Nashville Jam Preview at Hesperia of Templemore (04.13.14)

Ugh, Monday. It would seem that getting one's self up and running after a typical weekend would get easier as time went by, but trust me, kids: it doesn't. At the moment, thinking isn't easy, and typing seems mostly beyond my set of abilities. But I do have enough brainpower (and coffee, thankfully) to tell you about yesterday's show at Hesperia of Templemore that was set up by Barbie Horsley to hype up the upcoming Nashville SL Jam. While our sets were limited to 30 minutes each, the shows each packed a ton of fun in the short time period.

Much like today, I awoke yesterday feeling rather glum about my situation with my computer; my trusty 2009 MacBook Pro's hard drive is close to death, and I've already ordered a really nice new computer -- a Mac mini with a quad-core i7 and 8GB of RAM. Still, until it arrives later this week, I'm stuck using either my iPad (which, as cool as it is, is not designed to be the center of production that my real computer is), or using the afflicted laptop that seems like it's going to explode at any second. Considering that life goes on and my deadlines don't care that I have a computer in the ICU, it's a little stressful for the time being.

What the doctor ordered yesterday was the show. First off, I've made some fantastic friends in the SL music community over the years, and while many of us chat often on Facebook and the like, we don't see each other play nearly as often as we'd like, often having our own shows scheduled at different places at or around the same times. Being able to hang out and listen to them was cool in and of itself. And, of course, the best part was knowing that in mid-May, we'll all be physically together in the same place to jam and have a great time. This show, by the way, was my third in four days, and my "April Showers" mini-tour of SL continues Tuesday night. It's been cool so far.

Making music: fun. Making music in front of your friends: priceless. Photo and top photo by Kat.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I'm never concerned if they're enjoying the tunes versus laughing at my ridiculousness. Fun is fun. Photo by Kat.

The Hesperia of Templemore builds are all freaking great. Photo by Kat.

I'm going to enjoy hanging out with these crazy people in four weeks. Photo by Kat.

My good buddy Lyndon Heart creeps up on me to take over the stage for his set. Photo by Kat.

When it was my turn to not-so-gracefully take the stage, I pulled out some tunes that I thought were representative of the kinds of music I've been performing lately. It was a typical combination of original songs and both classic and newer covers that represent the sounds I like. When I noticed that I only had a couple of minutes left in my set, I ended up by improvising a completely ridiculous song about what might happen when we get together in Nashville next month.

Nashville Preview at Hesperia of Templemore set list...
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
Shock the Monkey (Peter Gabriel)
*Longing On (They Stole My Crayon)
California (Joni Mitchell)
Lost Cause (Beck)
Swim and Sleep Like a Shark (Unknown Mortal Orchestra)
*Improvised Ode to Nashville (Zak Claxton)

*Indicates the first -- and in one case, the last -- time I've performed this song in SL.

Thanks to all who came out to sample the upcoming Nashville fun, especially Barbie Horsley (Sassy Nitely) and Anastasia Yanwu who are dong all the heavy lifting! You both rule!