Daddy's Piano Bar (05.27.14)

I'll start off today's otherwise happy blog post on a somber note. Cultural icon Maya Angelou has passed away at age 86. From my perspective as a writer of prose, I hold poets in the highest level of admiration; they can impart and evoke emotion in a sentence or two which would take me paragraphs to get across as effectively. Maya led one of those lives that in most cases only happens in fiction; in addition to being one of the world's most beloved writers, at various points in her life was also a renowned civil rights activist, a dancer, a singer, a playwright, an actress, a film and TV producer, and more. Calling her background "underprivileged" is a ridiculous understatement, but her natural abilities and incredible optimism allowed her not only to lead an amazing life, but be inspiring to millions of other people. She left a huge legacy, and I'm happy to acknowledge my extraordinary respect for her. Rest in peace.

Now, back to the show. That is, my show last night at Daddy's Piano Bar. I think it's obvious that from a musical perspective, my priority right now is the work I'm doing for the upcoming They Stole My Crayon album. While this is exciting and good, it means that I'm not doing as many shows in SL right now as I've done previously. This, actually, is also good; it allows me to feel like each show is a special event of sorts, and perhaps I'm being a little more focused on doing good performances when they only happen once a week or so.

Daddy's Piano Bar is a fun place to perform, even for a guitarist. Photo and top photo by Triana Caldera.

Here I am onstage, doing that thing I do. Photo by Cicadetta Stillwater.

We had a nice crowd last night that included some of the pals I made at the Nashville Jam. Gravey Jones, in particular, is a really excellent musician, but perhaps more importantly, he's a cool and funny guy who I'm glad to think of as a friend. Gravey was making it exceptionally difficult for me to focus on my performance while he had a conversation with a dominant stuffed panda bear. I was happy to see him, Heather Madenwald, and others with whom I'd been hanging out and having fun the previous weekend, along with my usual Zaksters friends and Daddy's regulars. I've been leaning a little harder than usual on my originals as opposed to the covers I play, and I've also been adding some TSMC songs to the set list at recent shows. Since I'd just written a brand new tune the day before, I decided to give it a spot in the set list

We really had a good-sized crowd for most of the show, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Photo by Triana.

As I've mentioned before, the stage itself is shaped like a giant piano Sweet. Photo by Cicadetta.

Everyone thinks a panda bear is sweet and cute and innocent. Not this one. Photo by Kat.

Daddy's Piano Bar set list...
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
Everlong (Foo Fighters)
*Perfectly Calm (They Stole My Crayon)
Carey (Joni Mitchell)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
Longing On (They Stole My Crayon)
Never Run Away (Kurt Vile)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
I've Been Waiting for You (Neil Young)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
*Impromptu Daddy's Song (Zak Claxton)

*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.

Massive thanks to all who supported my show at Daddy's!
Rich Simsider, Kat Claxton, Lisa Brune, Cicadetta Stillwater, Melsda, EricSteffensen Mistwalker, Heather Couturier, Aurelie Chenaux, TheaDee, Satine Kalinakov, GraveyJones, Triana Caldera, my manager Maali Beck, and Daddy's lovely manager Zee Difference!