Winterfolk

This afternoon, Gerald and I performed in the NSAI showcase at Winterfolk, and we had a great time! Our showcase featured 2 rounds, 3 performers each. The place was packed, and even though we found out about this at the last minute, we still had a good number of friends in the crowd.

Gerald lead the round with his country songs, and he sounded excellent. The middle seat was held by Bowmanville writer, Terry Maxwell. I was on the end, and I was swamped with sound issues! My guitar wouldn't work through the sound system at all, and after many embarassing attempts to plug in, change the battery, and countless other tricks, we abandoned the plug in and decided to mic the guitar. But, of course, there was only one mic, so Terry and I had to share a guitar mic, swinging the boom between us.

Despite it all, I think I did well. It was a secular restaurant/bar crowd, so I decided to sing songs that were fun and a little esoteric. I opened with "Wedding at Cana" which got some smiles, and followed with "Sing Me a Song," acapella with Gerald tapping the body of his guitar like a drum. Then, I decided to be fearless (or crazy, depending on your POV) and sing the brand new song I wrote yesterday. "Brighter Happy Day" is probably the closest thing I've written to a Gospel bluegrass song. It's lots of fun, with a good theological center, and it got lots of laughs and smiles.

The energy in the room was awesome! We spent the next few hours chatting with friends, listening to the acts that followed us, and eating Mexican food. I wish we could go see some of the other acts tomorrow, but our friend Chris McKhool is performing Monday, so I think we'll try and see him.