Last night we played for a birthday/Doctorate conferral party on a hill overlooking a spectacular SW Washington valley. We had a set ordered, but it just didn’t work as planned. Instead of just playing as planned, we started off playing all the tunes acoustically and calmly.

This was interesting but very fun. At these sorts of venues, where the guests trickle in, why not create a soft feel as everyone grabs a beer and plate of food, chats with each other? There is an initial period of social accommodation that needs a mood not a performance.  Besides, it begins to open up folks to the tunes as they are originals and perhaps using two different approaches will help the themes stick in the mind for better attraction.  If that makes sense. 

After a bit, we then went through our set as planned and then repeating it all once again. We certainly could use a few more tunes (or I could kowtow to the tempting evil lure of playing covers) but that will come. We have a solid hour set and with a little banter and extending some of the tunes to include more of a “live” sound with longer solos, we do have an hour and a half. I did find it hard to go from fast to ballad. It just seemed to chop off the flow.

At the end, we played a nice dance tune (“Lavender Eyes”) so the couple could do a soft and fun dance together—this worked out perfectly.

Tonight we play three tunes at The Hanger in Salem and hope we will be invited to play there at some point. It’s hard for a listener to appreciate an original—although Stairway to Heaven, Freebird and Rolling in the Deep were like sipping pure opioids from the very first time I heard them.

We’ll see how this thing goes.