Post Vacation Blues

The Blues can be a good thing--I love listening to the Blues.

Blues can also be a bad thing--like the blues I've got when it comes to writing right now. I guess spending nine days traveling has got me out of my routine for some reason--that, and the computer problems we've had since returning home Monday night are serving to reduce the number of words that seem worth writing.

Back to the topic of Blues music, I don't think that I've made much mention of the fact that I'm an aspiring harmonica player. I played the harmonica with a band in Atlanta in 1999-2000 that played fairly frequently in public before girlfriend problems caused our ultimate breakup. It's funny how girls love you and will do practically anything to go out with you when you're in a band, and then end up being jealous of and hating the band when all things are said and done. The fact is that performing in a band professionally takes time, and some women just don't understand that concept.

I also formed a duo with Guitar Dave while living in Mexico Beach Florida that played on Sunday nights in this wonderful little dive called "The Lookout Lounge" that had been in business since the 1920's. We had a little PA system, a couple of old Yamaha tube amps and we developed 50 or so songs we could play and sing through using crib sheets instead of memory to support the vocals. We never had more than twenty-five or thirty people in the room, but then—if you saw the size of the room—twenty-five people was a full house.

The other thing I do to put myself at risk in public is sing Karaoke. Karaoke is a strange social phenomena. Ordinary people will get up in front of a room full of strangers and risk making complete and total fools of themselves. Some even manage to surprise themselves and do a good job with a song. I can tell you from personal experience that it helps to really know the words to the song and practice it at home before you jump up in front of everyone and start belting out the chorus.

There are a couple of songs that I think should forever be banished from Karaoke disks everywhere. Songs that last longer than three minutes like Don McClain’s “American Pie” come to mind, because the people that choose these songs inevitably cannot carry a tune in a bucket using both hands and no matter how polite the crowd tries to be, no one should be subjected to that level of pain and musically induced suffering for that long.

We live within a mile of a place called Ziggie’s that has live music three nights a week, as well as Karaoke on Wednesday nights. It’s a pleasure to sing at Ziggie’s, but it is also a bit intimidating because the regulars include some really good singers. “Hot Tub” Bob and George and Mike are tough acts to follow, but the crowd appreciates the overall quality and as a result we get a good number of spectators that aren’t there to sing—just listen. Pat and I got out there this past Wednesday night and I ran out of songs that I knew because it was the “Virgil and George show” for the first hour. Things don’t get going good until 10:30 PM.

I guess it’s time to work up a few new songs, anyone up for some James Taylor or Jimmy Buffett?