Hissing Old Ladies

And then there are nights like last night. . .where you go to an open mic at a dingy little bar and everybody else's got their posse 'cept you cause, well, you ain't got no posse. The longer you hang out, waiting your turn, the more paranoid you become. . .somebody's bound to recognize your picture from the wanted dead-or-alive posters in the bathroom and try to collect the bounty. You manage to keep cool, all steely-eyed and flint-jawed, and finally the moment arrives and you reach for your 6-stringer and blaze your way across the stage. When the smoke clears you realize nobody even noticed. Your gun was loaded up with blanks. So you pack 'em up, ego wailing like a newborn and say to yourself, out loud. . .why do I do this? And nobody answers back, which is a good, since you ain't got no posse.

However, on the bright side, I ran into Rollie again last night and he and I sat around talking for about a half-hour. This guy is the real deal. . .very good slide player. I found out last night he won the National Guitar Slide Guitar championship a few years ago. . .he's very humble about it, saying it's really no big deal. . .but I've heard him play a few times and I can tell you. . .the guy is a pro. We got to talking about open mics, and he was telling me about one of his first paying gigs. . .in Nashville. He was living in upstate Michigan and somehow got an agent in Nashville, who flew him into town and booked a bunch of bars. He got right off the airplane and headed out to his first gig. . .a bar across the street from the famous "Tootsie's". There was a cover band on stage playing Allman Bro's tunes better than the Allman Bro's ever did them. The drummer had to go take a pee, so the bar-keep jumped up on stage and proceeded to play drums better than anyone Rollie had ever heard before. That town is like that. . .everybody and their brother is an accomplished musician. Rollie had to follow this act, got up on stage, and bombed big-time. He had played mostly open mics before this, and didn't even have complete songs. He said he actually got hissed off stage by two old ladies sitting over in a corner. Ouch. He only stayed in town a couple more days before hopping on a Greyhound for a little impromptu tour of the United States since he figured he needed to go back home and get a real job and forget this music thing. He didn't play his guitar again for about a year and a half. He eventually started doing open mics at the insistence of a friend (friends are great) and rebuilt his confidence. . .but it took a while. I'm glad he had some resilience. . .because he plays from his heart with a lot of skill. If you ever get a chance to hear him, go do it. You won't regret it.