is now on bouzouki.   No problem here.  yeah right.  We start playing.  It sounds like hell.  I start the vocals, and it was so far off.   Brian smiles, asks me this "Do you want to play this in the Key of A".   You see, I usually play this with a capo on second fret, but I forgot to use the capo and was playing in Key of G.   So what can you do? People are watching.  You just smile, say oops, grab the capo, and start again.  Rest of the song went OK.  I still wasn't happy with my vocals and I missed a couple of lines, but we got thru and were done for the night. 

So lessons learned from last night:

Focus.  learn to focus for performing.  I haven't been doing a very good job of that lately.  Last night I felt pretty ho-hum about playing.  that's not a good attitude.  As Don has said many times, we are not just playing music, we are putting on a show.  Can't do that well without focus.  Seems that my focus is better when I have a little nervous energy. 

Pre-show warm up:    Usually when we do a performance, I run through the songs at home before I go.  So you know the story of my few hours before getting to little flower. I didn't do my usual run through the songs.   That is really just an excuse, it is not a good reason not to warm up.  I could have done that in the backroom by the exit stairs before going up to play.  I think that warming up gives me a little bit of that nervous energy too. 

Learn to sing;   You already knew that. 

Write another song: Why not?

And Lastly.      ONE MORE SLEEP!!!!!!!!.    Then I'm off to Nashville.  

Little Flower Fest

The Little Flowerfest is called "The best micro-music festival ever".  It's 'not a paying gig', but it sure is a fun gig.  I am always amazed at the talent that comes out to play for fun.  The 6th annual Little Flowerfest was held this past weekend.  This is the 3rd time we have played there.  Didn't make it last year because two many of us were on vacation and out of town.  The whole thing is organized by Breezy Brian Greg and Patsy Amico. 

The festival starts on Friday night and goes through to Sunday.  You can camp out over the weekend or come and go as you please.   Saturday starts off with "the Hike to the End of the World Concert".  This year we got led through the forest by a bagpipe and at the end, we were truly entertained by the Sawhorse Symphony.  

After the hike back, the main stage show began.  After the first great four performances, we finally got to do our thing.  Again, we showed up with a few more instruments, but this time we decided to travel light and only bring 1 keyboard, the bouzouki, Brian's bass, my banjo, and 2 six string guitars.   Don and Brian weren't playing guitars at the same time, so they shared Don's.  

Our set list:

• Black Room
• Earnest and Lucy
• Road to Nowhere
• Green Valley Monsters
• Clouds of Alberta

We left out Blueberry Pie, but had it in hand.  We figured we'd be doing good to get in 5 songs considering the set up and sound check within 30 minute time slot,  We did good.  

We had a good set.  First song had a rough spot in the middle, but I don't think anyone noticed but us (nerves maybe).  Next 4 songs went great.  I think we did the best live version of Road to Nowhere that we have ever done.  I thought Green Valley Monsters went almost flawlessly too. 

Now on to Clouds of Alberta.  Cloud really rocks out, but we folk up the rock with the banjo.  Song was going well, but as soon as Don hit into it, he broke a string (again).   His guitar went out of tune when the string snapped, my banjo had one string that was off just a bit, and Brian says one of his bass strings went out.  We think the hot sun was at play.   We kept going anyway.  After such a good set, it was kind of an unfortunate set of circumstances, but interestingly enough, no one seem to notice.  I'm sure the musicians in the crowd noticed. 

After all was said and done, we had several people come and tell us they enjoyed our set. One fellow said our lyrics were 'brilliant'.  I told him that we call our music 'clever'.  He liked that. 

After the set a couple more players got up, then it was time for the pot luck supper - a Little Flowerfest tradition.  Again, this was a treat.  lots of variety and volume.  No one goes hungry here. 

Brian left early.  Wanda, her mom, sister and the kids left early too.  Don and Linda stuck around for a while, I stayed on until about 10 pm.  I would have liked to stick around for the fireside jam,  I could have camped out, but I didn't take my camp stuff because we are having a mosquito state of disaster.  Wasn't as bad out there and it is in the City.  Go figure.