A few days before a show that I'd had on my calendar for Saturday August 16, I got an email from my manager Maali Beck.
"The venue you were going to play has changed its name and location. You'll be performing at The Green Dragon Live Stage, Hobbiton, The Shire."
Well I was certainly okay with that! I'm not the world's biggest geek, not by a long shot. But I did grow up reading J.R.R. Tolkein's masterpieces, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and have enjoyed the films based on the books. So, while I'm not fluent in the Sindarin elf language, I do know quite a bit of apocrypha about the Middle Earth universe. So, I decided to put together a themed show based on this.
Arriving at the venue, it was obvious that a lot of care had been put into the build. It really did have a Shire-like feel to the place. Quite lovely. The stage I was on was similar to the place where Bilbo had given his famous goodbye speech at the start of LOTR. And yes, we had a number of people in hobbit avatars and Middle Earth-type clothing. It was pretty fun before I even got started. The set itself was cool; I didn't have a full hour of Hobbit-inspired songs to play, so I tried to find connections -- sometimes strenuous and downright ridiculous -- between the tunes I did play and the theme of the event.
*A Walking Song (J.R.R. Tolkein, Billy Boyd, arranged by Zak Claxton)
Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
Northern Sky (Nick Drake)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
*The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (Leonard Nimoy)
Never Run Away (Kurt Vile)
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
Ramble On (Led Zeppelin)
Lost Cause (Beck)
Tribute (Tenacious D)
*A Walking Song - Reprise (J.R.R. Tolkein, Billy Boyd, arranged by Zak Claxton)
*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.
Big thanks to all who supported my debut show at the Green Dragon!
Diana Renoir, Kalli Birman, NicoTime Resident, Aurelie Chenaux, TheaDee Resident, Kat Claxton, my great manager Maali Beck, and Green Dragon owners Bryan and Kitten Bournewald!
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