August at the Nyack Farmer's Market

    I made my monthly appearance at the Market today.  It was overcast and the clouds looked like they could let go of some rain at any moment, but the shade was nice.  That parking lot can get really harsh when the sun is bright.

    I sensed it coming at last months Market performance, but it arrived pretty much fully, today.  "It" that I am referring to is me, kind of.  It is that relaxed feeling that comes with being comfortable with ones place, identity, and ability.  "It" could be referred to as confidence, but it is actually something other than that.  For me, it is not confidence that I will not make mistakes, or have difficulties, but rather confidence in my knowledge that, what ever it is, how ever it goes, it's all good, just fine.  I own this music now, I own this guy, this personality that is performing it.  I don't have any feelings of apology about what I am bringing to the moment, but I used to feel apologetic about it.  I had hoped, and felt pretty sure that this moment would come, but the price, the road to get here was long, and rough, and left some scars, but that is what life does, right.

    I was already having a good morning playing, not perfect in my presentation, but really good.  people seemed to get a smile from the music, some clapped along, some danced, toddlers and dogs kept making eye contact with me and looking back toward me, so much so that mothers and dog owners had to redirect their course.  That's gotta be a good sign, right?

    I played for about an hour and a half.  That's a long set, but it didn't feel like to much.  At the end I was feeling a bit tired, but then Ian Moore, the wonderful fiddle player stopped me from leaving so we could do a song together.

    We played "Mighty Oak", or, as he likes to call it "the dead cowboy song".  I've grown to really like that name, or subtitle.  I was a bit nervous, from being tired, but more, overly excited at having Ian play on the song with me, so of course my rendition of this song was not with out it's stumbles, but it matter not.

    I have said it before, but when it comes to art, especially performing arts, regular math does not work.  1+1>2. Increase is exponential.  If you count the fiddle and the guitar, then it was actually 1+1+1+1>4.   Ian is a very sensitive and proficient player, and a wonderful improvisationalist.

    Today was one of the highlights of my "nano-scale music career"

There is a clip of the performance on the BoatshopMusicstudio Youtube channel  now.  Link below.

https://youtu.be/AbWGNKPQgPs