It’s been a while since I’ve done a live gig, so I was a little concerned as to how I would make it through a two hour set. I haven’t been playing much at home, so I was worried about my lyric memory and my physical fitness – especially my hands.
I decided to use the house PA so all I had to bring was a mike, some chords and my guitar and mandolin. Smart move, especially with the incredible parking problems in Easton these days. I unloaded and drove around for about 15 minutes to find a spot half a block away. I was lucky, and, amazingly, I was able to start relatively on time a 6 pm.
My friend Steve Capwell showed up with his harps and that made me relax quite a bit more. As I started out, I could feel my strumming hand feeling some fatigue early on. I decided to mix strumming and fingerpicking and that seemed to help quite a bit. I invited Steve to come up, sit a little bit to my left and play unamplified. With the wooden floors and open space, his sound was pretty good for the situation. 
It was a mixed crowd of families, date-nighters, etc. so I was able to mix in blues, folk-rock, country tunes, and the stew seemed to entertain folks. A little girl dancing to the music to my right, occasional applause but an overall good situation. Folks chipped in some nice tips into the mando case and offered nice compliments.
Having Steve on hand made the night for me. I was able to stretch the songs, also giving him a chance to improvise – a symbiotic situation – and the evening went well. Steve’s a real pal. I drove home in the incoming storm feeling good about the gig.