Monday, October 25, 2004

My Diary...Yeah; I'm Doin' That Thing.

OK...Last time I appeared in front of an actual, live audience was oh....34 years ago. I haven't touched my guitar, but for on occasion when I used to get drunk, in all that time. I was a "folk/rock" singer. Suddenly; Out of nowhere, comes this driving force to get back out "there." But I said to meself, ya know how I "say to meself" if you've read any of this stream of highly informative content, I say to meself; "Hey! You can't go out there and sing that stuff from back then. Maybe a couple of the songs but those couples did not number anywhere near a "set." (Say about 15 to 20 minutes)
So I says to meself, again; "Hey! Sing some of the stuff you've been mumbling parts of this past 34 years."
First problem was the guitar. The guitar I used when I was on a track to the stars (yeah, really, I was on that track) I smashed to pieces one night in anger because a string broke and I couldn't remember words to the songs. ( I was also. lets say, drunk too.) So I purchased a Tanginika guitar around 1980 and I have to tell ya the "action" on that guitar was non exisistent. I hated it. So it sat. It's sitting back in that extra bedroom right now. I purchased that guitar Estaban offers in those infomercials. I have an amp (never used an amp before), hard shell case and a guitar that sounds like no guitar I've ever played. It's wonderful! The "action" on the fret board is fantastic! I never "barred" a chord back then but with this guitar I "bar" the "F" and "Bm" chords because it's so pliant I love doin' it just to do it!
OK; Song selection? I was concerned about this because I couldn't remember words from all the songs I used to sing. And I did a 90 minute concert once. That's alot of words to forget. I thought I wouldn't be able to retain the words to the songs I wanted to perform. Well did I blow my own mind or what?! I'm picking up songs on 3 or 4 run throughs singing from a lyric sheet and, God bless this child, I'm retaining the songs in this noggin' of mine.
So far song selections I have down but need to polish are: "Hotel California", "San Francisco (be sure to come with flowers in your hair)", End Of The Innocence", "Night Moves", "The Long Run", and "Drift Away".
I decided, at this point in my life, I'm going to sing autobiographical songs. Or, more or less, songs I really identify with. Yes! "autobiograpghical."

I have, lined up, "Jet Airliner", "Running On Empty", "One Headlight", "Rock Me Baby" and "In My Life". These tunes wait patiently.

One tune, if I ever get it, will be the jewel of the set: "Step Right Up" by Tom Waits. I have the base riff down but man, getting that song to sound anything like I can actually do it is gonna be a job. And it is a job! (That's in the song heh, heh)
It's kinda like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time only a bit tougher than that.

The final and most important ingrediant? Having the balls to actually get up on a stage somewhere on "open mic" night and perform.
Yes...This is the most important ingrediant. OH! And establishing a relation (hopefully good) with the audience.


0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home