I was looking forward to only driving five minutes to this gig, especially after my ten hour drive on Friday. It’s a small community market with perhaps ten vendors. I set up under the big ole tree and got started about 9:30 am. There are friendly vendors and good friends and acquaintances drifting by, and only a few kids today. I appreciated the laid-back atmosphere today.
I wish I had changed my strings though. I was battling my guitar throughout the two hours and it affected my songs, taking my mind off the lyrics and other stuff I wanted to work on. This session also reminded me that I need to put more time in during the week in wood-shedding, especially with some heavier gigs coming up this summer. That’s why I value these low pressure market gigs – these help me gauge of where I need to put attention to the details.
While I was playing, I had the opportunity to play some songs that I could have played as an opener for the Smithereens concert the night before. I do have some material that would fit in for that kind of audience, some stuff that isn’t quite as folky and would work for a short adult set. That was a good take-away from today. If I had had enough warning, I could have done a decent set for a pop/rock audience.
Again, I had a problem with one over-stimulated boy who came over to play from the bag. I noticed right away that he had trouble picking one item from the bag; his focus was pretty skewed. He headed directly for my mandolin and the flags went up. Later, he grabbed a hand drum/tambourine and two plastic maracas and started to wail on them. (The heads break) I stopped and raised my voice to tell him to quit it. It startled me to do it, and surprised a couple of the vendors, too. It was all understandable (no parental supervision) but I’ve had a couple of tough situations with my crowd control recently that have set me back a little.
The time went quickly, and though the market manager forgot my check, I was gifted two gorgeous tomatoes, a fine burger and some small amount of tips. The market manager commented that, though it wasn’t busy, the music sets a very pleasant tone for the market, and I know that the vendors really appreciate what I add to the day’s event. And I get to play for two hours on songs I want to play. That’s pretty good for a Saturday morning in my home town.