Note #27: 100th Song Performance
Playing song one hundred; posting music on Spotify, etc.
Tonight I will be playing my 100th performance. That’s not my 100th open mic, but 100th performance of a song. From my repertoire, I now have approximately 20 to 25 songs that I will draw from, usually favoring the most recent songs. In all of my open mics, I’ve kept diligent records of which songs I’ve played, when and where, and in what order. Most of these songs were written between August 2022 and now, and for every song that makes it to favored status, I probably neglect two or three (or simply forget them). In fact, I keep all of my songs, though I’m getting to where I realize a lot of the older ones are flawed in ways that all I can do with them is probably rework them, take them apart and reuse the chord sequences in new songs. I never used to do this, but I now see it as a good method, as a recent song (Hide Away) came about from a chord sequence I had stuck into another song. It works so much better in the new song.
I had no idea over a year ago that I would get to here, though I suppose I was heading that way naturally. Why have I kept track of it all? Because I am no longer young, I feel pride in having accomplished this with music–a long running dream, really, to play my music on stage–and I wanted to have a record of it for posterity. As well, this is why I have kept careful track of my songwriting output. I’ve mentioned in the past how all of the songs I wrote twenty plus years ago are mostly lost to me. I don’t know how other artists can remember all of their songs, but I could not do it without having them written down.
Regarding the 100th performance: If I do the rough math, that’s about nine hours alone on stage with my soul baring efforts. I now feel relatively comfortable up there. One of the curious things for me is that initially, I was terrified to do readings on stage–and, in fact, had only done it once or twice for grad school (again, in my previous life as a writer) — but reading now sounds like a cakewalk. Maybe I’ll get back to writing again, and eventually, reading on stage…
Last week, I showed up late to the open mic and my friend had signed me up (last). So I had to go on after an eight piece brass band–which played about four encores (encouraged by the host). When I went up, I thought, well, they were great, so no one will stick around to hear me. Instead, almost everyone was milling about, and in general, I nailed it. I was even asked to play an encore, then another, but at the second one I demurred, as my friends hadn’t had that opportunity. I could have been intimidated playing after the brass band, but I thought, what else am I going to do? I came to play after all. (My friends managed to get up and play another song each, also!)
My goal from here is 100 open mics, which could conceivably happen this year (I’m at #39), if I keep at my pace (about six per month; I ramp up when I can). I know some people would look at this as nonsense, “why are you so preoccupied with the numbers?” etc., but that’s just how I am. Ever since I started keeping track of my reading about two years ago, I have been aware of the desire to keep track of my music stats. Don’t baseball players do this, also? And, for that matter, I think of Robert Pollard (Guided by Voices) who must also keep track of things like this (he was a star baseball pitcher in high school). And if any band has possibly a more remarkable set of stats, I can’t think of it. (Guided by Voices: 38 studio albums, dozens of other EPs, singles, etc.; Pollard himself apparently having written over 1,600 songs, according to wikipedia…)
My intention and goal is to eventually write about (my) 100 songs. I haven’t written 100, but I am sure I have (including the old ones I can’t remember how to play) more than half that number. How to write about these songs? I haven’t figured that out yet. But as a (former) writer, my sense is that I should be able to come up with that as a writing project.
I can only imagine how strange, or perhaps even self-serving, this all sounds. But can’t a middle-aged guy have some fun?
On a side note: I’ve been putting my songs up on Spotify (and Apple, as well as I don’t know how many others). My latest single (Unbroken) is here:
