"I was at an open mic the other week and there was a guy playing a TOOL BOX!"

"Yeah!  That's Eric."

That's how I was introduced by Sonny Speed last night at Caffe Lena for the Saratoga Acoustic Blues Society Open Mic.  Hard to believe that I've done this six times now plus a handful of the Folk Open Mic nights.  Someone was telling Sonny about seeing "this guy playing a toolbox."  Likely I'm the only one; at least around Saratoga Springs.

It's been a full year since I put myself on a sort of sabbatical leave from working.  A year of no job, 18 credits of Masters degree classes, a lot of guitar practice and a lot of much-needed fun.  To close the 12th month, June was a tough 30 days of applications and interviews for teaching jobs.  After an extremely rigorous process including a second interview that required teaching a 23 eighth graders a lesson on one day's notice, I landed a great position teaching high school chemistry at one of the best districts in the area and it is close to home.

My daughters are home from school with me this summer and they are soaking up as much time as I can give them - a lot.  That put a bit of a damper on me learning three new songs for this month's set and instead of frustrating myself I decided to just pull out a couple reruns.

I started my set with the cover of Gary Clark Jr's "Nextdoor Neighbor Blues" and I have posted a video here of my version.  The original is usually played without a slide, but I use one of my Straight Relic slides to play the same or a similar riff.  I have practiced this a lot and the song went well, I think.

To finish up, I brought out two of the Uncle John songs I played in May.  The crowd liked "Unkind Woman Blues" and I got a lot of laughs throughout "Wiener Dog Run."  I felt really good stepping off the stage.

One of the regular audience members came over to me after my set and said I sounded really good and remarked about the progress I have made compared to when I started.  I know what I have accomplished and how I struggle, but it always feels great to hear from a listener that things are getting better.  Chalk this one up as a good month. Time to start thinking about August . . .with a smile.