It's All Good

I haven't had a bad gig.
(I've played badly, no doubt)
I've thought a few would head south, but they didn't. In fact those gigs turned out to be some of the best.

Tonight was supposed to be a Good Bye Samir show, but it wasn't to be. Strike one.
No worries.
I still had the afternoon gig at the Farmer's Market. This is a paying job. $25 an hour...cash. Through the town and the Parks & Recreation Department.
As we are setting up the promoter comes to explain it would be three hours and not four as we had agreed.
And of course that meant $75 per person rather than $100. Strike two.
Sigh.

As we began to play it was to a sparse turnout. The weather here has been brutal up until yesterday.
(The AC had been running 24/7) And then it broke. So today it was very pleasant, cool and a distinct lack of humidity.
So I expected a larger crowd. Okay...play on, McDuff...yes, I said it.
The band is a Blues thing - strict blues. No Rockabilly, no Tejeno. Joes band - he can do as he pleases; I'm just happy to play, right?

We're playing Stormy Monday, a standard.
There is a chorus early in Peaches En Regalia (F. Zappa) with an incredible walking bass riff, with the horns placing a sweet minor descending riff over the top.
Somehow Steve and I got 'stuck' in it half way through the song. (I started playing it, Steve recognized it and off we went)
But it rang...Joe starting playing his harp to my horn parts. It just worked SO well. Steve and I were both grinning involuntarily.
And now I notice people dancing. The crowd from the Glass House, a venue across the street, are filtering over in between shows...to check us out. These are nineteen through twenty five year olds. I'm really grinning.

And when we took a break, the woman at the taco stand came over and plied us with food.
"Could you play some Santana?" Joe nods.
I haven't had a grin plastered on my face this silly and unyielding as this since the early 1970s when it was acid induced.


Playing music is SO cool.