I enjoy playing at this upscale pizza/bakery, even though it’s for tips, a sticky bun and a loaf of bread. It gives me a chance to play my material for two hours without folks asking for Free Bird or Wagon Wheel. As I settled in, there were some young families there and the young boys were captivated by the guitar and the singing. It was cool to see them bopping their heads to the music. I gave away a couple Shake It! CD to them.
It was a pretty chatty night so I laid low and played my tunes. There was a smattering of applause here and there, enough to massage my ego for the evening.
At the end, as I was packing up, an older gentleman came by and said, “I have a question. Now, I may be old, and the music was really good, but do you have to play so loud?” It took the wind out of my sails a bit, but I said that I try to play to the room, and the room was pretty loud early on. I said that perhaps I should have turned it down later in the evening. Mr. Diplomat, though it was true.
I did play well tonight and, surprisingly nailed most of the lyrics. That was a good sign that I’m back in a performance groove, in spite of being loud. Good tips tonight. No CD sales. Peaceful drive home.