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
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Another great evening at Solid Grounds coffee house tonight! Tons of performers and lots folks there to listen. Place was rockin’! Seven Bridges, Darwin, Mark, Ann, Greg, Ed and a whole host of usual suspects were there. Met two new ladies named Angel and Nancy. They were too much fun!
I had not played Jesus and John Lennon publicly in a long time so I did it tonight. Unfortunately I also have not played a harmonica while playing in some time and the thing completely got out of place during the song. Got through it though. Should’ve had Jim come up! Doh! Finished up the first round with Come On Get Higher by Matt Nathanson.
Keith and I did fellow Michigan artist Drew Nelson’s song WalMart v2.0 (with a little Johnny Cash thrown in) for the “lightning round”. Keith will be joining me for the Solid Grounds show on November 22nd! Be sure to come on out!
Harbor Springs, here I come!!!
John
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Although Dave & Lisa are basking in the sun in Florida, I managed to get out and play tonight over at Solid Grounds. We had a “family dinner” thing at Olga’s at the mall. Lindsay left for DC again tonight. After that, I headed over to Northville.
Most of the usual suspects were there. Dar, Steve, Bill, Aaron. Great to see friends coming together to play music. Although I arrived late, they let me get in the rotation and I managed to get a three song set in as well as a “lightning round” as Steve likes to call them.
Tonight I played Nothin’ All Day, Superman’s Song, Jesus and John Lennon and, finally, This Time. Surprisingly, the last one got the most comments tonight. I didn’t say anything about it being my song and a few people were trying to “place who did that one”. Pretty funny. But flattering.
Anyhoo, the real fun began after the show ended. Dar and I grabbed our guitars and headed out to the mall area (nice acoustics out there!). We messed around with Blue on Black and a bunch of other songs well into the night. Probably TOO far into the night. Haha. Both our wives called to break up the after hours party. We’re both very lucky to have understanding spouses!
Looking forward to the return of the wayward bass player and lead singer, who, incidentally, sent me a nice photo text this morning of the two of them laying around on a hammock on the beach. How cruel is THAT???
Waiting for the sun,
John
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Nothing like music after a particularly stressful day. Listening to it. Playing it. Tonight was both. Decided last minute to run up to the Bean for their open mic night. Knew it would be worth my while when Steve Kovich strolled up and pulled up a chair next to me. We chatted a bit while waiting to get picked. Rachel Anne was there too, visiting with a friend. She came up and said hello.
So, about that post title. A few performers in, I heard them pick “John….” somebody. Not me. Then he picked a second “John…” I figured this was ME for sure. Nope. Two John’s in a row and not me. Then he picked a third name…. Yup. “John…. um…. Nat….. um….. erm….. John N.”
Yesssssssss.
It’s nights like this that make me glad I’m in a band named Arlington Station. Much easier to pronounce.
After playing a couple of originals (Jesus & John Lennon and This Time), I ran over to the high school to pick up the girls from fife & drum. Once home, I found out that Jen was on her way up to the Bean to play with Rachel Anne. So…
I hopped back into the truck and headed back up. They did a great job on Jezebel and Baby I. Jen’s guitar sounded like the battery was going out, but they kept on chugging. Very professional!
Anyway, I’m off to read a bit and get some sleep.
Hope to see you soon. AST will be at the East River show on March 8th. We’ll also be doing our own show (that’s right, over an hour of AST music!) at Solid Grounds on March 14th.
Night,
J
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Since me and my Arlington Station mates played out at the Bean last night, I took advantage of a free Tuesday night to show up solo at Solid Grounds. Been a few months since I screwed up my courage to take the stage alone. Fortunately, I was among friends. Karen, Jen and Rachel Anne all showed up (and did a great “hands in the air” bit during my last song).
Also ran into some familiar faces on the stage! Darwin and Steve among other very good performers. Darwin and I talked a bit after the show and agreed to work on a couple of songs to perform as a duo. Stay tuned!
Managed to get up to play three times tonight. The first round was Jesus and John Lennon, Nothin’ All Day (first public performance) and Irish Love Song (been too long).
Although Shallow Song was written a couple years ago, tonight was the first public performance of that one. Started out my second round with that one followed by Superman’s Song (Crash Test Dummies).
Got up to do This Time during the “lightning round.”
After putting in a plug for Arlington Station’s show there on Friday, March 14, it was time to pack up the Martin and head home.
See you soon!
John
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Do you like eating frozen dinners? After you heat them up, I mean…
I remember eating them as a kid. It felt like a treat to me. Maybe that was my mom’s way of getting out of cooking. As I sit here typing away, it’s a rainy night and I’m scarfing a Salisbury Steak frozen dinner after a great show at Solid Grounds Coffee Shop in Northville. This warm food tastes great after being out in a cold and rainy night.
Solid Grounds is a great, hip shop in downtown Northville. As usual, we showed up not knowing what to expect and were pleasantly surprised. There were a few familiar face playing. Folks we’ve heard at other open mic shows recently gave the evening a sense of familiarity.
We went on fourth and did four songs, starting with Jesus and John Lennon. We finally broke out Stay by Sugarland. That was one of the first songs we ever worked on back in October. It took awhile to get comfortable with it, but it went well, we thought. After doing what has become a sort of signature song for us, I’m With the Band, we finished with Hiding My Heart.
After getting through all the performers once, we were all given the opportunity to play again. Two songs this time. Although Lisa was struggling just a bit with a cold/cough thing, we got through Lovin’ Arms (yes, I had the right harmonica tonight) and Leave the Pieces.
Every time we do one of these open mic shows, we leave feeling wonderful about the experience. Tonight was no different. The talent was first rate and the variety of styles was really cool.
This was our fifth show as Arlington Station and we were very grateful to have many friends and family with us again tonight. We are truly a blessed group! Christine and Sam (who is on leave from the US Army… Hoooah!), Barb and Becky, Kelly and Matt, Ryan, Mike, Karen, Gerst, Rachel Anne and Jen were all on hand. Your support means a lot to us. Thank you!
But wait, there’s more!
After the show, the MC for the evening, Steve Kovich, mentioned to us that we may want to talk to the owners of Solid Grounds and talk about booking a weekend show. After finding one of the co-owners, Teresa Berent, and twisting her arm (not too much), we have booked a full Arlington Station show at Solid Grounds for Friday, March 14, 7-9pm. We plan on playing a couple of sets and have spoken to Rachel Anne and Jenni about playing with us that evening.
Gotta run. My Apple Cobbler dessert is gettin’ cold.
We hope to see you soon!
Lisa, John and Dave
Arlington Station
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It may have been cold and rainy outside, but it was a hot night inside the Plymouth Coffee Bean Company in downtown Plymouth, Michigan.
Ok… enough of that….
We showed up for our first Bean open mic night and played fourth in the first set (we need to get home at a reasonable hour to get our beauty sleep). One of our own tunes, Jesus and John Lennon, was our first song tonight. We were pleasantly surprised at the great reponse to this one. Lisa did her usual excellent job of singing on Song for a Winter’s Night. And, as we’ve done a few times, we ended with I’m With the Band.
We were among friends tonight. Well, we’re ALWAYS among friends, but we had many of our friends come out to see us tonight. Dave’s mom and dad, Kelly, John’s co-worker Jim, Karen, Jenni and Gerst were all there to support us.
Thanks for taking the time to come out and hear our music. We hope you have as much fun listening as we do playing! We’re working very hard on many new songs (covers and originals) and also on finding new places to play near YOU!
Btw, we posted a few photos from the evening on our photos page. Thanks to Jenni for the sweet shots.
See you soon,
Lisa, John and Dave
AST
p.s. No one in the band got pulled over by the police tonight! Woop!
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Jesus and John Lennon has been on my mind lately. I picked up the guitar and harp and played it about five times today. It’s probably been two or three months since I played it. The good news is I feel just as good about that song as I did when I wrote it. After re-learning that one, I played through a few others. Felt good, but my fingers hurt!
Been a busy summer. Although I’ve been away from the guitar and writing for awhile now, I’ve been picking it up from time to time. Ideas are still coming, but just a little slower. There are probably five or six unfinished song ideas kicking around.
The kids’ activities fired up around May as well as my cycling/running. It’s been a great summer for both. There were a couple of music events that I didn’t attend in the spring. Looking forward to getting out to play again soon.
I’m not sure if I’m still doing the Acoustic Guitar Festival in Trenton at the end of this month. The lady who is running it hasn’t called me back as she said she would. Maybe I’ll give her a ring this week. My favorite open mics (Baseline and East River) are firing up next month. The schedule is updated and I’ll try to stay on top of it.
It’s About Time to let these songs breathe again.
See you soon,
John
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This was my second time at the “Mod-X”. Although the crowd was pretty thin and somewhat distracted, I played two songs I’d done there before (Jesus and John Lennon and This Time) and debuted It’s About Time. Since it was the first time I played it live, I had to take my music stand with me. There was no way I could get all those words memorized that soon. Seems crazy that I can’t remember the words to my own song, but there it is.
There were a few folks playing that were there last time (the 15th, I believe) and a few new musicians. There weren’t many people there when I played (I went first). Jen and Rach showed up just about when I finished. Thanks for coming out anyways you two.
Looking forward to playing a few more of these things to work the kinks out of these songs (and my playing and singing). I came across an open mic night in Canada (of all places) today. It’s at a place just over the river called the Mackenzie House. I’ll keep you posted.
Take care,
J
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Had another open mic downriver tonight. This time at an interesting little place called The Modern Exchange. Turns out it’s a small vintage clothing store in the front. But in the back, it’s an enviable performance venue! The stage is raised with plenty of nice lighting and the sound was very nice. Although the crowd was a bit sparse (about 20-30), it was a great evening of music. I think this venue is just getting the open mic thing off the ground, so I look for it to pick up as the months go by.
As usual, I got to meet a few cool folks. Liz Snavely was the featured performer tonight. She hails from the Grand Rapids area. She did a few songs (solo acoustic) and we took time to chat a bit during and after the show. Jennica Jameson works at the Mod-X and was very cool in telling me about the place last week. She did a couple of songs at the end of the night as well.
Michael Shilakes is a local musician from Taylor. He was another performer rockin’ out the harmonica tonight (me being the other!). He and I compared notes as we both lost our jobs about a year ago. He has taken to playing music full time for a living, while I’m just starting out part time. We agreed to try to get together sometime and play a show. There were quite a few additional performers that I didn’t get the chance to meet.
I was able to play three songs. I did my old standby’s Jesus and John Lennon and This Time. Between those two songs, though, I debuted Rivers. I’d never played that one out before and it seemed to go fairly well. It’s a finger picked piece, so it was something new for me. I noticed that I made more mistakes tonight than ever before, but it didn’t bother me.
Looking forward to playing at the Art House in Northville on Saturday night!
John
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