If you are following along, you know about the trials and sometimes tortures I put myself through performing at the Acoustic Blues Open Mic Nights at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs.  To be fair, I judge myself pretty critically in an effort to figure out this live solo performance thing - acoustic no less.  In a lot of respects, I have little business being up on the stage at this point of my musical journey, but that doesn't show much initiative, does it?

Here's a pic of the Acoustic Jam from the June Open Mic.  Great players on the stage and a goofy guy with a weird tool box guitar.

Despite the self-criticism, much of which is earned and well deserved, I have had good nights and great songs up on the iconic stage.  Many of them have come on the weekly Folk Open Mic nights which are open to any format and any music or spoken word.  Performers get two songs and max ten minutes.  The audience is mostly made up of fellow performers and their guests, but some come just to watch too.  Although I have come to feel really welcome at the Acoustic Blues nights, the Folk nights are much more casual and a larger crowd.  I like them when I get a hall pass for the night.

Last night was the third Folk night I attended and performed.  Previously, I've played Uncle John's "Wiener Dog Run", "You Are My Sunshine" a la Jamey Johnson, "So Lonesome I could Cry", Iggy Pop's version of "Louie, Louie", and I murdered the Ramones classic "I Wanna Be Sedated" playing acoustic clawhammer style.  It was fun and I think I did all the songs pretty well.  I've posted videos of most of the songs here.

Yesterday my wife and daughters went to visit family for the weekend and I stayed home to finish up my last three college papers for the semester - which I'm putting off right now by writing this blog. . .  I decided to go out and play two songs with the same title.  "Going Down Slow" by Tom Waits and Howlin' Wolf. I was 8th on stage after performers who had travelled from Mississippi and Oregon.

The Tom Waits version I have just started playing a couple weeks ago and I worked my way through it on the last Blues night.  I had only started playing it the day before.  With a couple more weeks practice, I have this one down much better and I have stuck to playing it with a slide.  The only hiccup in the performance is that I've put some new strings on the guitar which are much lighter gauge and take a delicate touch on the slide.  The highest string is tuned d4 and is an 11 so every once in awhile when playing the IV chord, the slide will hit a little heavy and effectively notes on the 8th fret.  That sounds ugly when I up-pick that single string and it happened once last night.  Otherwise, I think I did well.

The Howlin' Wolf version of the song is forever connected to me and I posted a video of me when I first improvised my own version of the lyrics here a couple years ago.  I finally have this song just how I want it leaves a piece of me on the stage when I play it.  I got a great round of applause and cheers afterward and a lot of compliments as I made my way back to my seat.

I've played somewhere around 20 songs on stage, sitting there all by myself in front of the audience.  It is a little scary every time and it certainly is frustrating when the performance either flops or just doesn't go the way I'd like.  I have practiced with focused intent practically every day since my first performance and sometimes it just hasn't been enough.  But the nights when I get out just one good song make it worth it to me and drive me to keep at it, developing my style and abilities.  Last night charged me up.

I highly recommend getting out there and finding a place where you can play.  Find a place where the audience is interested in seeing you progress, help you through the performances that are not going well, and invite you to come back.