So, a post mortem:
First off, no video, alas: the person I asked to handle that got wrapped up in the moment and forgot to film. No biggie, there will be many other times.
Went great. I did three tunes, all "old standards" in terms of my knowing the vocals inside, out, and backwards so I could focus on playing: "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen (in C), and a couple of Buffett tunes: "Bama Breeze" and "Breathe In, Breathe Out." Played the Spincaster direct into the Nace, with the former tweaked for an acoustic-y sound (the BL Blades plus the Q Filter are amazing for that) as befit the material. Got a raucous round of approval and it was a blast.
Now, for the really interesting part....
One of my main current clients is a big defense contractor (where I used to work full time) and I'm on a small and close-knit team doing some killer cool stuff. The technical lead has been trying to get me to meet her husband (Steve) who plays lead guitar; they're semi-new to the area, he doesn't know anyone, and I got them to come to the open mic to hang out and network. He plays mostly classic rock, but thinks the blues are cool, and he writes a lot of original material. We're gonna collaborate, starting next week.
It gets better....
He brought a Strat, and I goaded him into agreeing to play some. The organizer was all in for us to do some generic blues stuff starting at 9PM when the scheduled sets were done, then she upped the ante and got her regular rhythm player to join us and as a foursome we did a couple of blues tunes from her catalog while she belted out the vocals and Steve demonstrated that he is, indeed, the real deal as a soloist (he plugged into the Nace with me). I didn't know the songs, neither did he, but it didn't matter. Her rhythm guy called out the chords in case we lost count and we rocked the house. The tunes were Sweet Home Chicago and Deep Ellem Blues.
Now she's sending us her favorite three blues tunes from her band's repertoire and we have two weeks to be ready to rock 'em with them. Steve and I are also going to work up a short set list of both his original stuff and a couple of covers (Led Zep and April Wine tunes) I want to do rhythm and vocals for.
Yeah, this is gonna be fun. :side:
Mark