THE YEAR OF 35: OPEN MIC

I've talked about doing an open mic night for years and years, going back to the early 90s. I first got the bug when we would go see Your Neighbors, a band that contained a friend who actually was my neighbor growing up. They were really good and I always thought it was a shame they never got a record contract and they eventually broke up. Anyway, we used to see them play at a local music store, Front Porch Music. This is back in 1992, 1993 range. Every time I used to say - I'm going to work on the guitar and learn some songs and start playing. I didn't back then.

Over the years, I've got to open mic nights at Front Porch from time to time; each new instance would bring a new resolve from me to play. Never did.

Over the past year or two I've gone off and on to see Graham play without much thought to doing it myself. Except now I'm in the year of 35 and things like open mics are what it's all about. I knew there was one happening in DeMotte (the town I grew up in and first dreamed my music dreams in) on April 21 and I decided it would be fitting to play that for my first time out.

I started working on some cover songs, trying to decide what I could play and what would sound okay. And after practicing those, I started to play some chords to see what sounded good and I found something I liked. I kept on playing it and a melody came to me. Then I had an opening line. That was it until earlier this week - I was washing the dishes and suddenly I had two verses. It was completely unexpected and utterly cool. I spent five minutes trying to go to sleep that night and then got back up and wrote down the last verse. A little editing here and there and trying to fit everything to the song and just yesterday and changed up the chords in one part and added a little repeat and it felt ready. When Graham came over yesterday I played it for him and he said he thought it was ready.

Cut to tonight. It's my turn to play. I get up and talk briefly about turning 35 and all of that. Then it's time to play. First I did "Lonely Holiday" from the Old 97s and then I debuted my song - "Woke Up." I played it pretty well, missed a D chord a few times and forgot to change to a G at the end, but I was happy with it. I got a very nice repsonse from the crowd (many of whom I knew) and that was great. I wasn't that nervous either, even when I hit the mic stand while playing or missed a chord. I know it didn't ruin things. And I know I'll do it better.

Next up is playing the open mic at Front Porch, which I will be doing May 4. I'm looking forward to it.