THE YEAR OF 35: FRONT PORCH (x2), BACK PORCH, BASEMENT

I made my open mic debut at Front Porch Music on May 4, as promised. It's the longest-standing open mic place in Valpo, though there are now several. I've also been going there the longest, since about 1993, so it was nice to finally get up on stage and perform myself. Once again I played "Lonely Holiday" (Old 97s) and my first original, "Woke Up." I forgot what verse I was on in the former and missed some chord changes in the latter but it went well on the whole. Jane, one of the owners, told me she liked my song and wanted to hear it again. That made me happy.

On Sunday, May 7, I was supposed to have my first band practice with Graham. He was going to come over and we were going to work on adding bass and keys to some of his songs. He called in the morning and said the drummer wanted to come too, which was fine by me. Graham arrived first and we unloaded the gear and set up the mikes and amps and our back porch, then he started teaching me one of his newest songs. Tom (the drummer) came as we were doing that and we got his electronic kit set up. We were ready to go. We started on the song I was learning - "Jews and Gypsies." It didn't sound too bad and the first pass. What was cool for me is that I thought a small desending bass run would sound good and actually executed it. We worked on it a few more times, getting in and out of a slow part and such, and had it sounding quite good. My neighbor was yelling encouragment too. We worked on a few more songs with varying degrees of success (I came up with a solid keyboard riff for another song and my harmony contributions worked out pretty well). We played "Jews and Gypsies" one more time and called it a day. It was so much fun.

I had come up with a simple chord change on my guitar that day and a melody presented itself. By Monday night I'd come up with a first verse; Tuesday morning brought the second; and Wednesday gave me the rest of the song. It was as easy as "Woke Up." By contrast, I'm still at a loss for some lyrics on a third song. Anyway, "That's Okay" stands as the second song I've written.

I was back at Front Porch this past Thursday and had even more people in the audience watching me - my boss and co-workers and their friends and husband in one case. I started off with "Woke Up" again and did better than the week before, though I was still missing that one chord change from A to D - too keyed up, I think. I decided I should play "That's Okay" too and it went very well. My cheering section all said I did very well and I got another positive response from Jane, who liked the new one and heard more in the first one.

On Saturday I packed up the keyboard (which Graham had loaned me so I could work on the songs) and an amp and went down to Wheatfield (Graham's house) for another Livid Penny practice. Tom got there right after me and we set up down in the basement. I used a different bass and played with a shoulder strap for the first time. We started with "Jews and Gypsies" and it was as good as where we left it. We worked on three more songs and got two more worked up pretty well - "Puppet on a String" and "Tempo." After we were done my head was stuffed full of music. I think I did well, considering it was only my second time in any kind of band situation. I'll practice this week and we'll do it again on Saturday. And I'm back to Front Porch on Thursday too.

I'm having a blast doing this...