The Right People Always Show Up

My friend Ro is having his annual art show tonight.  And I will show up for him.  Tomorrow, another friend, Kathy, is having her annual "holiday pottery show" at her home where she sells her handmade ceramics.  I will also show up for her.  I will choose to be there for my friends over staying in my comfortable warm home (or whatever else might be an option) because I know how meaningful it is when people actually show up.

Over the past few months, as I’ve been gigging out again, I’ve been experiencing both the stress (and excitement) of wondering if anyone will show up to hear me.  As a musician, I need people to show up, or I probably won’t get that gig offered to me again.  When a place hires “music”, it’s not just to make for a nice experience for existing customers, but it’s to bring in new customers as well.  And that responsibility feels stressful to me.  Because although I can promote a show,I never really know if people will show up.  And when they don’t, it’s hard not to take it personally.

I have such social anxiety over this sometimes.  Honestly, I think it’s the main reason I had lost interest in performance for the past several years.  I hate the feeling of twisting someone’s arm into coming out to hear me sing.  It’s just so uncomfortable and it takes me right back to a lot of feelings I had in junior high. I’m not cool enough.

The other night, I was lamenting to a friend about this very thing.  I was nervous about who was going to show up for what I knew would be my last public gig of the year.  She said this simple but wise thing to me: The right people will show up.

And ultimately, she was right.  

So, if you decide to have a holiday party during the season or an art show, or a holiday bazaar, or whatever, please remember what my friend told me. The right people will show up.  And to me, that’s a lot more important than the total headcount.

Here I am with some of the people who not only showed up for me, but stuck around until the bitter end. 💙

New Gig This Week!

It's been a long time since I've scheduled a new gig... a long time.  It has been so long that I didn't even know how to go about it.  So I asked around, got some suggestions of places to approach from a few friends, and just bit the bullet, so to speak.  I'm still biting it, and so far, I've gotten a few bites back.  Good bites!

My first new gig is tomorrow night at Urban Vines.

I'm super excited.  I've dug out some old songs of mine- and actually had to figure out what tuning they were in and how to play them as if someone else had written them!  I've also brought back some cover songs I hadn't played in a long time- Plus some new ones that I just learned. AND, I've polished up a few newer songs so they just might be ready for their first public appearance. It's been such a fun process getting myself ready and brushing up on things. 

Please pop over tomorrow night. The menu there looks great, and Thursday nights are half off on glasses of wine. And music, provided by me, is from 7-9pm!

Who Would You Be?

I read Jonathan Field's blog, and today he posed the question, "If there was no criticism or praise, who would you be?" He answered that he'd basically be doing what he does now. That's a great realization.

For me, when I think about this, I guess my answer is similar. I'd still want to write my blog, and write songs, and play music for people- But I'd like to be fearless and do it on a bigger scale. That's my truthful answer.

So then the next obvious question is, what keeps me playing my life so small? And maybe the truth of it is, ultimately, I sorta like it small. But at that same time, I'm constantly daydreaming about something bigger... Hmmm.

How 'bout you? If there was no praise or criticism, who would you be?