Friday night I was in Cambridge. It was a pleasure to play for a few reasons. A good high ceiling and enough cubic space means it’s a really good-sounding room. It fits a good-sized audience and yet it’s small enough that no one is too far from the stage. It’s just a nice room to play in.
As I told you the other day the concert was arranged by the Mill Race Folk Society, the same people who organize the traditional music festival every summer. I saw that as reason enough–I’ve been re-arranging traditional songs for quite a while now, but I’ve never sat down and played all of them in one night. I didn’t quite have enough time to do all of them, and I will admit I got side-tracked into playing a couple of other things, but I’m fairly certain that’s the largest number of those arrangements that I’ve played in a single setting. It was a pleasure to do that. I’ll have to go looking for a reason to do it again.
It was also nice to play because there were several people there who’ve come to know and enjoy my music over the years. I will admit it still feels weird to have fans, even after having had so much time to get used to the idea. And too, you know I’ve had a few serious knocks over the past while, which sometimes made it more of a challenge to feel like a musician. So having several people share their memories of me playing over the years was a bit of a gentle reminder–been at it a while, apparently I’m a musician, may as well get used to the idea.
There was also another lesson re-experienced that night. To explain will take a moment but follow me, it goes something like this–remember that I was a fulltime concert artist for a lot of years, then I started to spend more and more time behind the scenes. All the while I’ve continued to play for myself, to write, to arrange, maintaining my creative chops, evolving as an artist, but most of my work has been producing recordings for other people or working as a sideman helping someone else frame their music. Combine that with the simple fact that when I have appeared onstage doing my own thing it’s usually been well outside of this area… I’ve ended up being under the radar for many folks. Doesn’t bother me, actually I’m kind of used to it (truth be told part of me enjoys coming out of nowhere as a new experience for people, but that’s maybe another story).
Now as you know I still make a point of getting out to sessions as often as I can. And there are always people there who know what I’ve done over the years. But there are also people at those same sessions, people who’ve been going to those sessions for some time now, who have never seen me play on stage and who frankly have no idea what I do. And while I never, ever assume that someone has any idea who I am, I sometimes forget that a little background, just a touch of context, will help people understand what’s going on when I bring something to a session. You see, there were several people at the concert who have only ever seen me at sessions. And one or two of those had never seen me play guitar, only my bass. They had no idea.
So one thing I re-learned that night was how much context can help someone enjoy something even more. Ahh, they said, now I understand where you’ve been coming from. Now what you say makes sense.
I often understate, under-explain, giving you the opportunity to relate to something first on your own terms. I think I’m hoping you can have the same sort of discovery experience that I’ve enjoyed with many songs and many artists over the years. I’ll have to re-examine that thought. I don’t think it’s a bad thought. Just may not be quite as helpful as I had imagined.
Yeah, it was a good night.