Reason #2 that I haven't written a lot lately is definitely an exciting one. I was preparing for a gig!
I haven't played anything other than open mics and the occasional bonfire in years. My friend, Skip Bean, is an amazing guitarist and songwriter with over 30 years of experience. We met at my current job. He is the janitor of our school by day, and musician by night. When we got to talking we realized that we have this awesome commonality! His is also the coffee house that I have played at (3rd Friday night of the month).
Anyway, he asked if I would come and do two 20 minute sets at the top of each hour during his performance so that he could take a break. I, of course, jumped on the opportunity. Finding the right mix of covers and originals proved to be quite difficult, and it was interesting to see which songs made the patrons at the restaurant pause their meal, and which ones caused me to see backs of heads.
Here is a link to my set list. I decided that each set should contain 2 originals, and 3 covers. So, the question is - how do you decide which songs to play in a gig? Does it depend on the clientele? The talent? The occasion? Or do some songs transcend all others?
I haven't played anything other than open mics and the occasional bonfire in years. My friend, Skip Bean, is an amazing guitarist and songwriter with over 30 years of experience. We met at my current job. He is the janitor of our school by day, and musician by night. When we got to talking we realized that we have this awesome commonality! His is also the coffee house that I have played at (3rd Friday night of the month).
Anyway, he asked if I would come and do two 20 minute sets at the top of each hour during his performance so that he could take a break. I, of course, jumped on the opportunity. Finding the right mix of covers and originals proved to be quite difficult, and it was interesting to see which songs made the patrons at the restaurant pause their meal, and which ones caused me to see backs of heads.
Here is a link to my set list. I decided that each set should contain 2 originals, and 3 covers. So, the question is - how do you decide which songs to play in a gig? Does it depend on the clientele? The talent? The occasion? Or do some songs transcend all others?
I choose our set list based on where we are playing. When we play Art Events, we do all originals. For the coffeehouse-type gigs, we'll throw in a few cover songs to keep the audience listening.
ReplyDeleteLately we've been entertaining at Assisted Living Facilities. For those folks I like to play songs they remember from way back when - so we do oldies, and encourage them to sing along.
Interestingly, adding covers to our set list (which I've only done recently) has really improved my songwriting and my singing. Who knew? ;-)