Campfyre Stories

Ok, so I’ve been feeling and saying for a long time that I really need to find people to collaborate with musically.  That said, this is a HARD town in which to connect with people.  It’s all about who you know.

So I put a post on CraigsList.  Oh yeah, I’m pretty much doing the internet dating thing only with music.  The major difference is that instead of a pic, they want to hear my music, which is, unfortunately, what I want to break away from.  Fundamentally, the songs that are on MySpace are typical of what I write when it’s just me and my guitar - slow, sweet, unrequited love songs.  I want to do something else, something MORE and I need musicians who are better and more diverse, instrumentally, than I am.

I can write to anything.  I can sing to a lot of things.  I don’t want to stay stuck in this box.

Ok, so…  the responses have been in good numbers.  I think in two days I’ve gotten at least 10 replies, all of whom received responses from me, but few of whom have kept up an email volley.  I’m trying not to read in, they may just not have had time.  The possibility does exist, though, that they didn’t like my voice or found my style (which, again, I’m trying to escape) off-putting.  Again, trying not to read in.

So now I’ve been kind of chatting with these guys (all guys so far) and sending them the link to MySpace and telling them that I plan to be at my regular open mic tonight if they want to meet/listen to me/talk in person.  A couple of people have told me that they’ll probably come and check it out.

And I have no idea what to play.

I mean, ok, clearly I should not play any of the songs from MySpace because they’ve already heard them.  That said, most of my other songs are pretty damned close and typical of what I’ve done so far.  The handful of songs that are somewhat out of the box for me are relatively unpracticed and seem chancy to pick to play tonight.  As a result I am feeling pretty "meh" about not only the open mic, but my songs in general and my musicianship.

I know I’ll get over it by the time I actually take the stage, but at the same time, this is really not the week to be feeling "meh" about my music.  Not if I’m going to be trying to meet musicians to work with as time goes on…