Reviewing my 12 weeks at Don Pedro’s

Friday 13 May 2011 One-ish in the morning

After my gig at Don Pedro’s, once again hyped up, unable to fall asleep. I don’t know how other musicians do it, but I can’t just come home and go straight to sleep.

Ok, had a quick shower, feeling better now.

Tonight was another amazing night at Don Pedro’s. Special people there tonight were my best friend, Tracy, my best friend from high school, Zenariah, my new friends who play the hand drums, and then the surprise of the evening – my sister, Wendy, and her husband, Theo! Also a lovely surprise was seeing my friend, Valmont – very good guitarist and vocalist, amongst other things – and his lovely wife, Tanya.

Sat. 14 May 2011

But the definite highlight of my night was, once again, doing my second set with ERROL DYERS. Every time I’m on stage, I learn something, and tonight I learnt, amongst other things, the same lesson life has tried to teach me so many times before, that there’s nothing as satisfying (musically) as performing your original songs! But there was another lesson life had to teach me again – Errol is amazing! He listens to what I’m playing and singing, and plays around that, complementing, enhancing, never over-playing, never drowning me out or pulling my song in a direction I’m uncomfortable with. He’s considerate and intuitive, sensitive and unselfish. Unlike the previous time we played together, this time he played his own guitar, and I love the sound he produces on nylon strings – warm, melodious, interesting, unpredictable. What makes performing with him different is probably a combination of his playing style and his personality. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that the former is merely an extension of the latter.

I’ve been extremely lucky, throughout my life, to have made music with a lot of different people, each of whom has influenced me in some way.

My Thursday nights at Don Pedro’s have been a journey within a journey, and, looking back at the past 12 weeks, I can’t help but think of an affirmation I’ve been using since I left the formal employment sector 8 months ago: “Everything in my life follows the perfect plan of the universe.”

Someone told me recently that when I talk about music, I’m totally engrossed in it. Funny how my first response was to apologise, because I thought he meant I wasn’t being a good conversationalist, that I wasn’t interested in what he had to say, but he corrected that misconception, commending me for having such an obvious passion in my life.

Sometimes I set out to achieve something and life surprises me by adding elements that I’d never counted on, and the whole experience just becomes much larger and richer than I could ever have imagined. That’s what gigging at Don Pedro’s has been like for me. When I was approached to do it as a soloist, I tried very hard to convince the owner that hiring the duo would be much better! He insisted that I do it as a solo act, and encouraged me to do my own material, as well. With great trepidation – well-concealed, according to my friends – I took on the challenge, and what I can say for sure is that after my first night there, after having done two whole sets on my own, I knew what I had to do. I knew what it felt like, after many years of preferring a duo format, to be alone on stage and to be responsible for generating both the vocal and instrumental aspects of the music. The overwhelming feeling was that, as a soloist, I had “no place to hide”.

As the weeks progressed, I realised the other benefits of a gig like that, as I got the opportunity to perform my original songs to appreciative audiences comprising other creative people: writers, poets, musicians and artists. I started going through my original music at home and selecting songs I either hadn’t ever done, or songs I’d rarely done, in public. That was refreshing for me, as an original artist, and of course it’s always good to see how people react to your songs. What I also liked was that I met so many people that I hadn’t met before, many of whom I’d like to stay in contact with.

Some memorable things that happened in the past 12 weeks at Don Pedro’s:
• My best friend went with me on 5 of the nights.
• In week 4, two of my friends (Diana Ferrus and Vangie Watkins) spent the evening there with parties of their friends.
• In week 5, I met duo Mel and Elton, who did a few songs. The restaurant was full that night, with lots of interesting people I knew, and it was a very special night for me.
• In week 7, my high school best friend had her birthday party there. Singer-songwriter Peter LaVey did a few songs as my guest artist. After my second set that night, Mel and El did a set – that surprised me, but proved that, at Don Pedro’s, well…… anything goes!
• Round about week 7 or 8, I sang two brand new songs, one a poem by Diana Ferrus - “Have I Lost You?” - that I’d put music to, and the other a new song of mine, a samba called “What’s What?”
• In week 9, I stepped out boldly and did a whole night of originals! Turning point for me.
• In week 10, Errol Dyers joined me on stage for my second set – we did originals only. That night, a friend I hadn’t seen in about 15 years, Shirley, was there with her husband, Ricardo.
• In week 11, I had the privilege of doing my second set with Hilton Schilder, a musician I’d last performed with about 5 years ago. Nice surprise was seeing another friend I hadn’t seen in about 25 years, who’d come to hear me - Mark.
• In week 12, Errol Dyers once again accompanied me in my second set. My sister and her husband came, as well as hot muso, Valmont Layne.
• On one of my first nights there, I met a group of drummers who come to Don Pedro’s after their drumming workshop; really nice guys, and they’ve been there on most of the nights I’ve played there. In a strange way, their presence, week after week, reassures me. Funny how people you hardly know can have that effect on you.
• On almost every one of the 12 nights, someone asked me if I had a CD, or when I was going to record one. On the 12th night (how Shakespearean) I was able to give someone a CD of original music recorded at a concert in 2009.

With two more Thursday night gigs at Don Pedro’s left, I can only say it’s been a crazy, wonderful time for me, and I look forward to my last two nights there. Who knows what might happen?! 

And so, as I end this blog post on Saturday afternoon, having spent a whole day in bed feeling rotten with flu, I really do see how my life follows some kind of path that I’m not always in control of, but that feels exactly as it’s supposed to. Often, when I’m incapable of making the right decisions for myself, the universe intervenes and takes the decision out of my hands, guiding me to my inexorable destination. And, believe me, the list of examples is getting longer.

But that’s another story!