Saturday night at The Vine

The Coffee Vine Cafe: We were asked late Friday evening to play Saturday night as well. Jose' couldn't make it so I went ahead and said I would. I had some new horns that I had just purchased to to trick out my old speakers. Unfortunately I buggerd the job of installing them right before time to play. I thought it would be simple enough a task for an tech-challenged idiot like myself to do. Both cabinets fluttered something awful and I decided to take the system down and just belt out my songs, running my guitar through my Line 6 effects stomp box and small Sony hot spot monitor. I really didn't know if I was going to pull it off or not but the crowd wasn't as intense as Friday night.

Most of the night I was background ambiance to their cool coffee house environment. There were some really neat dynamics that happened in spite of the lack of P.A. There was one song that I was joined by a young percussionist that Gina met in the sitting room behind the stage. She encouraged him to join me on stage and cut loose. My friend Rachael who works at the cafe' joined me for a worship song I wrote called My Desire. She is a little shy but has an angelic voice. I told her that I'd like to invite her on stage for future gigs. She is really good and I found out our voices blend well together. It was nice to have a moment of real praise and worship during the event. I didn't push it to happen but didn't hold back when the moment came.

Gina came home excited because she got some percussion lessons from her new found friends. I think we are going to drive out to Ashville tomorrow and visit their church. There wasn't a big crowd there last night but we had a wondeful time.

I don't play the song Sugar Blues that well on guitar, but last night was the first time I belted it out on blues harp and just sang it a-cappella. . Sugar Blues is a song that Brooky Finlayson and Barry Goss wrote while touring with Terry Talbot a couple of decades ago. It's a great song. Nori and Barbie Kelley (The Wind) do a great version of the song as well. I always enjoy backing Brook up when he plays it. Tonight though, I found a way to make it my own and will throw it into my line up from here own out.

I have been asked to play in September, both Friday and Saturday nights, the 21st and 22nd. I would like for The Guise (Brooky Finlayson, Michael Bynum and myself) to play there one night in the near future. Michael...are you up for it? Do you think it would be a good Rapha outing?

Playing at the Coffee Vine Cafe' is just as much fun as I thought it would be. I'm looking forward to next month's venture.