Gus the Fireman

After about 10 Sundays in a row at the Gravity Bar, I am starting to get familiar with some of the vendors & artists that work on the Galveston Strand every Sunday afternoon. They probably work out there alot of other days but I am only there on Sundays.

There is one guy who does characatures that always will swing by while I am playing and say hello. The "stage" area where I play is near the entrance and the entryway. There is a metal hand rail type devider. He usually comes up there and leans on the rail and gives a smile and a wave.


There is another guy who lives in an apartment up above the Bar & he sells his art right on the sidewalk. He just leans it on the building near the entrance of his apartment. I don't talk to him that much but he says hello and we have chatted a couple of times. One time his painting fell over and I picked it up & he seemed to appreciate that.


There is another guy who is a bass player that lives up in an apartment. He is usually sitting out on a bench at some point and we chat a little but it is his home so I try not to invade his space too much. He has come in and listend to me play and also come by Whiskys Pub also.

There are also the people that give the horse carriage rides. I have chatted with some of them usually about how business is.

The one guy that I have talked to the most is an old feller & a nice guy. He just sets up on the sidewalk and paints and sells his work. He smokes a pipe and has some pretty thick lenses on his glasses.

Since I had changed the format of my show and been doing the marathon gigs, I have not had a chance to chat with him for several weeks. This past week it was real busy all day but I was able to take a break at about 7pm and walked over and visited with him for a little bit.

It was nice to see him and we talked for a minute and I started to realize that he might have had a drink or two. He was pretty well lit up. He told me that he had played guitar with Willie Nelson & he sang me a couple of old country songs. It was a great time. I really was feeling good about everything and told him I had to get back and play some more.

A few minutes later, He had made his way over to the Gravity bar and I ran into him outside. He had decided that he wanted to play a few tunes and wanted to use my guitar. Not one of my favorite requests to say the least but after 3 years of playing in Bars, Clubs, pubs, taverns, pool halls, Ice Houses, & other premium venues, I have learnt how to deal with these type of situations & handled it about as smoothly as I could.

Overall this past Sunday was a pretty good day for the Blues.

I am thinking next week will be more of a challenge since there will probably not be as many people out on the strand but it is not easy to predict those kinds of things. I am just happy to have the gig. The customers are generally in a good mood and there is a wide cross section of what I like to call Humanity.


I have done extensive market research and figured out that Humanity is my target market.


Oh yeah, I hated to hear that the Croc Dude got killed. I liked that guy.