SONICFROG DOT NET

It’s Alive. It’s Alive! It’s Alive!!!!

Here is one of the songs I performed on Friday night…

Without my bass…

Just me and my awesome Taylor 614CE, strumming and sing as if I were a somebody!

All alone on stage! All by my little lonesome… First time… Ever!

What? How did this happen??? When did I become a guitardist???

After all, I’ve never craved being THE STAR! The center of attention. The main attraction!!! I mean, I have always loved being on stage with a band, making music, wearing crazy hats, and having a blast rocking out with the guys. I’m always been happy being the goof bass player.

Yet, there I was. Alone! Naked, with no parachute!

Here is the back story. Every year a gathering of some of Fresno’s finest musicians play a small non-profit Christmas concert for the ailing kid at Valley Children’s Hospital. Of all the things I’ve done in my life, this is little simple thing, singing carols for these kids, many who are struggling to make it to the next day, is one of the things I cherish most. It’s something that I’m so proud to be a part of. This year, the guy who runs the show, Fresno’s phenom guitarist / performer Roger Perry, decided to hold a couple of benefit performances to raise funds for the event. One of my projects, the duo dubbed Taylor-Martin  was scheduled to play the event. But Jim, the Martin part of Taylor Martin, called earlier that afternoon and informed me he was very sick and wouldn’t be able to play the gig.

Well Crap!

I called Roger and let him know that Jim was out, and I would try to get a hold of my Acoustic Highway bandmates, or my Police tribute band guitarist, to help fill the now empty 6:30 to 7 PM slot. No one was available. Roger suggested I come anyway and play a few songs. Thing is, I’ve only been learning to play guitar for a year or so, and though I can do OK, and have play some rhythm guitar on stage on a couple of songs with RareForm, I don’t consider myself a guitarist by any stretch of the imagination, and under normal circumstances would never propose to expose my lack of general skill on guitar in front of an audience. You should have heard the debate that was going on in my head!

“I can get by decently”.

“What are you talking about! You aren’t ready yet! You don’t even have the lyrics memorized you putz!”

“Yeah, but I have to start somewhere, don’t I?”.

“Yes, but not today!”.

And on and on the conversation went while I was servicing my last pool and cleaning the diatomacious filter.

Yet, a few hour later, there I was, playing in front of about 25 to 30 on-lookers. No guitarists to hide behind. No other person’s voice to blame the wrong notes on! Just me and my guitar on stage, in front of a whole bunch of Fresno’s finest musicians!

So, how did I do?

Considering I only had about 40 minutes of prep time to go over the three pieces I ended up playing? All in all, not too bad. I was working when I got the initial call, and by the time I got home, that was all the time I had to dig up the lyrics and try and remember how the stuff went.

When I got to Audie’s Olympic, I was still debating whether or not I was going to do this. I wasn’t “nervous” per-se. I rarely get nervous when I’m going to perform. I sometimes get apprehensive, but not nervous. I’m not sure why really. . Maybe it’s because I wanted to be an actor as a child, and had conditioned myself at an early age not to have fear of the stage. Maybe it’s because I’ve been performing for so many years, and was a front man in my college band Tribe Called Mike (that’s me in the middle).  I don’t know. Regardless, though the conversation was still going on in my head (OK, maybe it’s because I’m partially psychotic!) the debate was over. I was there. My guitar was there. I was going to perform.

I introduced myself, explained that Taylor-Martin was originally going to perform, but since Jim / Martin was sick, they were stuck with me, just plain ol’ Taylor. And, since this is the first time I’ve ever done this kind of thing on my own, I have no idea just what is going to come of it. So I dubbed my maiden voyage the U.S.S. Titanic, had everyone pray that I didn’t hit any icebergs, cast off and set sail on this new adventure.

I had been toying around with Tim Finn’s Persuasion for some time, with the intention of incorporating it into the Taylor Martin set-list. It’s such a sweet song, and like so many of Finns songs, I always pity that more people are not familiar with his work. I hope the performance Gods forgive me, but I ended the song before I got to the middle bridge. There are bar chords in there, and I wasn’t feeling like I would hit them cleanly. It’s OK, though. It’s an obscure song, and the beauty of playing a song that know one knows is that you can alter it all you want, and nobody would be the wiser.

The second song I did was Fragile, by Sting. I can only play guitar on that because we play it in Acoustic Highway. We sometimes will play that all acoustic, and when we do, I will play rhythm guitar and sing the harmonies. Thank you Joanne for bring that song into the band – good choice. On the first chorus, I did screw up the change from the Am to the B7, but as I’ve learned from all those years of playing bass, you just smile, play through the mistake, and hope not too many people noticed.

The third song? It’s something I wrote many many eons ago, and only decided to play it because the chords are almost the same as the Tim Finn song. Well, I hate to say it, but I chickened out of playing it. Even though I did have lyric cheat sheets with me, and even though it is my own song, I hadn’t thought about that song for years, and seeing that I came across it just before I packed up and left for the venue, I decided that trying to pull it off would be pushing it.

So, I only played two songs. Afterwards, I thought of one more song I could have, should have played – Message In A Bottle.  I would have only played the bass line, but since most of the people there at Audies were also musicians; they know the guitar lines, and would have filled them in in their musical heads.  So I blew that one.  But it’s a start! Hell, even though I did bring the guitar to the gig, I half expected to chicken out and not do the thing.  And I have to say, even though I did hit a few chinks of ice, I didn’t hit any icebergs, and am really really jazzed about doing it. It was a unique thrill.

World… Look Out! I’m bitten by the singer / songwriter solo performance bug!

As the title said – It’s Alive.  It’s Alive!  It’s Alive!!!!