"Songs of Autumn" at Frothy Music (11.09.14)

Here I am again with my batch of lemonade that I made from the lemons that were flung at me. And, I must say, the resulting delicious drink tastes all the more sweet for reasons that will be clear in a moment.

I'd planned on doing a special show of songs that grabbed the mood of the season, which I described as being "pensive, melancholy, and wistful" in a promotional piece (which will eventually come into play in this happy tale). I'd added a few never-before-performed songs to my set list, and then I added to those songs to keep the musical theme consistent, and was really looking forward to doing these tunes at a gig that I'd been booked for quite some time ago, schedule for November 9. However, as tends to happen in Second Life and other lives from time to time, the venue had to change some plans, and closed down the week before I was supposed to play there. Hey, shit happens. I never get upset about stuff like that, ever. But I still did want to play the tunes I'd prepared, so I did something I should probably do much more often; I booked myself at one of the places that Kat and I own in SL. Over the years, I've done a good number of shows at our Neil Young Archives as well as at our Club at Coyote venue. But for some reason, we've never really made good use of our Frothy Music HQ in SL. Frothy Music, in case you're wondering, is the sub-miniature record label and publishing company that Kat and I have used for distribution of my own recorded music. We have a little place in SL where we have listening/purchase stations for my music, as well as our business offices in case we have a reason to do any actual business there. In any case, it's not a live music venue, and I'd never done a show there, but when I floated the idea of using Frothy for the show past Kat, she liked it.

So, that's what we did. My buddy and fellow performer in Maali Beck Entertainment, Mr. Lyndon Heart, had also been scheduled to play at the other, now-closed venue, so I inquired as to whether he'd like to do a show at my place instead (and he did, as it turned out). Kat and I dusted off some of the pixels around the place, and on Sunday afternoon, we were ready to go. The challenge about performing in a place that isn't usually a live music spot is getting people there; it's an unfamiliar name (even if Lyndon and I are reasonably well-known performers), and there is no group to send notices to, and so on. Still, all things considered, we had a small but pretty happy crowd, and I don't ask for more than that.

Random guy makes me happy
A side note to this show report. I'd finished my gig and then kicked back to hear Lyndon Heart do his show. While eating lunch, I popped on to Facebook to send a thank-you note to the people who came to the show, as I usually do. I found I was tagged in a post by a guy named Abinoam Norgaard who I'd seen in the audience at my show, and it linked to his blog which you can see here. Ultimately, he said three things that blew me away.

1. He heard about my event that day on Ello. So, for the first time in its relatively short life, Ello actually did something for me. Go Ello! By the way, any of you people on Ello can see my profile page here. I do try and remember to add content every once in awhile.

2. It was his first time hearing me perform, and he really liked the show. I really like connecting with new people. This is good.

3. He was very complimentary about the venue and the location, so hats off to Kat, who remains an excellent SL designer to this day.

And a side note to this side note: if you have a blog, or use social media a lot, we musicians are very happy to see when folks take the time to do a write-up of their experiences at our shows. Even a short, "Went to go see (PERFORMER NAME) at (VENUE NAME) and had fun," can make us realize that someone out there gets enjoyment from the hard work we do. Facebook it, Twitter it, Tumblr it, whatever. Whenever we see it, it'll make our day. Trust me on this.

All photos by Kat.

Oh yeah, the show
Sorry for all the tangents. I should tell you about the show itself. As mentioned earlier, I'd put together a themed set called "Songs of Autumn", and I'd say that the show managed to stay focused on the vibe of Fall. No silliness, no ridiculous story telling, no making up impromptu weird songs. Those things are fine; they just weren't in line with the mood I was trying to set via the music that day. I did three songs I'd never played before, in SL or anywhere else, and everything worked out pretty damn well.

Frothy Music "Songs of Autumn" set list...
Here I Land (Nicholas Stevenson)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
Say Goodbye (Beck)
*Cat's In the Cradle (Harry Chapin)
Wakin' on a Pretty Day (Kurt Vile)
Blew The Dust Away (They Stole My Crayon)
Things Behind the Sun (Nick Drake)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Sleeper in the Valley (Laura Veirs)
*The Arrangement (Joni Mitchell)
Things Under Trees (They Stole My Crayon)
*Pancho and Lefty (Townes Van Zandt)

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

Big thanks to all who came to the show, including the following who helped support it!
NeCole Chiantelle, RoxxyyRoller Resident, dls Falconer, Aurelie Chenaux, Abinoam Resident, Alexis Fairlady, Christine Haiku, ramuf Resident, Cicadetta Stillwater, my great manager Maali Beck, my pal Lyndon Heart, and a big thanks to my darling Kat Claxton for her help in hosting the shows, and her great work in building Frothy's HQ!