Bleeuuurrgggh!

Having started the day fine, I am now a snot-ridden mess!!

Something in the shop started giving me sneezing fits, and now all my sinuses have gone into overdrive, and i sound and look like I have a bad cold...

Wierd.

On a positive note, it's been VERY quiet in the shop today, and although I've got on with my work, it's not been at too hurried a pace...

:-)

I've got a busy time ahead of me tonight, I've agreed to accompany my sis on guitar again as she's singing at another open mic event. I don't think I sound that good but she's happy with it, so I'll do the brotherly thing and support her...

(Ed: I saved the above post as draft and then forgot to publish it!! For posterity I'll keep it, and the rest of this post is from Tuesday 13th!!)

Talented Lesbians and Red Bull...

Well, the open mic nite went ok, ruth did three of her songs and three covers. I accompanied her on guitar, it was sort of ok, though that time of night, (10-30/11-ish) I start to get tired, and get tremors in my hands a little bit, so my guitar playing isn't quite up to the usual standard....

She doesn't seem to notice, (probably because she doesn't play an instrument lol) and was happy with how it went, so that's the main thing. We did acoustic cover versions of Damage's 'Love 2 Love', (remember them? lol) TLC's 'waterfall', and a very funky version of Basement Jaxx's 'Good Luck'. I really enjoy doing the Bsement Jaxx one, because it's so similar to the original song, but played on a guitar, so it sounds like a new version, even though it's technically the same melody, chords and structure. I had to work it out by listening to the CD!!

You may be wondering at the post title, the reason being it was an open mic night at one of Liverpool's gay bars, and there are some very talented gay guitarists let me tell you!! After hearing the first two play and sing, I actually felt a bit awkward going up to play for our set, because they were so good and I didn't know musically how I could follow them. I had no worries about my sis, because she has a brilliant voice, (sorry another plug - go to her myspace here to listen to some of her tracks) and I knew she could carry the vocals, it was just me with my tremor-filled hands!!

Seriously though, the two girls who performed before us were both fantastic vocal and guitar-ability wise, I think they could easily get a record deal if they wanted to, but they both seem happy just performing there every monday. If you had the ability, it'd be a nice life I guess to just be bale to do that every week. There was a time when I was planning to do that in the future, but now with the onset of tremors, etc M.S. has robbed me a little bit of my guitar playing and I'm no longer as proficient or confident as I used to be. Hopefully they didn't notice too many mistakes and thought that I was learner.

Not that I'm proud, it's just that after nearly eighteen years of playing the guitar, I would be annoyed if people thought I'd spent all that time being rubbish lol!

Meh I guess an open mic night isn't about who trumps who in skill, it's about everyone enjoying each other's music and taking part. At least that's what I keep telling myself lol!

Even though I'm not that confident outside of leading worship, I think it went ok, and I even sang and played one of my songs, a sloppy love song I wrote for my fiance at the time. It went ok, though the mic was too loud and hearing my own voice back through the speakers puts me off, so I went a little flat at one point I think. Ah well, all experience as they say.

I'm learning/working out some more covers this week, as she wants to do some different songs next monday, so we'll wait and see whether I work them out in time!!

That's all for now...