"Baby it's the guitar man"

Yesterday I went to a bar about twelve miles south of Toledo, in the quaint little town of Waterville for a bi-weekly open mic night. The bar was mostly empty save a few friends of the DJ/Guitar player there to sing and take turns playing. After consuming a pint of liquid courage I stepped up to the mic and performed the demo version of "Mystical One" from the George Harrison album Gone Troppo.

I was still to shy to sing, but the song is pretty and went over well. It was slightly odd not playing on my guitar—this guitar had very low action which I don't care for—so I went out to my truck and retrieved mine.

I quickly lost my nerves and paitently waited for my next turn. This time I did one of my songs, which recieved a pretty good response from my peers. I only have two verses to that particular song at this point but it felt good to play my music in public for people who are not personal friends of mine. That was to change quickly though as the two other guitar players, three singers and I hit it off. I sat in on every song after that. It was an interesting experience and a great exercise in some of the many areas that I need to work on including but not limited to: networking, playing outside of my comfort zone, putting my music out there (even if only to a mostly empty bar), and playing new-to-me music. Some songs I had never heard of, some I had never played, others I haven't played in a long time, but all the songs were fun. We went an hour and a half past the alloted time, but no one seemed to mind.

By the end of the night we were a little tipsy, a little from the drinks but mostly from the high of having fun playing music. Everyone was glad that I played and sang and seemed to be excited at the prospect of having a new person to jam with every other sunday. I felt very welcomed by the crowd and will most likely go back for the next jam. This has given me the motivation to try and find other open mic nights to play.

Living the dream.