I arrived a little late at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance last night as I get back into the rhythm of life in Paris and the open mics. I descended into the cave cellar where the open mic takes place and found the place almost standing room only. But to my great surprise, there were only around six musicians, and all the of the people were spectators. What an almost ideal situation that was. It meant I did not have to wait long to play my three songs, and then I listened to all the other musicians before going up to play another song – as did everyone else. But there were also some great musicians to listen to….
I came in on some American guy whose name I did not catch, but who sounded fabulous, and I managed to catch half of his last song on the recorder before he left for the night.
Then there was the usually solo-playing Wayne Standley who had a friend with him playing lead and singing harmonies. It was superb.
I chose to re-tell my Dylan quote and story and sing again “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” since I had failed so badly the night before at Coolin. This time it all worked perfectly, but it is a different kind of audience too, entirely there for the music.
Atypical Night at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance
November 7, 2012
December 14, 2012 at 7:36 am
In the 1st song what may look like loosing control was really keeping control with a few not so great uncustomized rush strums to keep the tempo up. Stops would have worked better. Without a base in 2-4 music, after 3 min you’re in the twilight zone. But if you check out the first and the end of the song you’ll see that the tempo is remained the same; if control was lost then the tempo would have been probably slower, though maybe faster.