They say that one of the benefits of travel Is flexing your brain power. As you encounter issues, you use different parts of your brain to solve them because you are using unfamiliar tools in unfamiliar places.
I love the challenge of playing in a completely new place in a completely new town. Looking into an audience of unfamiliar faces that are soon to be friends.
Last night I was in the little village of Hot Springs, North Carolina. One of the tiniest places I have ever been with some of the warmest people you’ll ever know. There’s only about three restaurants in Hot Springs, and one of the most popular is Big Pillow Brewery with its courtyard beer garden and inside bar decorated with artifacts of the Appalachian Trail.
You never know what’s gonna happen at a performance and Murphy’s Law struck hard, lol. I met the bartender Crystal, who pointed me to the host of the evening, Roy. My favorite position to go up in any open mic is third. That way I don’t have to do the sound check and it’s unlikely that anyone will play a song that I have planned in my head to perform.
Hot Springs has some great local musicians. The first one up was a banjo player and the brewery was his second home. He played three originals and I was in Bluegrass heaven. The second performer was also local and the audience went crazy when he came up knowing what he would do, if only I knew what he would do. I haven’t played for a while so I prepared three songs and TBH I was not confident with one of them. Amarillo by Morning, Angel from Montgomery and Willin’, but I digress.… Player number two starts out strong and I’m thinking about what I’m gonna do so I’m not paying attention until his second song when he brings up a girl to sing with him and they start Angel from Montgomery. Panic. Alrighty, I can pull something else out of the hat, think, think, think. Jambalaya, that’s easy even in a bit of a panic. They finish to a roar of applause , and then he plays his third song. My heart sinks. Willin’. Two out of three songs from my set? How does that even happen? Take a deep breath, reshuffle, reset, ready and go. When I am out of practice, this is my worst nightmare, but I made it through playing a couple of songs that I had not practiced.
When I was a working photographer, I used to teach and the biggest piece of wisdom that I tried to my students was that if it hasn’t happened to you yet you just haven’t been in business long enough. I don’t know if I will ever be a professional musician, but here was just one more example of if it hasn’t happened yet I haven’t been doing it long enough.
It is a special challenge when your surroundings are unfamiliar and you don’t have a buddy to lean on when Murphy’s Law hits in a strange town but it sure is comforting when you’re a room full of supportive friends.