Random Updates and Musings, Hopes and Frustrations Open Mike Follies

It's Wednesday afternoon. I am not feeling much like working on that website I am supposed to finish to market my website design and graphic design talents, and Kathy is wanting us to take a day trip because it is a beautiful sunny day. She says rain is forecast for tomorrow, so why not put off sitting in front of the computer until tomorrow? I suppose I can at the very least write a new post. I'd also like to welcome my newest followers. I appreciate that you have taken the time to sign up and I hope that you enjoy reading my posts on The Seeds of Song.

I plan to go back to REV Coffeehouse to do open mike again tonight. I didn't check out the open mike at The Urban Grind last night – I am still meaning to give that a shot. Anyway, now that I have my nice new business cards, I can promote my songs and hopefully get people to follow this blog. I am starting to feel like a regular there, maybe I can actually find people to play with. The last person I started to try to get something together with didn't work out. I met him while playing harmonica on my back porch. He heard me and was excited about getting together to make some music. He came over and we hit it off at first. He was a pretty good guitarist and knew some good classic rock songs. He did smell like he had been drinking a bit, but I wanted to give it a chance. I said we'd practice up and do the next open mike at REV.

The next time he came over to practice, he seemed a little more buzzed. Still had fun, but I was beginning to wonder how bad of a drinking problem he had. He came over two more times and he was progressively more under the influence. On the night we agreed to play at REV, he brought over a bottle of tequila and it was obvious he had already had a head start on his buzz. I was dropping hints all along that he shouldn't be drinking so much, but you can't persuade a drunk to do anything he doesn't want to do. We drove out to REV and I wondered how this was going to play out.

At REV, I bought a decaf tea for myself and orange juice for Nate, the guitarist. I put our names on the sign up board for open mike participants right near the top – I thought it best to play early because Nate kept stepping out to nip on his tequila and was getting progressively more drunk. Good thing I did. When Nate's turn to play came up, he did Neil Diamond's “Solitary Man” with me backing him up on harmonica. A little sloppy, but better than expected. Next he did a pretty bad, sloppy cover of “Secret Agent Man". Then I finished by doing two Lou Reed song's “Wild Child” and “Walk on the Wild Side” with one of the regulars, Jimmy, playing saxophone. I then got us out of there pretty quick because it was embarrassing me that he was lurching around thinking he was Casanova, hitting on young women who I am sure were probably just wanting him to go away. Maybe if this was a bar with lots of people drinking and various states of inebriation this may not have been so awkward...but being plastered in a room full of coffee and tea drinkers? Out of line.

When I drove Nate home and said I wasn't interested in having him come over anymore if he had been drinking. Time to go Kathy wants to eat lunch. Until next time!