Irish Pubs and Open Mics

Jumping In With Both Feet

About a week and a half ago I was at American Music in Seattle and saw Liz Smith, whom I hadn't seen for quite some time. We got to talking about my music career and I told her I was getting ready to start playing live again and was just trying to figure out where to start. It turns out that Liz and her man Ricky run the Sunday night open mic at Conor Byrne Pub in Ballard. She invited me to come out and I took it as a great first step to playing live again.

Now I haven't played and sang solo live for a long, long, long time and my nerves that first night were more than I had anticipated. But after my three song set I felt so good that all I could think about was how to improve and expand on it. I ended up performing four times last week and received a gig offer from one pub owner! What an encouraging start.

I'll make sure and let everyone know as soon as I book a gig where I'm playing for at least an hour so you can come out and enjoy the show. It won't be long now

Cheers,

Dave

New Routines, Familiar Faces

Rehearsing & Reconnecting

Well it's been just over two weeks since I left the work-a-day world to follow my bliss in to the ranks of working musicians. During this time one thing I've been trying to do is establish new routines. The kind of routines that lead to success. With some of these cornerstones now in place I can begin so see some clear progress being made toward making it in the music world. Firstly I've been rehearsing my live act in the living room for a couple days with the furniture pushed out of the way. (Yes my wife is a saint.) and I'm making progress in smoothing out the kinks in my performances. It really helps to be able to make the room a small club stage as possible and work as if there really is a paying audience sitting in front of me so that's going well.

Another great thing that happened was that I had dinner with a dear friend I hadn't seen in awhile. Alice Stuart is an amazing blues singer/songwriter/guitarist from the Seattle area who is making some of the best music of her long career these days. You can check out her website by clicking on Alice's name and I've embedded a video here below.

Alice wouldn't confirm rumors that there might be a nation-wide tour coming up, but she wouldn't deny it either so if you love the blues and happen to find Alice's band playing anywhere near you I strongly suggest you make plans to spend the evening with this classy lady.

This morning I got to reconnect over coffee with another great couple; Darren & Debbie Loucas. Darren Loucas is a solo artist and also fronts a traditional blues band: The Jelly Rollers.

The JRs are a world class blues act and they really are in top form lately. They're in the middle of a string of club dates right now so here's another great opportunity to get out and experience some amazing high octane music.

Thats about all for now. It's almost the weekend so go ahead and check the paper for some bands you like and get out there and support some of the great musicians in your area.

Later,

Dave