After all the hooplah, Jaimie, Rosalie and I headed off for some quality chew and chow time at a nice restaurant on the Northside. My truncated family is very precious to me, and my kids have become some very wonderful friends and adults. I am so proud to be their Dad.
As they departed, I headed back to Godfreys to reflect on the full day. There was an Open Mike going on so I stopped in towards the end of the evening. There were only a few folks left, and didn’t initially feel like playing. But, I realized that I hadn’t played all day, surrounded by music in my radio show and the LVMA’s. I felt I needed to do so, so I signed up for the final slot.
As I awaited, I took in my friends Bill Hall and Sam Steffen, superlative songwriters. Bill sang one of his SouthSide songs and, again, I was taken by surprise by the power of his song to bring me back to my home space. I felt the intensity, the incredible spotlight of public attention, and crowd-driven facade I had maintained for hours, simply lift from my mind. I landed back to earth.
I finished up with False From True, a new piece for me from Pete Seeger, a very pulled-back blues (only two chords), but intense look at growing older. It was the first time in front of an audience and I nailed it. I followed, appropriately, with Legends from John Gorka. I nipped and tucked the arrangement for brevity sake (or forgetting a verse….) and took it home.
It was the perfect way to close out a very full and rewarding day of celebrating my place in this community.