February 28, 2018 [LINK / comment]
Last month, I started asking around different local establishments about the possibility of doing music shows, and scored a gig on February 17 with Shenandoah Brewing, located in downtown Staunton. (See their website.) I was hoping to follow up on the big success of my show at the Valley Smokehouse (see January 30 blog post), but a wintry weather forecast depressed the turnout. For most of the time that I played that evening (from 8:00 until 10:15 or so), there were about eight to ten people there. Fortunately, it was a friendly crowd, and they enjoyed what I played.
| Seq-uence | Group | Song title | Harmonica? (key) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ozark Mountain Daredevils | Standing On The Rock | C |
| 2 | Ozark Mountain Daredevils | Leatherwood | A |
| 3 | Johnny Cash | I Walk the Line | |
| 4 | Eagles | Lyin' Eyes | |
| 5 | Eagles | Tequila Sunrise | G |
| 6 | Bob Dylan | Like A Rolling Stone | C |
| 7 | Simon & Garfunkle | Mrs. Robinson | |
| 8 | Beatles | Love Me Do | C |
| 9 | Creedence Clearwater Revival | Green River | |
| 10 | John Fogerty | The Old Man Down the Road | E |
| 11 | Neil Young | Harvest Moon | G |
| 12 | Neil Young | My My, Hey Hey | Bb |
| 13 | Poco | Heart of the Night | C |
| 14 | Doobie Brothers | Long Train Running | C |
| 15 | John Denver | Take Me Home, Country Roads | |
| 16 | Beatles | Come Together | C |
| 17 | John Cougar Mellencamp | Pink Houses | |
| 18 | Classics IV | Stormy | |
| 19 | Classics IV | Traces | D |
| 20 | Andrew Clem | Better Left Unsaid | G |
| 21 | 10 CC | I'm Not In Love | |
| 22 | Pink Floyd | Breathe In the Air | A |
| 23 | Pink Floyd | Us and Them | |
| 24 | Bob Seger | Turn the Page | G |
| 25 | Gin Blossoms | Found Out About You | |
| 26 | Ozark Mountain Daredevils | If You Wanna Get To Heaven | F * |
| 27 | Tom Petty | Here Comes My Girl |
Some more folks came in about ten minutes after I finished, so I offered to play one more song for them. They requested a Tom Petty song, so I played "Here Comes My Girl," which they appreciated. Then I sat down to enjoy a pint of ale and had a nice chat with the bartender, Simon, who hails from Great Britain and once worked as a roadie in the British rock group The Jam. (See allmusic.com.) He also met Sir Paul McCartney once, introduced by a mutual friend. That's pretty amazing. Shenandoah Brewing has a great atmosphere, and I look forward to playing there again -- hopefully soon!
The stage at Shenandoah Brewing, with the various musical decorations on the wall in back. On the left, wearing the black beret, is Chapman, the proprietor.
In contrast to my January 20 show at the Valley Smokehouse, which has its own big P.A. system, this time I had to use my own amplifier / P.A. system. As you can see, it is highly portable, and looks like a fat suitcase. I can set the whole thing up (including microphone and speaker stands) in about 15-20 minutes. On this particular night, unfortunately, I had to lug all of my equipment from the garage where my car was parked, almost a block away.
My Fender Passport P.A. system, all packed up.
After missing a week, I had a great time at the Queen City Brewing open mic event on the final Wednesday night of January (the 31st). It was just Fritz Horisk, Kimball Swanson, and me, so we each had to do extra songs, and we really rose to the occasion. I played a song by the 70s group Badfinger for the first time, so I told the tragic story about the guy who wrote most of their songs, Pete Ham. He committed suicide after realizing that his group had been ripped off in their contract with the record company. Here's the full set list:
NOTE: ( # ) indicates that I played the song with a harmonica.
The very next night (February 1), I played at the Barrenridge Vineyard open mic event for the first time since October 19, I believe. I jokingly told the host, Bill Harlow, "It's a miracle!" As usual, it was a big friendly crowd, at least 20 people. The first three songs I had just played the night before:
Back at Queen City Brewing on February 7, it was just Fritz Horisk, Brandon Cook, Den Fruman, and me, so once again we each had to do extra songs. The first song I played was "inspired" by Stormy Daniels, the porn star who allegedly accepted a large chunk of money to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with President Trump. There were six (or perhaps seven) songs altogether:
I missed Valentine's Day at Queen City Brewing, but played at Barrenridge Vineyard the very next night (February 15), accompanied by my lovely wife Jacqueline. There were more musicians this time, so I only played three songs:
I returned to Queen City Brewing a week later, on February 21. It was just Fritz Horisk, Kimball Swanson, Craig Austin (percussion), a new guy named Rourke, and me, so we each did eight songs. I played:
Tonight (February 28), there was some truly high-quality talent at Queen City Brewing, and in big numbers: Larry Ragland, Denny Ballard, Donna Ballard, me, Pasquale Dimeo, Matt Getsey and Craig Austin! My set consisted of:
Unfortunately, I didn't play the intro to "Cinderella" very cleanly, and likewise I missed some notes on the final song, "Susie Q." There's always room for improvement. But at least I pulled off the lead "guitar" part of "Take It Easy" (using the harmonica in public on that song for the first time) very well, and did just fine on "You Know Like I Know."