There Are Fun Times

Last Saturday I attended the open mic in Rancho San Diego by the Starbucks.   They asked in advance if I wanted a time slot to perform and said I guess not.  They put me down anyway.

Unlike the others who play, I never know what I'll do until I do it.  I'd finished writing a song, at least the lyrics, on Friday.  The melody eluded me, even though I had some clue of what I'd like.  Even so I couldn't formulate it in my mind.

Fortunately, I didn't know I had a slot until a fews minutes prior.   My intention was to just play a random key harp for ten minutes or so with a drummer backing me and nothing else.

On impulse I decided to see if I remembered the words to my song.  I sang it a cappella and a melody emerged.   It actually went over well.  I was in a rare mood, shameless, I guess.

Then I riffed a short bit in A minor, a longer bit in E minor, then even longer in A--using a D harp.  That morphed from just made up stuff into Amazing Grace, into Shortenin Bread, and eventually into the Star Spangled Banner, with no stops in between--just jamming around and working into one or the other.

People actually stood for the national anthem, many singing along.  It worked better than I could imagine.  Then I quit while I was ahead.

Later I hit Parky's since Mockingbird had a gig there and had mentioned me sitting in.  I figured they'd forget or change their minds.  That little place was packed.  Diego the guitar player spotted me hiding toward the back and I ended up sitting in on maybe 5 tunes, one of which I'd heard previously.  It worked well and I left in a very good mood.

They had the place jumping.  Couldn't have gone better.  It was a good quality crowd too, very short on riffraff.
the end
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