3:45am

Can’t sleep… Doesn’t happen to me too often as I tend to work pretty hard and run myself ragged. but it’s happening right now.. let me tell ya..

Let me see… Figured if I wrote here and went through the reasons why I was not asleep right now.. maybe I would fall asleep.? here goes..

I had a pretty good night. I went to a venue called the Clubhouse in San Luis Obispo to have dinner and watch my friend butch play a featured set. Butch is the owner of a small guitar repair shop in SLO and he did lots of work on my 65 Gibson J50. Re-Fret Job and a bridge re-build. not to mention a couple pickup installs.. I feel fortunate to know that guy.. He is a super talented musician and does great work. I was very impressed with his set tonight. a polished musician indeed.

One of the reasons tonight was so cool was the fact that this place “The Clubhouse” was full of great musicians and I seem to know them all one way or another through music.. It felt good to have these guys all around me and it was nice to just sit back and not think about playing music.. but instead.. “watch and listen to music” hey what a concept..

as all of this was going on our new President was elected and there was a general feeling of happiness in the place. I am glad Obama will be our new president.. thats about as political as I am going to get for 4 in the am..

Speaking of listening.. As I sat there at dinner with my family and some random French Lady who is visiting us. (maybe another blog post?) who knows.. anyway.. as we sat there I heard a nice alt country type sound coming from the bar side where the music was going on. It was a voice I sort of knew but wasn’t sure who it was.. so I walked up and peeked between his songs.. Turns out it was this kat Jon from the band Red Eye Junction. I shared the stage with them when I opened for REK in Pozo. He recognized me and dedicated a song to me just so happened to be a Ryan Adams Tune.. He NAILED it.. can’t remember the name of it at the moment “God bless all the late night girls, and they’re coming out to smile how can anybody feel bad… It makes me tired and i wanna go to bed”

Funny seems like Ryan A. was maybe up late when he wrote that tune.. I reckon he is up late lots.. Ok back to the point. I thought it was really cool that this guy Jon called me out of the crowd and dedicated the song to me.. and as I was feeling good about that.. ..another buddy walked up who was playing a set later asked me if I would close the show out with a short set.. I proceeded to tell him I did not bring a guitar and was not planning on playing.. his reply was great.. “Your going to have to come up with a better excuse than that bud” as he pointed to the 12 guitars laying around the bar.. ha..

sat back down and ate some more after Jons set.. as I was finishing up Jon came in and chatted with me a bit. Said after the REK show he took my album home and gave it a good listen.. said he enjoyed it. he also had some other comments that really made me think.. He mentioned that as he opened the packaging to my album his jaw dropped as he focused on the dedication to my young mother Diane who died.. way too young. Turns out that Jon’s mother passed way too early as well and her name just happened to be Diane. and he went on to tell me how the song “Look for Me” effected him greatly and caused him to breakdown and experience some of the same things the song makes me experience.. as I type this tears well up in my eyes.. not that I am going to sit in my Jam room here and cry.. but it’s crazy how just thinking about that song, my mother, and it’s effect on another human being can get you wound up emotionally. I suppose I am a big ol softy..

I watched several great sets of music later in the night.. and at the end of it all those guys pretty much made me get up there and play a few. It sure did my heart good to have all these great musicians that I respect ask me to jump up there and play them some tunes.. I was a bit nervous to be honest.. as relaxed as the situation was… I was not.. ha.. nothing new for me. I proceed to jump into my song Woman.. and turns out I did not have the volume on the guitar up so one of the guys reaches into the soundhole as I am strumming away and gives it a crank.. surprised that we pulled that off without a hitch.. Tell you what.. My voice has not felt that good in a long time.. It was one of those nights that I could sing anything I wanted.. and really push my voice to some higher places. I would kill to know when those nights are going to come. Those would certainly be the ones that I would record.. ha..

Thank God that I had these musical super powers tonight as I layed it down for these very talented musicians filling the room. Those guys all quited down and really gave my songs a listen.. The general comments I got from some of them after the show where overwhelming.. They said some really nice things and I feel like I am finally gaining some respect and becoming a bit of a fixture in this SLO music scene. I ended the show with “A little Help from my Friends” The Joe Cocker version.. Everyone knew the words and we all sang together.. There were a couple of Birthdays in the crowd tonight and it is the closest thing I know to the birthday song.. you know.. arm and arm with your friends.. belting it out.. The night ended well.. we all rocked that song out.. and had a great time.

all I want for Christmas is to know when my voice is going to “turn on” like that. Wish the cheech would have been there to hear it.

It’s now 4:35 am and I am still not tired. shit. I would give anything to be a REAL musician.. and just sleep in, get ready for the next gig.. etc..
but that shit ain’t happening .. I will be up at 7am on my way to my office in SLO.. ready for the grind.. but hey.. I like my job.. most people don’t.

good night all you sleepers.. I suppose I will twiddle my thumbs and try not to wake up the random French Lady..

-LJK