Thursday, August 24, 2006

A Night To Remember


Many times it has been mentioned to me that I don’t post about personal stuff.  Well, today I will post about something personal, a spectacular evening I had last night.

Over the past 4 months I’ve taken a hiatus from work and focused on self-improvement, on becoming the best Scottage I can be. And while this has been beneficial in so many ways, it has been a rough ride, filled with reliving past emotions, conquering fears, and getting past issues that have haunted me.  

One of the side effects of my program has been that I’ve recaptured my singing voice, which I had believed to be long since lost. I have been a guitarist for 35 years now, and have always been content to jam from the back of the stage, letting the spotlight hit the singer, and remaining in relative anonymity. And even that has been too much for me of late, as in new cities I haven’t been willing to hit the stage at all.

But last night, a group of new friends who also are working on themselves helped me to overcome the fear, by taking me to an open mic, where I both sang and played my guitar. It was only 3 songs in front of maybe 40 people tops, but to me it was so much more.  It was amazing. I felt so energized having overcome the fear and accomplished the task that I can hardly describe it. But the feeling was special, one I’ll remember for a long time.

I was supposed to play two songs, and after each one I got really strong applause, or so it seemed to me.  It’s always hard to tell when you’re on the stage.  Whether it was because I hadn’t played in so long or because I was actually good, the mc asked me to do one more song, which I did gratefully.  And when I was all finished, and the clapping died out, I felt just amazing!

I don’t know how well I played, or if my voice was audible or if it was on tune; for all I know, it could have been absolutely horrific. But it was really special, after all these years, to get back on a stage and just play. I hope to go back and play again.

BTW, the picture above is not from last night, but from the last time I really remember playing out, probably 1998 or 1999 playing in The Folk Club in Tel Aviv, Israel, with a friend Brian playing guitar and another friend, Laura, singing.

Posted by Scottage at 11:08 AM / | |