I dragged myself out of my fatigue and stupor of three weeks away from France to attend the open mic at El Tonel, a tapas bar à la Spain, in the middle of the classy neighborhood of Paris near the Louvre. And from the moment I stepped into the place, I was grabbed and loved every minute of the open mic.
There are places where I go in which the real atmosphere cannot be captured on video, and last night at the El Tonel open mic, it was a little like that. I just got a few recordings down on video, but the soirée went way beyond those.
I got to play three times, managing to play a few songs from my repertoire that I don’t do that much…. and had some neat people join in with me on singing and even harmonica, like the moment with Scott Bywater playing his great harmonica on my “Just Like a Woman.”
All in all, a great way to break myself into a week of open mics in Paris before I fly off to … Spain and the tapas bars and open mics and jams of Barcelona.