5/9/19 Summit Songwriter Showcase

Man, it was really cool to return to the Summit after all these years to play Rob McHale's Summit Songwriters Showcase. I met Rob at this venue back in 2006 when the Summit held an open mic. At the time it was the best open mic in the area and the coffee house was on its way to becoming a great alternative yet mainstay venue in downtown Davidson. Fast forward to tonight and Rob is ten years into hosting a songwriters showcase at a now classic cafe and venue in the college town. The old outdoor stage has been improved into a top quality covered stage worthy of an arts center or town bandshell. The upstairs listening room now has a professional stage. Tonight we were were inside due to an early rain shower.

The bill was Rob, myself, and a local singer songwriter named Adam Reid Wilson. I sat in the middle and was thus bookended by two powerful pickers and singers. All three of us played in different styles, all deliberately crafted for acoustic presentation. It has been awhile since I played with dedicated folk singers and it was inspiring. I had not forgotten Rob's powerful delivery with his de tuned hybrid picking and baritone voice. Adam's music impressed me on this first listen. He sang his heartfelt and spiritual songs that were spiritual insights based on personal reflection and experience. I took the opportunity to tell stories about the songs, and this really helped me open up to the audience and they responded with attention. I thought I told really good introductions about the songs and liked my easy going narration. I didn't realize how my 15 years of college teaching had improved my public speaking. I've always told stories well, but now I feel like I can control the focus and tease out the parts that matter to specific audiences. I happened to play several hometown themed songs which allowed me to share my thoughts on living in my own hometown, including actual tales of people I knew and accounts of my own experiences. I played more upbeat songs than the other two writers who were more like each other than me. Their resonant finger picking and polished vocals contrasted with my country strumming and rock-country-blues singing. Despite the variance, my songs belonged on the stage because we all drew from the same tradition of American songwriting, just in different ways. I pitched Cds for myself and Rob and while I didn't succeed in selling any, I did get folks to contribute to the collective tip jar. 

In terms of gear and sound, the other two performers had a better guitar sound than me. Rob has a finer guitar than me but my guitar was at least as good as Adam's. The difference was in their pickups and preamps. I've struggled to have a good sound with my pickup for awhile. I seem to be able to get it right when I do my own sound, but apparently it needs more tweaking than other systems because I never achieved the deep, natural tone of the other two, thought by the end of the show I'd dialed it in pretty good. My low output pickup cause me to crank the preamp gain and then I have to be careful about the bass to avoid monitor feedback. During the soundcheck, I had a good sound through the mains but the monitors continued to sound shallow and brittle. The combination of the two split the difference, leaving me with a thinner sound than I like. I don't know what Shure mics were onstage, but the had a different directionality than most Shure mics. At first, I had the mic placed below my lips to allow me to lean in on it from above, but I eventually noticed I was getting a thing sound. I watched Adam singing straight into his so I moved mine so it was directly facing my mouth and it projected my voice more dramatically. The sound man may have changed the tone as the show went on. Somehow, my vocal mic got better in the second half. 

Before I knew it, the show was over, we were packing up and shaking hands. I stuck around to help Rob load out. Then it was time to walk back to my car and drive back to Charlotte. Rob and I chatted out front for a few and then I kicked it down I 77 to the big city.

5/3/19 Oasis Fresh Market

Back at Oasis, which has become a staple gig for me regardless of the kind of music I play there. I first played Oasis with Bert Wray Blues (band). We did 5 shows over the course of a year. Then in March I played a solo acoustic show inside the market. This time I was back for a Friday night on the patio with my PA.

On arrival I expected to find a bluegrass jam that was happening between 5-6 before I was to go on at 6:30 with my show. The jam never happened an older cat with a washtub bass and a big hat was sitting on a chair outside the market. My preternatural senses told me that he was the only person to show up for the jam and that he was hoping to jam with me. Onside, Jackie confirmed that this was the case, so I asked her if he was any good to which she confirmed that he was pretty skilled at playing the homemade instrument. SO with a sigh I went out and arranged for him to sit in with me, and I even used a Sure 57 mic to amplify his playing a bit. It turned our that he was pretty good and could tune the notes with a lever. Just by ear he played 1-4-5 type blues and rags pretty sweet. ON the slower more melodic songs it was a bit weird sounding. Eventually he got bored after about 12 songs and split. I took the opportunity to switch to my 12 string Guild which I'd brought along for nostalgia and simply because it had been so long since it had seen a gig. It really takes me back to the Frederick MD coffeeshop days when I would play it around Maryland, PA, and West Virginia.

My guitar playing was good, especially the strumming. I ran the sound real low and created a nice tone for the guitar. I put a touch of reverb on the vocals and set the mic volume to where I could sing a bit away from the screen--the EV mic does this well. I remembered 95% of the lyrics to the 24 songs on the list. A couple of songs featured mashed up choruses or mangled lines in the versus. I captured some good videos of the music by setting the tripod up low in the performing area and using the selfie camera so I could monitor the view.

The audience was small but a few appreciative people were watching through every some. There was a nice outside vibe with the sky a mix of blue and puffy clouds, the shopfronts of Chatham Street and the cool murals on the walls of Oasis. A humid breeze blew across the market grounds. One older couple who were traveling around watched 3/4 of the show, funding bottle of ice cold water from the market. They even gave me one. At one point the man, a big, long-bearded dude, thanked me for doing all my own songs. he said it allows the artist to get into it more and he digs it. I needed to hear that as it gets hard playing the same catalog of original songs when many people just don't want to take the chance on your songs. Writing my own music begins with making it for myself, but there is always an audience in mind, and without some positive connections it can tax the artistic spirit. So thank you bearded-one for your kind comments. A few people drifted in and out alone as they had some food or drink form Oasis. Another couple settled in and watched the second set. It was a quiet night for Oasis and Siler City except for the music that I played. The recent artistic movement in downtown Siler City is inspirational and I always wish it and its purveyors the best.