Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Don't shoot the piano player


Hey Sports fans,

I used to be more of a sports fan myself but when the Houston Oilers left town it made me realize how much of a business it is. Now when I see professional sports, I see millionaires that will be millionaires even if there team loses. They aren't gonna be worried if I am broke so it is hard for me to worry about them winning or losing.

In other news a spider bit me on the ass. I don't have that much of an ass to go around so I don't really appreciate it. I used to be more towards the catch and release policy with spiders in the house but now I have an urge to stomp on them. I did resist the urge this morning. There was one walking acroos the living room floor and I put it in the back yard. It may find it's way back in to the house and bite me but I just don't enjoy killing things. Even spiders.

This past Sunday at the Gravity Bar was a little different. There is a guy named Carl Smith who plays piano at various bars on the strand and he brought one of his pianos to the gravity bar and now plays there from time to time. He came in on Sunday at noon and played while I was setting up from noon (opening time) to about 1:15 when I started. He plays a real piano, Not electric keyboards. I had never heard him before but I enjoyed what he was doing. He played some Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Tunes and even though he didn't have a PA system he did a good job on the vocals. He really has the Jerry Lee Lewis vocals down.

The Gravity Bar has very big doors all the way across side that faces the sidewalk where poeple are walking by and Carl had his piano at the west side on a small raised area where there are some couches. It is right next to the sidewalk. My stage area is about 15 or 20 feet west of that also near the strand sidewalk.

They had all the doors open this past Sunday since it was pretty nice weather. Carl had offered to sit in with my one man band so after I played a few songs in my first set, I invited him to play along.

It was kind of cool to have two separate stage areas with music coming from two directions. I also like the fact that it was a traditional piano which gave a kind of honky tonk sound and a little different type of effect on the vibe.

I started at about 1:15 and ended up staying until about 8pm. I started out by playing a few tunes, Then Carl joined in and then Carl played a tune or two by himself and then I played a couple of tunes and then Carl joined back in and so on. I liked being able to mix it up where it was really three different types of presentations rolled into one.

Carl ended up staying until 8 pm also and he seems like a cool guy. He told me he would be back next Sunday and I told him it was cool with me if he wanted to do it again.

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