Wife and I were invited to a picnic at a neighbor’s place today. They’re pretty cool folks, but their party today was a little “extra” compared to usual. “Usually” it’s mostly neighbors and then a bunch of their other friends and family from all over the country. Today it was the opposite. Mostly people from all over and not all that many neighbors.
There were a TON of music people there. They’re friends with a local blues guitarist (who spent decades doing the Chicago blues circuit) and he was there today. We’ve still not been formally introduced, but no biggie. There were a lot of people there today. It was one of those parties where you wind up talking to just a few people for awhile and then by the time you realize it, a lot of other people are gone.
Ended up striking up conversation with another musician, though. Styles himself as a singer/songwriter/guitarist from the Perry Wing Band. Spent 40yrs playing in the Austin, TX scene before moving here. Says he loves playing here and that he has done more shows here in the short time he’s lived here than he did in 40yrs in Texas. Invited us to his next show next weekend, too. He gave us two of his cds, even. Haha.
And my wife got an invite to another local musician’s birthday party next Sunday. These are the folks who put together a charity album for hurricane relief a couple years ago and one of my wife’s original songs made it into the album. Who knows what musicians are going to wind up there?
Not sure I’m going to be anything other than little folk myself. My wife has a goal of being “known” on the ukulele circuit (basically getting the occasional paid gig to be a featured performer at uke festivals) and she’s making progress there. She’s going to a big uke fest in a couple weeks as an attendee and will be helping her friend/mentor who will be an instructor there by doing some singing demos with him in one of his classes.
You know, I’m not sure if any goals of mine necessarily require getting plugged into the music industry/community. What I kinda want at the moment is just folks to play with. Not specifically people near my skill level, but definitely people who are cool and supportive about playing with someone at my skill level. Not even with any end goal other than learning and having fun. I suppose it’s possible that I might find someone in the industry who would be willing to play with someone like me, but I definitely don’t expect it.
What I do like about knowing other musicians is supporting them by going to their shows and buying their music and stuff. I had a funny discussion with one of my friends (the guy who runs the Thursday open mic I go to a lot and have performed at a couple times). I mentioned to him that one of his recently re-released songs (he remastered a bunch of his early stuff recently) popped up on my playlist in the car on my way to open mic. After thinking a little bit he asked me if I was “that guy” who has bought all of his music that’s up on Bandcamp. Lol. Guilty.
No matter where all this leads to, it’s already a really cool story and must have been a great evening for you and your wife. Thanks for sharing that with us, Nate!
