PERFORMANCE LOG EXTRA: COLLABORATION

It's been an interesting week of performing at the area open mics. And the highlight had absolutely nothing to do with me.

A couple months ago, my wife asked Graham if he would be interested in doing a number where he played the guitar and she tapdanced for the percussion. He thought it would be cool but it was only last week when they figured out what they would do - a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp." They started practicing last week, both of them working out their parts; Graham decided he wanted to use the kick drum to, so Jill's tapping became like a snare (though she was often in concert with the kick). On Thursday night, they performed it at the end of Graham's set (he was the host at Front Porch) and they did a great job. Graham sped up a little with the energy of it all but Jill kept right up with him and the crowd just loved it. It really raised the energy of the place, which was packed. I was very proud of Jill and it was neat for both us to perform on the same night.

One of the songs I played that night was "Let's Get Married Tonight," which is a higher energy tune than one I was going to play; I had also been telling Randall (a great local poet) the story of how Jill and I ended up together, so I thought the song would be appropriate. Afterward, Tom Adamson (another friend who is in the band Bottle Rocket Blue, with whom Graham and I played in February) said he had thought of a guitar part to go with the song. Last night was an open mic that Tom hosts, so I had him get up on stage with me and play it. It worked out pretty well, especially by the end. He said we should play it together a couple more times and really get it down, which is great. It would be cool to play that as a full band some day. I also had Graham come up and play guitar with me on "Holding Pattern," after having watched us on You Tube performing it that night we opened for BRB - his guitar part really adds to the song.

I started the week with some collaboration as well. My friend Britt Owens was the host at Anneliesje's; I've been bugging her to let me sing harmony on her song "Let's Run Away," which is a great little pop song. So, without any practice she had me come up and do it with her. It went reasonably well for a first time - she laughed a little at the start and I had forgot where I was going at the end of the verses but if we do it a few more times, it should sound pretty good.

I really enjoy doing music with other people, so this was a fun week for me. And watching Jill do her thing was very cool.