Remembering Bill

February before last when I first started the one man band, I had a gig at a neighborhood bar not too far from my house.

I think it was my third gig ever and I had told the owner I would play cheap so they could check out my show. I specifically told her that I would do the gig at the low price only if she was going to be there and she told me that she would be there when I played. I asked her if there were usually very many people in the bar on Sunday nights and she responded "I doesn't matter how many people are going to be there. I will be there"

I played for three hours and she never showed up.

At the end of the night I asked the bartender what he thought about the show & he said "It sounded OK but you didn't bring in many people"




I played three sets that night & had some technichal problems the first set & it went not so great.

I was a couple of songs into the second set when this dude walked in the bar and just walked straight over and sat on the edge of the stage about a foot from where I was and started clapping along. He then got up and started doing a dance like something you would see Grandpa from HeeHaw doing. It was clear that he had already had one or two beers before coming to the bar. He basically stayed right in front of me either sitting on the stage or doing his crazy looking dance & it was starting to get on my nerves.


Then I noticed how was livening up the rest of the folks there.

He really did make the party happen & the whole rest of the show he stayed right there did his thing while the whole time throwing verbal encouragement my way which did liven up my playing quite a bit. It was like somebody flipped a switch and the everybody just started having a good time.

The type of music I play (& I guess all live music) really only works if I put alot of feeling and engergy into it & like most other musicians, I can really feed off of an audience & tend to give a little more back when I get some feedback.

But the reality is that I can't base my performance on the audience. It just isn't how it works. I need to give 100 percent either way or it is not worth doing it at all. There are going to be times where I run into a lull.


And now almost 2 years later, I still think about Bill. If I am doing a song and it feels like I am dragging a little, I just try to imagine how I would play if my old friend (who I just met one time) was doing his HeeHaw Dance and encouraging me along.

It really seems to help.


Thank You Bill, I really appreciate your support.