building a fan base the border crossing way . . .

I have mentioned before that I am a part-time musician. One of the many good things about being a performing musician is the occasional chance I get to perform. The effect of music on people never ceases to amaze me. The last couple of gigs that Brad and I played were about as interesting as we've ever done. There was that one time we performed for a church girls camp and were treated like rock-stars. That was interesting and cool. Although I would have enjoyed a couple of hundred teenage girls screaming and cheering for me a lot more twenty years ago, it was still very appreciated and an enlightening experience that I would do again in a minute.

The last two gigs we had were at: 1) A worship service at a Seventh-Day Adventist church and 2) the nursing home where I work. The SDA performance was given to us through a friend of mine named Skip Johnson who also happens to be the pastor of the local congregation. We performed "The Other Way Around", Elephant Rock" , and most surprisingly "I'll Be the One" The last song was a special request by Skip at the end. As long as I live, I don't think I'll ever think of the song as a "worship song" but somehow, Skip was able to put the message of the song into a biblical context and make a small but effective sermon out of it. By the time he was done, it was practically a hymn. Well . . . not really, but I digress. The result was really positive I think. There were several members of the congregation that came up to us afterward to comment on the overall performance and some had really nice things to say about "I'll Be the One" in particular.

The second gig was last night at the nursing home I work at. I'm not going to pretend that it was a monumental success, but it had its own little moments of satisfaction and fun. We played for about 45 minutes and sure there were some who were falling asleep by the time we were done, and there were a couple who were trying to wander a bit; but for a bunch of people who usually listen to music by artists who have been dead for years, the ones who could hear us really seemed to enjoy it and they were very supportive. I had a pretty good time and the residents gave me a lot of good feedback today while I was doing their therapy. Although they could have been saying nice things to get me to stop, I choose to think that they really did have a good time also.

Anyway, Brad and I figure that we'll keep practicing, writing, and playing for anyone who'll listen with the hope that when it comes to really appreciative audiences that there will be . . . more to follow . . .