Thursday, 8.21.08- Corn Palace Freedom Stage
Recap:
True story: I had sung at Café Teresa the week before this, taking the opportunity
to try a new song: "Say it to me Now" by Glen Hansard. GREAT song but it requires
a guitar tuned to an open D chord in order to pull it off. And I try to keep things
as simple as possible in front of an audience (very little re-tuning, keep moving
ahead, etc), so if I want to play "Say it" I've got to bring an extra guitar just
for that song. But the way the Freedom Stage is scheduled, there's very little
time for set up and sound check. So I really wrestled with the idea of bringing
two guitars (it's just one more thing to set up, but it's a perfect song for that
setting...I should let you know that this type of wrestling match is
constantly going on in my head...24-7) and finally decided that I'd take my clunker
Indiana guitar, tuned to open D, just to play one song on it.
Call it dumb luck or God's providence (I choose the latter), but my beautiful
Ibanez guitar that I was going to use for almost
every single song busted the G string TWO CHORDS INTO THE FIRST SONG!! That threw
me. Imagine getting up to give a speech and one of your teeth falls out! And though
my audience was very kind to me I'm sure they could sense my uneasiness. That's bad
news as a performer. So I muddled my way thru the first couple of songs ("Spotlight's"
solo completely stunk) while in the back of my mind working out how to turn this
gig around to my favor.
And then it dawned on me: use the clunker! Fortunately I'd planned on singing "Say
it" fairly early. Tonight it couldn't come soon enough! Ripped into it, took about
a minute to re-tune (talked over it so there wasn't too much dead time), and
finished this gig on my beat up Indiana guitar. Most of the comments I got after
revolved around the actual music, so apparently the guitar switching wasn't a
distraction.
If you'll look at the play list you'll see that, yes, I stuck a luchadore mask on
in front of a ton of strangers to sell "My love is like a pickle"...and my wife
didn't even leave the show! (Love you, Amy!) I also got to sing "Walk On" again,
subtly dedicating it to Pastor Phill & Stephani Tague, as they are leaving our
church to plant a new church in Sioux Falls
(visit
The Ransom Church.org to
find out more on that). Thanks again to all who stopped by and listened!
What was played:
The Inside of my Head, Spotlight, Losin' my Voice/Great Light of the World, Say it
to me now,
Jesus can You hear me?/ Word of Hope, My love is like a pickle, One more minute,
I bought you a Treadmill, God is on the Move, Walk On
