Catching Up

How long has it been since I caterwalled in this ol' blog? Long, long time, my friends. I have so much to say that I am completely stumped as how to begin, so I might not say anything at all.

Adam and I spent Memorial Day hiking at Patrick's Point, a small wilderness area north of here. They have a 2 mile hiking trail along the sea cliff (picture at right) and Adam, being the puppy he is, wanted to explore every nook, every cranny, every hill and dale, and lots and lots of stairs. Did it make me feel old trying to keep up with him? No. It made me feel dead.

But it was a lovely day, unusual for these parts these days. It's been too rainy, even for Humboldt. We're about 5 inches over the normal rainfall for the year, just a few points below the record...and the spring ain't over for another week. You know it's rained too much when the locals begin to complain.

Me, I remember So Cal and how little it rained down there. Every rainstorm was a gift (not to traffic, but to our lawns). So I have a hard time disliking the rain except on days when it cancels something I need to do, such as play in an outdoor Farmer's Market. Alas, one of the rainy days did rain out my debut at the Fortuna Farmer's Market.

On the other hand, I've played lots in Eureka lately, and have plans to play even more. I have gigs booked at three different places, and am looking to add two more. And this time, for some indecipherable reason, people are listening and reacting and loving the music. I'm not sure why, but I am suddenly having people buy the CDs and ask when I'm playing next. Heck, I played the Mickeyville FM last week and the Meat Guy (He sells substantial portions of barbecued meat) gave me a whole rack of ribs.

I've also been discovered by a very nice woman who heard me playing during Arts Alive in Eureka. I played for Habitat for Humanity all the way at the end of Second Street, near the Homeless Mission. All night people were wandering down where they hadn't been before and they listened and stuck around for a few songs--you know you're doing well when you're playing on the street and people don't just stop for 10 seconds and move on. This wonderful person stopped for quite a long time, bought both of my homemade CDs, then emailed me the next day to let me know how much she liked the music. We've been conversing by email about what kind of gigs I can get locally and how she's played the CD for so many people locally here.

This, BTW, is not a romance. I believe she's a married woman. Either way, this is (I hope) an authentic "fan", someone who is attracted by the lyric and the music. She certainly seems, through her emails, to know her pop and folk music. Hey, it's nice to have a fan. I've been my only fan for so long...

Yeah, I know it seems like I'm bragging. But for so many years in LA I seemed to be ignored, or dissed, or whatever. The best time I had playing in SoCal was when my boy and I played as "Bruce and Son" and were a hit at the local malls. Now that the boy is not playing with me anymore, I'd resigned myself to being what Nik called "musical wallpaper" for the rest of my life. Not that it stopped me from writing songs, but those dreams of actually affecting people with the songs, well, those seemed foolish in the light of day.

Except now I'm getting a lot of Humboldt folks telling me that this stuff is as good as I'd always hoped it would be. My first fan was my friend Orin Plotcher, who asked me for every CD I could come up with and talked about them incessently.

Sigh. The trick, of course, is to keep doing things unconsciously so that whatever it was that attracted these good people to my music will continue to do so without my considerable ego getting in the way. Oh, God. I'm not going to lock up now, am I? NO, no, no...happy place, happy place, happy place....

Anyway the sun has finally reasserted itself in Humboldt and there's work to be done. I travel out of county in a day for a possibly big case south of here. Don't want to say too much because I don't want to jinx it.

I guess the trick is not to worry about this stuff. Do it so long as it's fun. Keep one's head about one and don't get too full of oneself. Playing the Farmer's Markets it's pretty easy to remember I'm nothing to shake the charts right now. But playing the Farmer's Markets is actually a lot of fun. You meet good people. You get good food. They pay you a little money if you show up on time and play as long as they need you to.

Yeah, I could get used to this life. Free veggies & ribs and they let me plug in my guitar and play. What could be better than that?