30 days from home, and we’ve just added an additional 2k plus to the Trip. We won the Eddie’s Attic Open Mic competition (it’s actually a pretty big deal!) and are playing in their big Open Mic Shootout on June 11th!
Which means we’ll finally have an excuse to go through Nashville!!!
Ok. Sleep.
Last night we played Eddie’s Attic open mic, which has a large shadow in the mythology of acoustic music – the Indigo Girls and Lea, John Mayer and Daniel Lee – they all have Eddie’s Attic open mic on their resumes. Looking at the posters on the wall we see a lot of names we know, including Ellis Paul and Ryan Montbleau (the guy who we just met in Boston). The entrance is unassuming, a simple door with a red flickering neon sign, but the flight of stairs lead you past a who’s who of touring acoustic acts’ posters, faces and guitars smirking and sinning and smiling in their best press poses.
I had similar feelings to my first encounter with Club Passim – really, really nervous. There aren’t many open mics that have such a big reputation, and Eddie’s Attic, for me – this was a place that I’d known about and heard about for years. Beyond being part of the greater acoustic Scene – it was part of my own PERSONAL mythology of a place to see and be seen. The heart of Atlanta’s music scene.
So, naturally, we were there early. 7pm for an open mic that starts at 8pm for a slot that’s at 9.20 at a place where the schedule will PROBABLY lag and be thrown off course over the course of the night.
Of course, by 8.30pm, I was REALLY glad we’d gotten there early. The place was PACKED. Acts were shuttled on and off the stage at roughly 10 minute intervals, but invariably the schedule seemed to sag under the weight of its own ambition. Sitting there, waiting for our slot, it hurt. Waiting for things to go, I’d made friends with a blues/funk drummer named Clint who made the time pass a little quicker with his conversation. I’m getting a little better at starting up conversations without a guitar as a shield – without playing first to establish my cred. We traded opinions on the other players. Disappointment with some, grins at others.
Amy Law ‘s little sister, Natalie – our host for the night, had come out to see us and brought some friends… my Dad’s cousin Connie (I’d met her while going back and forth with people during my father’s slow decline) came with a friend… We actually had a CONTINGENT.
So, sitting, watching the other players, a lot of whom were really, really good – I grew tense, stiff, worried, and sure enough, on stage it showed. We were finally called and I made small-talk about the Biker Rally, and though I did screw things up a little bit in LooseN, we really shined. My kudos to Ken Kiser, who was the first guy to get up there and make our asses move. Matt Webster – who was like a growlier Underfoot. Those of you who KNOW of Underfoot will be impressed with that. I was really blown away by him, and I’m hoping I can get some recordings of him when we’re back in town. I was actually standing outside the doors when I heard him from outside and sprinted for the dim interior… James Clay and his three-piece went ahead and made me quite happy as well. He’d brought along an upright bass and a mandolin player from Tennessee, and I really fell in Love with them… Woody Wood with his “educational” lyrics and his Jethro Tull-esque flutist. A lot of good players. Heather wrote it all out.
But we really made an impression. It always makes me feel good when the room takes a good long time to settle down after our performance. The room just buzzed… and so I thought we had a pretty good chance at making it into the top three…. Wait… Didn’t I explain about that? Eddie’s Attic is a competition – judges judge and audiences clap, and they choose the three best performers to come back at the end of the night and perform one more song. From that they pick a first place, and that act wins some cash, a gig at Eddie’s Attic, and a slot at one of their semi-annual Shootouts, competing against the other Best Of acts for $1000 and random other prizes. It’s a pretty big deal. John Mayer’s initial claim to fame came from winning this.
So, the end of the night rolls around, and there is an intermission while the judges confer and conversations happen and the host steps into the lights and draws it all out with dry humour and straight-faced patter. First they called up Ken. He went up, performed a tune and stepped back off. Second they called Jason, who’d performed some really beautiful songs earlier, including a very cute one about a girl who’d gotten married at eight years old. He threw out a song about the 9-5 done with immaculate expression changes and a highly-detailed smirk. I hadn’t been caught by him in the first round, but by this second appearance, I was really impressed with his stage-craft, especially.
And so, as usual, I was engaged in conversation when they called us up for the third slot. I was pretty surprised, as they seemed to be picking from a slightly different group than I felt we’d fallen into. And so Heather and I approached the stage, bickering playfully about what we were going to play.
Will it was. And we had them. The audience gasped with the bending of the neck, and I broke a string on the fourth to last progression. When I broke the string, I knew we had it. We were called back as the winners of the Eddie’s Attic open mic competition. We’ll be back on June 11th.
Holy shit. Remapping, rescheduling. We’re going to get to go through Nashville. Life’s good. Natalie’s house was like some modernized Elven multi-tiered stronghold with climbing stairways and stretching pines. A comfortable bed and a friendly dog (Maggie – short for Magnolia, has GOT to meet Mary – short for Mariposa) and it doesn’t get much better than that. I woke up feeling more refreshed and like I’d slept better than I had in weeks/forever… the Atlanta sky is clear and blue and it’s just the right temperature in the shade. Even the sunshine isn’t too bad, as it encourages skinks from their cracks. Almost got one. But it wasn’t stunned by a 20 foot fall and it had all four legs.
I-85, headed south. In a couple of hours we’ll finally reach a state on the Trip that I hadn’t visited before. Alabama. Where the stars are.
