And often the food is good

My friend Walter -- with whom I played in my first band, 20 years ago -- recently lamented that sometimes, playing music, he feels like so much furniture.

As a friend of mine advised me a long time ago: "Play pretty." That's what i wanna do these days. It seems the result of "playing pretty," however, is not only becoming a seamless part of the music, but also of becoming a seamless part of whatever is behind you--like a wall. You don't get noticed.

And that's been okay. I've adjusted accordingly and started enjoing being in the background. Like i said, I really hadn't thought all that much about it...until the other night...

I had finished a gig with a friend of mine (who actually is entertaining and interesting and stuff) and we were loading the gear out. As i was carrying my guitar case toward the door , this rather attractive and charmingly intoxicated chick put her arm out on the wall and cut me off. She looked at me as she swayed every so slightly and cooed:

"sooooo....i was wondering what musicians like to do after they finish playing at night..."

For me, part of being a working musician is accepting that I must on occasion blend into the walls. The consolation, in my recent experience at least, is that the more in the background I am, the better the gig pays. I've played a lot of weddings, for example, and weddings guests generally don't care who I am or how seriously I take the music. They just want to dance to "Mustang Sally" -- or, more likely, to talk while over yonder someone is singing "Mustang Sally." If they pay any attention to me, it often is in the form of a mocking request for "Free Bird," which is worse than no attention, period, but never mind.

Anyway, all this is fine, because wedding gigs are lucrative -- as opposed to club gigs, which generally don't pay well (though they pay much better in Madison than in music capitals like New York or Nashville). But club gigs have their own rewards: I generally am playing my own songs at them, and if people come, they are there -- hopefully -- to listen.

And perhaps, later, to flirt with me. I don't discourage this. It's good for my self-esteem.