5/14/19 Tommy's Second Tuesday Songwriter Night

Two weeks ago I answered a Facebook post from Mark, the booking guy at Tommy's Pub, which sought singer-songwriters to play the Second Tuesday Songwriter Night. Mark gave me a choice of slots and I took the earliest one at 8:00. I knew this meant some of the other players and their friends wouldn't all be there at the beginning, but I like playing early and I tried to get the word out to people I thought would come. I had 6 friends come out, and when they joined the people already parked on barstools, Tommy's seemed crowded, although more people showed up after I played.

I experimented by bringing a typical acoustic electric guitar rather than one of my "fine" guitars that have after-market pickups installed in them. I also used a reverb pedal. The sound was at least as good as my nicer guitars and the concert body was easy going for performing. It was also nice to have a guitar that was not as expensive in case anything undesirable occured. That said, I really like my Martin dreadnought guitar. At this point I felt unsure about my future choices in performing with various acoustic guitars, but at least I had confirmed that the sound will be pretty good no matter what guitar I use. Interestingly, 3 other songwriters used concert bodied Martins of different degrees of quality, the worst being the woman whose battery was failing in her preamp.

I played the songs that I felt were right for the barroom venue, which included Drinking a Beer, Get My Kicks, Wooden Porch, Briar Creek Blues, and Sitting on My Back Porch. People clapped, a couple of songwriters paid careful attention, and my friends enjoyed the set. I screwed up a few chord changes but rolled with it as if they were correct. I even uploaded my videos from the show, mistakes and all, because I thought the ice was good enough to justify posting them despite the irregularities.

I stuck around for the whole show, watching the different approaches to song craft and performing. One guy, a well-known Charlotte luthier played an acoustic electric lap steel guitar, another performer played songs he write 30 years ago in high school with newly minted lyrics, and a well-known former venue owner played as a humble performer after years of denying my friends the opportunity to play her club. I met a cool dude who was the final performer and avid open mic'er in town. He gave me the skinny about various songwriter events and acoustic open mics.

I had fun and managed to complete my 3 week stretch of 3 shows while suffering from severe laryngitis. None of the shows featured my best singing, but the fact that I could sing at all seemed a miracle. I left satisfied and ready for some serious vocal rest before the June shows.