St Patrick's Day/Birthday Weekend (Patreon)

Good morning. I hope you had a wonderful St Patrick’s Day and weekend. Mine was fantastic.

It all started on Friday. I went to Inara’s school. We sang together for the 3rd grade and 2nd grade classes. The shows were only 30 minutes and about 20 minutes which was a bummer. We didn’t really have time for that second class. But it was a lot of fun.

Inara told me later they did get a taste of disappointment though. One of the things about performing is that we don’t always get glowing responses.

Yes. Inara had several people compliment her on her singing. But she mentioned one or two people who complimented me and didn’t say anything about her.

It served as a great opportunity to teach. We don’t always get glowing responses. I distinctly remember when Andrew and I were performing at Scarborough Faire and some lady asked us to stop playing because our music was painful to her ears.

I still run across reviews of my music of people saying my music sucks.

This is why it helps to ignore people who don’t like your music. It’s just not for them.

There are artists on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast whose voices I don’t like or whose instruments grate me wrong. But I play them anyway because I know we all have our personal preferences. So you can’t dwell on the negative reviews. We shall see if that lesson sinks in with Inara.

In the afternoon, I played at a Retirement Home not far from my home in Decatur. It was very sweet and schmaltzy. The place was decorated in green. The woman who booked me messed up my name. But if I ever decide to change my name to Tom Gunn, I know where to start. Hehe

The show went great. Yes. There was not a whole lot of singing and clapping along. But folks afterward told me loved it and complimented me on my energy. I really wish Inara could’ve come. She would’ve been a HUGE hit.

Oh! One funny observation. It struck me during the show as I looked across the 30-40 elderly folks in the audience, there was only ONE cellphone. That was from an older woman who was looking after a much older woman. Even she wasn’t really looking at it though.

How weird was that that there were no cell phones. People actually paid attention to the show. Sad to say that’s just crazy.

That evening we watched Karate Kid, most of it at least. Inara had to get up early on Saturday.

Inara had a soccer game first thing in the morning on Saturday. She was fantastic. She made some killer saves while she was Keeper. I haven’t seen her play in a while so it was great to see.

I was pretty wiped after the game. So while Gwen and the kids when shopping for last minute presents and to go to some event on the Beltline, I took a nap before heading over to The Ivy Buckhead.

I was really excited about this gig because the venue wanted more than one musician performing. Matthew Trautwein, aka String of The Lost Boys, joined me that evening.

Matthew is a fantastic musician. I was thrilled to have him support me. We even got to play a jig set and a polka set, which were prolly my favorite parts of the evening.

I recorded most of the show. I hope to share at least one of those recordings with official members of the Gunn Runners Club.

Since we weren’t sure about the weather, the performance was inside the venue. But we kind of regretted that. The weather was perfect outside. Plus, it meant they wanted us to crank up the volume so that the music could be heard outside. That’s the loudest I’ve heard my music in a long time.

While my watch kept telling me to not expose my ears to that volume, I did enjoy the thunk of the autoharp.

One of the cool things when the autoharp is cranked up and a little bass boost is added, it gives the instrument a very percussive sound. I’m not “All About That Bass” in general. But every now and then, I LOVE the sound.

Our audience was not very interactive, but we had a great time.

Sunday morning, St Patrick’s Day, was my birthday. I was told I couldn’t leave the bedroom while they got everything ready. I woke up a bit early in the 6 o’clock hour. But with that mandate, I drifted back off to sleep for another hour. It was nice.

I heard the sound of tape and rustling outside my door as I did a light workout. Finally, I was allowed to come out. Inara decorated our hall with balloons and then threw green fake grass toward me as I walked down the hall. It was adorable.

We watched a little more Karate Kid while Gwen finished breakfast and family arrived. Breakfast was amazing. I opened presents that included some new flash and stockings for my kilt outfit. Which is great because my old orange flash (that wraps around the top of the kilt stockings to keep them from falling down) had disintegrated. I got some clothing, a new pizza stone and Taylor Swift’s album Lover on vinyl. I love that album. Hehe.

I showed Inara how to play it on my record player which was so much fun.

Inara ran off to another soccer game. Kenzie and I drove out to Marietta for my final St Patrick’s Day performance at The Wings Cafe and Tap House.

I had somewhat low expectations for this venue. The beer selection looked good, but wings???

It turns out the place is owned by an Irish American. So it’s basically an Irish pub themed with American wings and a tiki bar. Bizarre. But kind of fantastic.

The place has been open for 29 years. They have a great stage. The owner loved my music, which was mostly traditional Irish songs with a few originals thrown in. I might have a new venue in the Marietta area. Always a huge plus!

The one downside to the show was it was a four-hour performance. I start struggling vocally when I have a three-hour performance. Four hours. Ouch! I’m whispering today because I blew the voice yesterday.

This hopefully will serve as a two reminders. One, don’t play four-hour shows solo. I need more vocal breaks. A couple instrumentals in each set would’ve been amazing.

Two, I really need to learn some engaging instrumentals. I think I might work with my Looper pedal to start laying down autoharp and practice tunes on the penny whistle or guitar. That would help a lot.

It was a great birthday weekend, all in all. I was struck with one more observation from the many shows I did this weekend.

I’ve been trying to book more shows recently. I get a lot of no responses from venues. Not to toot my own horn, but I know I’m a better than average performer. Even with an unengaged audience, I felt like my performances were engaging. They made people take notice.

It made me feel like if I played at just about any venue, they would prolly be inclined to book me after seeing me perform. Should I consider performing for free? Eh. Maybe.

I think it’s worth considering. I hate doing that at this stage in my career. But sometimes, we start all over and that’s just the thing they need to see to change their minds and hire me.

Any case, thank you for supporting my music.

What fun things did you do this weekend?