Last night I played another “songwriter showcase” set at Bangkok blues. This is another one of those great setups where Ron Goad gets a bunch of local songwriters to each play a 25-minute set.
My set went well. I had some friends show up to hear me for the first time, so that was a treat. My friend Greg was there to hear me for the first time, and he said, “Where does that big voice come from?” A lot of people say that, because I sing a lot louder than I talk. I like hearing stuff like that.
I through some new songs out there, along with a few from the CD. Some friends who have heard a lot of my material and know my CD liked the new songs. I need to play the new stuff to get the feel of it, so that when I go to record it, it really feels settled in. We’ll see. I think that the new stuff has a nice change of perspective. The songs on last year’s CD were all basically first- and second-person introspectives. A lot of the new stuff is more, ummm, poetic? narrative? Less introspective, more out in the objective world interacting outside the mind of the songs? Hard to say, but the approach is definitely different for a lot of them.
The other performers were super. Terry Turner started out with some strong tunes. I heard him once before, and I like his sound. A big voice and straight-up old Cisco or Leadbelly folk stuff. I’ll have to look for his CD. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him or else I would have offered a swap.
Kris Abe was next. Ssmooth, funky, clever songwriting. Very nice, melodic. I think he plays in a band, and I could see his songs taking some nice shape in a band arrangement.
Who else? Melissa Wynn followed me. She is really cool. She sings real straight-up roots and folk stuff. She started with a song called “Sweet Thing” I think, which had some nice romantic feelings. I wish I could do better with romantic stuff. maybe I can work on that. I should have swapped CDs with her too, but I was a little slow in the brain when I talked with her on my way out the door.
OK, I’m leaving out others, but it was a fun night all around. I’ll look forward to the next one.
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