Another day, another rodeo… saw that on a t-shirt the other day while I was at the stockyards. So true. Bought the shirt…
Last night we played a private party at Heath’s parent’s house. I had a feeling it could be a good time… and when I showed up and saw Heath’s son making Everclear jello shots, I knew what we were in for. Yeah, it was a fun time.
We don’t play as many private parties as I’d like. While I dislike bar gigs, the festivals and private parties are often some of my favorites. At the private parties, it’s nice to be able to relax before and after you play, you get a better chance to talk with the folks in the crowd and such. I know that, with all the keyboard stuff I use on stage, there are always some questions about it. “What is that thing?” is the common one for the Alesis MIDI controller I use and, at a private party, I will often walk you up on the stage and show you how it works. That casualness is kind of pleasant.
Again, we were dealing with the weather. But, this time we lucked out. It rained right before I got there, no rain the rest of the day. Humid, humid, humid, but no rain! The crowd was fun, the keg was cold, the sangria tasty, the hot dogs in abundance. We played a little over two hours, think we did all the album songs, a couple other originals I had written in the past (Tonga Juice and Island Holiday), then a few appropriate covers… Margaritaville and Sangria Wine… Lonely Boy by Black Keys. Ok, that one may not match the rest, but it’s a fun song to play – we’ll probably keep that in the set for a while. At parties like this, we just go with the flow and play what feels right.
Performance wise, I wasn’t too happy with myself. The night before, we played for 4 hours and I pushed my voice too hard – that’s too long to be running your mouth at a high level and is yet another reason we’re backing off from the 4 hour shows. Plus, I’m not sure if it was the weather, maybe I’m getting a chest cold, both? I don’t know, but I had a really hard time hitting the higher notes or anything extended on Saturday. Heath & Cisco said I didn’t sound bad, but I would have like to have sounded better. Today my voice is shot – coughing here and there, feel like I’ve been inhaling mold for a week. Good news is that we have next weekend off, so I can rest the voice and get things back under control before the next shows start back up.
Aside from that, it was a great party. I had a really good time, think we all did. Thanks to Phillip & Lynn for having us out – it was a really nice time!
Stay gold,
RH
He's hard on himself. His voice sounded great!
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