Very Mostly Water
Not been out singing at Open Mics much this year at all. Not even approaching double figures out there, but I went to the newly moved OM night at the Dispensary on Monday. Yep, it’s moved to Mondays so that it doesn’t clash with any footy (or will do so a lot less often) now that Liverpool are back in the Champion’s League (which has games on random Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to make it difficult as far as I can see). There’s also other OM nights on the Tuesday (including the nearby Metrocola), but to be fair there are OM nights all over the city on nearly every day really so any day will clash with one or another.
Last Monday was one of the wettest day in the recent history of the city so it was a bit of a last minute call to get out there. I felt I should make the effort after watching too much telly (I’d binge watched Ludwig on the iPlayer). Got wet going to the bus, then got wet leaving Queen Square, had a quick pint in the Vines before getting wetter with the last few hundred yards to the Dizzy.
Dave O’Grady was there and a couple of regulars—and a newbie (Dan?) on his first Dizzy appearance. Headzic played his double wok after him, with all his man-made sounds of rain falling to compete with the real stuff outside, then I went up to play a few songs (five). Dave came up after me and played some of his bluesy tracks.
With the constant (around 36 hours) rain I went with Bap Kennedy’s ‘Mostly Water’ first. Think I’ve only played it once or twice in the wild before. Followed that with ‘Splendid Isolation’ Warren Zevon (don’t play that often either), then it was a few of my old dependables: ‘Heart Breaks Like the Dawn’ Chuck Prophet, ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’ Ryan Adams, and, due to requests, ‘Whiskey in my Whiskey’ Felice Brothers. Five songs—that’s like an EP’s worth. Afterwards chatted to a nice couple from Munich who were travelling through the city and they’d loved the OM. Said it was rare in their part of the city. The guy asked if I’d written the songs, to which I replied with the names of the singer songwriters who actually had. He knew all of them (though maybe not Chuck P), but said he hadn’t recognised them when I was playing them. I confirmed that by not playing the guitar well I did them in my own way and by necessity ‘made the songs my own.’ His other half had said she’d loved them and had been looking up the songs whilst I was playing them—which you can take in multiple ways. Anyways for one reason and another I was glad I’d made the effort to go out.
And incredibly when I walked out on to Renshaw Street it had actually just stopped raining. Though Liverpool was still remained mostly water.
Last Monday was one of the wettest day in the recent history of the city so it was a bit of a last minute call to get out there. I felt I should make the effort after watching too much telly (I’d binge watched Ludwig on the iPlayer). Got wet going to the bus, then got wet leaving Queen Square, had a quick pint in the Vines before getting wetter with the last few hundred yards to the Dizzy.
Dave O’Grady was there and a couple of regulars—and a newbie (Dan?) on his first Dizzy appearance. Headzic played his double wok after him, with all his man-made sounds of rain falling to compete with the real stuff outside, then I went up to play a few songs (five). Dave came up after me and played some of his bluesy tracks.
With the constant (around 36 hours) rain I went with Bap Kennedy’s ‘Mostly Water’ first. Think I’ve only played it once or twice in the wild before. Followed that with ‘Splendid Isolation’ Warren Zevon (don’t play that often either), then it was a few of my old dependables: ‘Heart Breaks Like the Dawn’ Chuck Prophet, ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’ Ryan Adams, and, due to requests, ‘Whiskey in my Whiskey’ Felice Brothers. Five songs—that’s like an EP’s worth. Afterwards chatted to a nice couple from Munich who were travelling through the city and they’d loved the OM. Said it was rare in their part of the city. The guy asked if I’d written the songs, to which I replied with the names of the singer songwriters who actually had. He knew all of them (though maybe not Chuck P), but said he hadn’t recognised them when I was playing them. I confirmed that by not playing the guitar well I did them in my own way and by necessity ‘made the songs my own.’ His other half had said she’d loved them and had been looking up the songs whilst I was playing them—which you can take in multiple ways. Anyways for one reason and another I was glad I’d made the effort to go out.
And incredibly when I walked out on to Renshaw Street it had actually just stopped raining. Though Liverpool was still remained mostly water.
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