Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 216

Day 215 - October 13th 2009

I woke up today to my lesson being cancelled so I had only one thing on my agenda (two if you count the fact I’m doing it twice).

Tonight my plan is to hit two Tuesday Night Open mics to promote Philly Rising on Monday Nights. Philly Rising has been the biggest open mic in town for the past 5 years but to me it’s important every once in a while to show your face in the open mic community to remind people that we are still there, sort of like McDonalds.

My goal has always been to promote musical diversity within Philly Rising. In my opinion if we are truly going to spotlight Philadelphia’s next rising stars we have to see as many different kinds of musicians as we can and with last night’s open mic so heavy with the hip hop tonight I’m going to reach out to the singer/songwriter community and see if I can get more of them to come back to create a more balanced night.

Not to mention I have a few new songs I’d like to try out tonight.

My first stop, the Tritone hosted by my buddies The Absolute Zeros. With the room not quite as full tonight I put the flyers right next to the list which seemed to be a good place for them. I saw a lot of folks pick them up.

The Zero’s opened up the night and after they were done I got up and played Feels So Good and a new tune. Both were well received, but the new tune still needs a lot of work, I’m having trouble piecing the parts together and a bit of trouble with the second verse. It’s getting better but still needs ass loads of work. I might be working too hard on something that’ll never be good but it’s important I see things through.
I stayed for Keyboard Cathy’s set and then left to meet up with Liat and head over to Lickety Split.

Tuesdays at Lickety Split, one of the only nights of the week there I’m not running an event. They have their Tuesday Night Open Mic and today I’m here to play and do promo. I pass out flyers and after a while play a short 3 song set

(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
How Can This Be Love
Feels So Good

In the middle of Feels So Good the microphone stand falls and I am forced to stop. The Video camera guy had to hold the stand while I finished the tune. I finished to a raucous applause (mainly for braving the mic stand) and it gave me an opening to shake a lot of hands and kiss babies and what not. I even met someone really good that just moved from Brooklyn that would absolutely love to be a part of Philly Rising.

I had a lot of fun and am going to do this more often. After next Monday I’m going to have a two week window and may even venture to Fergies and The Fire on those Mondays, or rest, that would be good too

Here's a short clip of (Oh) I Wish I Loved You