I had an interesting gig last weekend.  Without boring you with too many details,  there was a little bit of trouble with some of the people in the place I was playing.   No fight broke out,  but there was a lot of shouting and tension in the air.   The owner ended up throwing out this group of troublemakers.

As a performer,  it raised an interesting question for me.   What do I do?   I felt kind of dumb continuing to sing and play while all of this is happening five feet away from me.    At the same time,  I felt like if the music suddenly stopped,  it would have drawn more attention to the matter and possibly would have disturbed more of the patrons than had already been disturbed.  

Last week I stopped by the Flipside's open mic night.   There was a guy playing guitar behind someone who was singing.   I commented to Jeff Riales how tasty his playing was.   They guy obviously has some serious chops,  but he wasn't at all flashy about it.  Very understated and restrained.   Jeff replied,  "He must know the old addage:  Never miss an opportunity to not play."

Man,  does that make sense to me.   I wish more people understood that its ok to not play every single beat of every single measure in a song.   I think some people get nervous or uncomfortable if they're on stage and they're not doing something.    I think a lot of that comes from the Jam Band scene where everyone is playing all at the same time for long periods of time.   I've written before that I don't have much use for that.    I prefer the old jazz tradition where everyone gets a chance to show what they've got,  but they're not stepping all over each other all the time.   A few well placed spaces can be more powerful than a flurry of notes.

There's a fine line performers at my particular level of the food chain have to walk.   We want to entertain the crowd,  but at the same time,  we want to play what we play.   Sometimes the audience doesn't quite get what we're trying to do.

I saw a friend of mine perform last night.   He's a fine performer and something of a music historian who does acoustic  Delta Blues.    For a good portion of the evening,  he had to deal with the drunk guy sitting up front who kept requesting Allman Brothers and Stevie Ray Vaughan.   There's nothing wrong with those performers,  but they have little to do with Mississippi John Hurt or Elizabeth Cotten.   As a performer,  you have to realize that while that guy may be annoying,  he is at least showing some interest in you.    I usually tell that guy that I have to think about it for a song or two because I don't really do that kind of music regularly.   Hopefully after a song or two,  he's forgotten about it.

Now the guy that thinks it's the pinnacle of hilarity yell "Freebird,"  as if he's the first person to ever do it,  is another story.   He needs to be taken out, locked in his truck,  and forced to listen to Perry Como cds until he learns his lesson.

W.B. Blues was scheduled to do some recording this past weekend.   Unfortunately,  Tim got sick,  and was unable to go.   We decided to wait until all three of us could go together.    That left me with some time on my hands.   

I decided to go see a movie.   I don't even remember what movie I last saw,  but it has been a while.    I went to see Borat.   I thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen because I was laughing so hard that I couldn't take a breath.

This time of year,  they try to push all the "meaningful"  movies with a message because they want to win an Oscar.   They can keep all the deep stuff.   I like to be entertained.   Even if it isn't especially high brow,  I have to say Borat is one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time.    They should give the awards based on how much the audience likes the movie,  not by how artsy fartsy it is.

Last week I complained that a number of my gigs were cancelled because they were centered around the local ski areas,  and we just don't have any snow.   Well,  this week isn't perfect,  but it's a  little better.    It's been cold enough for them to make snow,  and the ski resorts are open again,  so we're going to give it a try.   

 I'll be playing at the Sierra Inn on Sunday afternoon,   and hosting the Open Mic Night Monday evening at The Shawmut Pub at Swain Ski & Snowboard Resort.  It's been a tough winter so far for these businesses,  and hopefully we can try to make up for it with some good times and full houses.

This will be a rather long front page entry.  It's an interesting exercise to review your entire year.  Some things seem like just yesterday.  Others seem like a lifetime ago.   Anyway,  here goes....my 2006 year in review:

At the end of 2005,  I had some throat troubles and hadn't done much singing.  2006 found me on the mend.  I was taking some voice lessons at the Hochstein school of music and was learning how to improve my technique so as not to damage my voice.   This meant a complete change in my singing style.   The old growl was gone.   The new,  smooth Steve West was born.   I was a little nervous about pushing my voice too hard,  but I was lucky enough to get a couple of regular gigs for me down in Swain.  I was playing the Sierra Inn every Sunday,  and hosting the open mic at the ski resort every Monday.  I picked up a few new guitar students,  and I filled in for Keith Harden at Beale Street a couple of times.  I took it as a nice compliment that he thought enough of my perfoming to ask me.  It was looking like it was going to be a good year for me.

February and March brought the opportunity to perform with some new people.  Just to keep things interesting,  I invited some different folks down to Swain and the Chocolate Bar to play.  It was nice getting to work with JoAnn Vaccaro,  Bill Brown, and Nate Coffey, Gordon Munding, Anton Flint, and The Swanson Brothers  among others.  I also continued my partnership with Pete Collin and W.B. Blues.  Bill Brown invited me to come to The Brown Hound in Bristol Springs to sit in with him.  I was grateful for the invitation,  because it led to what has become one of my favorite regular gigs.    I also made some new friends at Lunahsea,  where Georgene asked me to host an open mic for her.  

As springtime started peeking its head out in April,  I was still playing at the Sierra every Sunday,  but the season was winding down.   One Sunday I met Lisa Marino there.   She heard W.B. Blues and liked us enough to ask us to play at her restaurant,  Club 57,  in Hornell.   It has become a fairly regular gig for us,  and we couldn't be happier.   The people there are just great.   As usual,  Pete traded his guitar for a fishing pole once the weather allowed,  so I put my concentration into solo gigs,  and W.B. Blues gigs.    The band was really starting to get tight,  and we landed a job at the Strathallan Hotel in Rochester.  This was really a big jump as far as we were concerned.   They usually have piano jazz,   so we shook things up for them a bit.    They loved us,  and we had a great time.

By June,  we had another Strathallan gig,  as well as a gig at the nearly famous Pollywogg Holler Ecoresort.   Later in the month, my friend Deborah Herbert came home to visit her family from Denmark.   Deb is a remarkable performer,  and I arranged for her to play at Chocolate Bar.   Dave Sharman sat in on jazz guitar,  and my nephew Phil played some tasty drums.   It was a blast.   Phil graduated from high school,  so I was very proud of him.    At the end of the month,  I held my annual Musians Picnic.   I invited a lot of friends to come to the lake and just hang out.  We ate,  jammed,  took a boat ride,  ate some more,  jammed some more,  and had a great day.

As July started,  I had already done more gigs than I did in all of 2005.   It was time for a little rest.  I cancelled all my lessons and scheduled no gigs for the 4th of July week.   It was glorious.   Perfect weather,  and lots of time to relax on the lake.  We did one more gig at Chocolate Bar with Deb.  This time,  Bill Brown and Ross Bracco sat in with us.   The place was standing room only.  Definitely one of my highlights for the year.   I also had a chance to do something a little different.  I played for the residents at St. Ann's Home in Rochester.   I felt really good about entertaining people who don't get a chance to get out much anymore.  I think they appreciated it too.

The rest of the summer just flew by.   I played some outdoor venues with W.B. Blues,  and really enjoyed what I was doing for a living.

In September,  I played the Gallery Night Out at Artisan Works.   I was on the roof with four other performers.  It was a great night.   I was invited by one of the other performers,  Jerry Falzone to play in a group setting later in the season because we had so much fun.   

Pete managed to find his guitar,  and we did a few gigs together as the leaves started to change.    Chocolate Bar started the fall music series and I once again was in charge of the booking.   I also ran into Allison DeMarco and Andy Penner by chance one night.   They used to manage the Big Tree Inn back when they had live music there.   They told me they had opened a new restaurant in Honeoye Falls,  and wanted me to play there.   The Rabbit Room at the Lower Mill is really elegant.  

In November,  I went to The Wave Station and recorded a few Christmas songs.  Nothing fancy,  but I was rather proud that I played all the instruments.   My mom enjoyed the disc,  as it was an early Christmas gift.   I also got the news from Susan Emery that they had decided to close Chocolate Bar at the end of the year.   I had some planning to do.

For December,  I was supposed to be playing at the Sierra Inn every Sunday again,  but we had about three snowflakes to speak of,  so that gig was put on hold until the weather improved (or worsened?)    I put my energy into planning one last hurrah at Chocolate Bar.   I invited all the people who had performed there over the past two years to come back for one last show.   We ended up with aobut nine performers over five hours.   It was a great show that included some interesting collaborations.   We donated all the money raised to the Salvation Army Red Kettle Fund,  so it went to help some less fortunate folks.   I ended the year with a gig at the Springbrook Inn.   Tim was out of town,  so Ross and I asked Gordon Munding to sit in.   It was a great way to end a very productive year.

Here's hoping that 2007 is just as productive,  and twice as fun!