John Natiw Music

Yesterday I heard that we were supposed to get some snow today. “Pish-posh, they always say that”. Famous last words. We got a BUNCH of snow! It started in the early morning hours and continued until early afternoon. After being the only member of the office staff (out of 10!) to show for work today, I came home early to the challenge of shoveling all that snow off my driveway and sidewalks. All the while I kept wondering if ANYONE would come to the show tonight!

Once I finished shoveling (I still believe my decision to buy a new guitar over a new snow blower was a sound one, btw), I started loading the PA into the four wheel drive Exped and then headed out. The roads were still BAD at 5pm! After playing around a little bit to get a better parking spot near the door, I unloaded to a nearly empty shop. Teresa was quietly reading a book at one of the tables and a couple were in the back on the comfy couches talking. Jim showed up and we began sound check.

For some reason, the sound check went extremely easy and felt GREAT. The tentative feeling I had last night playing was gone. Every chord was coming out right and my vocals felt strong. But would anyone be there to hear it???

By the time we started there were quite a lot of people who had braved the snow to come out. Many were Jim’s friends and family, and some were mine. A few folks continued to filter in as the night progressed. As I scanned the room while playing tonight I was so blown away by all the people that came out. My expectations from this afternoon were really exceeded.

At one point, I mentioned to the crowd how grateful I was that they came out in the snow storm. One older gentleman, a friend of Jim’s from Indiana, said “What snowstorm? This ain’t no snowstorm!”  At that point, he and Lou (a regular on Tuesday nights) began to compare their epic tales of snowstorms past.

Before I started tonight I was a little concerned about filling two full hours. Never done that before. The time slipped away quickly! Jim came up for quite a few songs to feature his amazing talent and jumped up for a few to just fill in the sound. He is a very talented harmonica player, musician and a great friend. Thanks, Jim, for making it a great night.

Solid Grounds was in great form as always. Teresa and crew took good care of me and the crowd all night. She and I had a little talk as I was eating my soup before setting up. I mentioned that I had recently played at a place called Crema Coffee in Belleville and that it reminded me of Solid Grounds. She smiled and said that the owner, Martin Cobb had asked her for help when he started plans for the shop and that she gave him lots of helpful info. Small world!

Near as I can remember I got 22 songs in tonight, taking only one small break about 8:30pm to say hello to all the folks that had come in while I were playing. In addition to a bunch of covers we played a few originals: Better Man, This Time, Jesus and John Lennon, Nothin’ All Day, Help Me Be Good and Irish Love Song. Oddly, we didn’t do Love Does the Rest. We did a great take of it during sound check, but I forgot to do it again during the set! Next time! A few songs I played for the first time tonight were Take Me Home Country Roads, It’s Hard to Be Humble, Waitin’ On a Woman, What Can I Say and You and Me. Need to fill three hours at Zou Zou’s in a couple weeks, so I’m adding to the cover list! Before playing Take Me Home Country Roads I asked the crowd to help me out and sing along and they DID! Great job!

So. as I said, it snowed today. A lot! I made it into work and got my driveway shoveled. And, yes, the show went on. And people came. And it was all very good.

Night,

J