Cause half way through April, that’s really all I CAN do – review. So, March… Well, I turned 40 in March. that was Kind of a big deal, ’cause, y’know.. it’s 40. I definitely buy the “40 is the new 30” thing everyone tells me when I’m tell ’em I just knocked the 4-oh. I’ve never felt healthier and I’m excited about where things are going. March has seen quite a few trips to Santa Cruz, where I’ve been recording my first real record. I’m pretty excited about the plan to complete it. I’ve got 6 songs recorded and a few more sessions of editing and mixing before I’ve got something to send out. I’m also re-recording the Bedroom Sessions, the originals of which were lost in a hard drive crash. Just as well, these’ll be a lot better. Sadly, that’s all I have time for.
Played the Fillmore poster room again last night. I played with Alex, who has been rocking my world with sweet bass lines, sage advice and endless patience with my noobness. He brought his standup bass and we did a set of mostly ballads (most of the piano based songs seem to be slower and less rock than the guitar stuff, and the Fillmore specifically requested I play a loungey-piano thing. They were over the singer-songwriter guitar schtuff, so’s I’s told)
Anyway, things went alright. I choked a few lines and never really felt “dropped in”. It was a drinking crowd (Big Head Todd & the Monsters were the headliner, and it was a 70% full night) and I was having a hard time reading/reaching the crowd. Of course, in the poster room, it’s a cafe and people generally talk a lot in there. But during the second set, for the entire set, not one person applauded. It really felt like I was up there going through the paces for the sake of going through the paces. Literally, 30 minutes, not one acknowledgement from the 60-70 people who were there.
As a performer, I feel like I want to interact with or touch or move the people I’m playing for. So it was disheartening to go an entire set and feel ignored. But a minute or so after our last tune, a woman named Sarah came up and asked what our name was and what the last song was. And then she asked about the third to last song. I was totally blown away – someone was not only listening, but paying attention.
And her coming up to me (in the context of my experience of the last set) was yet another reminder of the lesson I keep learning and forgetting, learning and forgetting- I’m not doing this to be popular or liked. I’m not really sold on the idea of being an “entertainer” – I’m more interested in being an “inspirer” and/or a “mover” who can also make you shake it.
I’m doing this to reach people, and if it’s only one person that I speak to, then job done. I keep getting caught up in the idea that the only way my message/music is validated is through the rapt attention of an audience. I have to learn to remember that I’m playing for the Sarah’s, the open ears and hearts hidden in the sea of people and not for the crowd as a whole. Someday, the Sarah ratio of my audiences will invert, and I’ll be playing to people who expect me and want me to be performing for them. Until then, I have to always remember Sarah – to look for her or to know that she’s out there in the room somewhere, listening.
And I saw that yellow-black line it stretched flat out over miles and stretches long across time.
Marked every standing structure like a level-headed angel of death, sucking the life out of a city draining its dollars into dark swirls of corrupt bureaucracy and deep pockets lined with the Big, Easy Money.
miles away from bourbon street, everyone leaves at dusk. when night falls, bullets fly and the national guard is standing by 168 murders, no convictions last year 20-some so far this one. Half as much in population. Raise the rent by half again. Insurance now four times as much If you can get it at all.
Which is worse? The New Orleans Before or the New Orleans Now?
But the bon temps roule en plus, oui, they do. The city’s pride is solidified by those who survived When you hear a waiter say “Thank you”, You know they mean it. I’ve seen it in their eyes Welling up with pride and desperation. The restoration, as it’s so-called Is going slowly if at all, from what I’ve seen Down in New Orleans
Next step is to send out an email to my list peeps. I think the last one I did was in August or something.
I’m rehearsing for the next Fillmore gig, Feb 23. Looking for a gig in New Orleans on Monday, February 5. Got gig?
Also hiring some session musicians to record a few tunes for a band demo. And writing new tunes. My New Year’s sabbatical was fruitful. I may have mentioned already that I wrote and produced a couple of songs. I’ll be doing a couple more “produced” songs and put them out as an EP.
And, the Bedroom Sessions are coming. I’ve been disheartened by the data loss of the original sessions that it’s been hard to get things going again, not to mention the demands of two jobs, a writing addiction, and the last shreds of a social life. But, Doc from Tower of Power really zapped me with some inspiration (not to mention some floor-slammin T.O.P. funk) with his complements on my songwriting and his encouragement to record. So… comin up!
Y’know, here’s the thing. I don’t even plan these things. They just happen. And when they do, I can’t help but just sit there kind of stunned/in a swirling happy trance, smiling and shaking my head. In October, I played the National Anthem, a bunch of protest songs and quoted Martin Luther King on the Alabama capital steps, in full view of his church, a block away. At twilight, after a gorgeous sunset.
Someone had contacted me by email and asked me if I wanted to play. Uh… yeah. Today the phone rings and it’s the manager of the Fillmore, asking me if I was available tomorrow night for a gig. On the main stage. Opening for Tower of Power.
Suffice it to say, it’s an incredible group of amazing musicians who LAY IT DOWN.
I can’t believe this is happening. In 24 hours, I will have walked off the stage to a sold out crowd at the Fillmore having played 45 minutes of my music. And then watch Tower of Power rock a full house that I opened.
uh…. wtf?
The thing is NONE of this was “planned” and yet, it’s absolutely perfect. I LOVE TOWER OF POWER. I can hardly wait to hear them play. The irony/perfection of opening for them.
Life is one big lucid dream, people.
And so I’m getting a fever and my voice is crackling, runny nose and stuff. My voice is thrashed. Y’know that scratchy sounding flu-season kinda voice? I can’t hit the higher registers of my voice, which is a shame, ’cause I love it up there. At the same time, it feels like the bottom dropped out of my voice yet another octave. If this is how it’s gonna be tomorrow, I’m having to make up new melody lines in baritone. Fun.
Whatev. Tower of Power. Fillmore. sold out. Say it with me.
I took a week around New Year’s Eve to take some time off and get outta dodge. I ended up spending the first few days blowing off steam and sleeping. I was so excited to not have anything to do that I think maybe I overdid not doing anything.
I spent 3 days at a closed-for-the-winter bed and breakfast place which was quite nice. Then a night at the Harbin Hot Springs, then 3 days at a beach house near Stinson Beach. It was there I was most productive. I managed to catch a bit of a cold which did not help with recording, etc..
Anyway, I managed to record three songs, two of which are new. “Unexpected Turns” is a song inspired by the Kim Family, “Texas Shuffle” is a, well, a shuffle about going down to Texas to see The Man, and “Gotta Be A Better Way” was a heartfelt song. I’m a little worried that some of my music is too cheesy and contrite. And at the same time, whatever. I’m getting shit done.
Sort of looking forward to working and stuff tomorrow. Getting back into the swing of things. I’ll be sending out a Happy New Year message with links to the new tunes, so make sure you’re signed up for my email list!
I’m on the phone with United Airlines (or rather, I’m like a rat in their maze of automated voice “attendants”. I have a flight that was supposed to leave for Kansas City at 5pm this evening. Got a call from one of those automated phone calling robots who said that my flight has been cancelled and that I “may” be scheduled on another flight. But I can’t get to customer service – once it starts to transfer me to a real human being in a call center in India (I can only imagine what that’s like) I get a busy signal.
I can’t remember my password to my Mileage Plus and I apparently failed to update MP about my many changes of address. I think the guy eventually believed I was who I said I was, but all my guesses were wrong. So now I have to send a letter asking them to update my address, so I can call someone on the other side of the planet to listen to them read a script and click their mouse.
So I’m not sure where I’m going to be tonight. Nother example of plans rapidly shifting.
I have a song I’ve been working on that took a sudden right turn and spawned a song entry in a contest for Alka Seltzer. The top prize is ten grand, and while I’m not endorsing the brand, per se, I do enjoy the good life, and there are times when a little Plop, Plop, Fizz Fizz does the trick. I’ll mention that other products I’ve used with a similar effervescence (Onomatopoeiacly speaking) like Emergen-C and Airborne have also rocked my healthier life.
Anyway, check it out: http://music.ianrhett.com/media/alka_seltzer.mp3
I’ve had a bizarre several days. I have a lot to do before I take off for my trip to Kansas City for the Holi/Family Days. I’m looking forward to seeing my mom. I am sort of ashamed to say it, but it’s been about a year since I saw her last. I think there’s something to be said for finding your way in the world, and I think there’s a lot to be said for mom love. (Or as the Gkids would say, “Mumzy love”)
So the last week has been pretty much a constant stream of broken and missed appointments. By everyone else. I’ve actually been trying really hard to get places on time. I’m sort of notorious for being late, or as I like to think of it, I’m both ambitious and optimistic as an estimator.
And yet, I pretty much managed to be where I said I was going to be when I said I was going to be there. Except pretty much every person I was supposed to meet ended up, one way or another, somewhere totally NOT where I was. I’ve been sort of perpetually stood up since Thursday.
Now, everything’s working out alright. I still get to hook up with all the people and do all the things I said I was going to do and it’s all been GREAT. Just not at ALL how I planned it.