150 - Fair Bean
Photo by Amy Zamarripa
I’ve been wanting a pair of cowboy boots for at least four years, if not more. I set a few goals for myself where boots were going to be the reward but never quite made it and got increasingly sad as again and again, they seemed to slip farther away from me. I didn’t even try to console myself with trying to think they were some sort of cliche folk uniform, I just wanted them. I wore a few other boots with my skirts instead, but I knew they were just substitutes.
With my time in Texas drawing to a close I became ever more convinced that I just couldn’t leave the state without boots, and besides, hadn’t I earned them with all my playing and hard work? That’s when I decided they were going to be my present to myself when I got to 150 open mics. I also decided that rather than wait till after 150, I would wear them AT #150, so I went on my mission on Friday.
I’d already done a bit of window shopping and trying on, so I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking for, brown with blue stitching, not too high a heel, and a rounded toe. When I found them I knew. I tried on a few more for good measure, but I knew.
It’s hard to take a picture of your boots while you are wearing them!
I love that they are a dark espresso on the bottom with black heels so I think they’ll go with both blacks and browns pretty well.
That day I also decided that although I had a big band show that night, I really wanted my 150 to be an actual open mic, wanted it to be at Fair Bean with Amy Z, and with Fair Bean from 5-7pm and the show at 9pm, it could be a good warm up and I’d make it to the gig in plenty of time!
It was a bittersweet time, realizing it would probably be my last at Fair Bean for the foreseeable future. Got my last favorite white iced mocha and citrus bar. Played four songs. I felt like a super badass in the boots. One duo called Possibly Maybe asked if anyone had a tambourine and I said, “Today I actually do!” because I had it with me for the gig. Fun to hear them add it to their set. It was good to hang out with Amy one more time too. And then it was time to catch the bus to Backroads…
Songs - Keep Telling Me, Anchor, I Know, Jonah’s Whale
Just a few shots from the Fair Bean Showcases that happened during SXSW. Tom Harvey, David Dennis and Daisy O’Connor.
Real excited to take part in this awesome showcase week at Fair Bean Coffee, hosted by Amy Zamarripa! I’m playing a 45 minute set starting at 3pm on Saturday the 17th, but click the poster to go to the Facebook event and see ALL the people who are playing Thurs-Sun!
Countdown to 100: 6 - Fair Bean Coffee
Chronicling the final 10 out of 100 Open Mic and Showcase performances I have done since June 2011. This is #95
photo by Amy Zamarripa
Tonight I set out to catch the bus at 4:45, expecting to be at Fair Bean just a few minutes after 5pm. There have been a couple times in the past few weeks where one of the scheduled busses just doesn’t seem to show up - two will pass by in the other direction before the one in my direction comes by. It was a little bit late and a CapMetro truck pulled up to the bus stop and waited for a few minutes. The guy finally rolled down his window and waved us over to say that the bus was on detour because the train was blocking the tracks, and so if we wanted to catch the bus we were going to have to go a couple blocks south to the stop just across the highway. By the time he actually told us this and we started walking toward the stop, we could see the bus already there and we missed it. Which meant another 20-30 minutes of waiting, and not getting to the open mic till about an hour after it started. On the plus side, my beat-up bus pass worked when the bus did finally come!
Luckily there was still plenty of room on the list and actually a few people there to just listen (as opposed to all musicians, which happens sometimes) so I did my first set to a cozy little crowd.
I had a beast of a time with tuning, which was frustrating. I tuned up before my set, but as soon as I got the capos on it was out of whack and I couldn’t quite figure it out. I think though that between the hours of rain today, standing out in the cold for way longer than I expected, and then moving into a super warm and cozy coffee shop, well… yeah, I’m gonna blame it mostly on the weather.
In any case, the tuning issues helped dictate what songs I ended up playing, because I ended up taking off the capos, starting over with the tuning and playing one with no capos, one with only one, and finally one with the doubles. Even that didn’t seem to be quite exactly in tune, but I focussed on the low strings and tried not to play the high ones as much and I think it worked out good enough for folk-rock & roll open mic.
I was last on the official list, and most people left after that, so the remaining of us circled up on the couches and went around playing a couple more songs for each other. It was a sweet way to finish off the night.
Songs:
Round 1) Keep Telling Me, Anchor, Winter Time
Round 2) Lazy Saturday, Wings
Host:
Amy Zamarripa
Location:
Fair Bean Coffee
2210 South 1st Street, Suite I
Austin, TX 78704
Sign-up at 4:45, Music from 5-7:30ish.
Favorite Fair Bean treats:
Iced White Mocha, Red Symphony Latte, Orange Bars (like Lemon Bars but with orange!), Veggie Chorizo Empanadas, Hard Boiled Egg
Other things I like about Fair Bean:
Fair Trade coffee, comfy couches, plenty of plugs for laptops, big glass windows to let in the light and allow for people watching.
Countdown to 100: 10 - Fair Bean Coffee
Chronicling the final 10 out of 100 Open Mic and Showcase performances I have done since June 2011. This is # 91.
Photo by Amy Zamarripa
Friday night was low-key & sweet, just a few of the regulars for the day after Thanksgiving at one of my favorite open mic venues - Fair Bean Coffee. After a lovely Thursday of traditional Thanksgiving festivities with my cousin and her friends, it was great to spend some time with members of my adopted Austin musical family, sharing songs both new and familiar.
I did have a first though, a woman having coffee asked me to sing something for her significant other’s birthday. After a quick mental scan through of my songs, I thought I better look up the actual Birthday Song on my phone and then I wrote down the chords in my notebook so I could see them easily.
While it’s an incredibly simple song, and I pulled it off good enough to create a special moment for the couple (I even saw him taking a picture or video of me when I got up for a second round of songs), the experience made me realize that knowing the Birthday Song by heart is probably one of those unofficial requirements of being a gracious musician. Imagine the difference in feeling between someone asking you to sing Happy Birthday and being able to launch right in, and saying “Oh, yeah, uh, I don’t really know it, I just write my own music, I don’t really know other stuff.” Even if you don’t know how to play it, leading the singing would be good thing to do.
I also had a sweet moment at the counter where one of the baristas asked me which song I had sung earlier, and I told her that all the songs I had performed that night other than Happy Birthday were ones that I had written. She said she liked it and I told her I would be recording them in March, and maybe she’d also like them then with more instruments and such and she said she was sure she would. It was nice to know that at a place where I’ve been playing a similar handful of songs for the past 6 months that at least a couple of those songs are recognizable and appreciated by the staff who pretty much has to be there.
Songs:
Round 1) Happy Birthday, Rain Song, Keep Telling Me, Jonah’s Whale
Round 2) Shoreline of Alaska, Anchor, Wings
Host:
Amy Zamarripa
Location:
Fair Bean Coffee
2210 South 1st Street, Suite I
Austin, TX 78704
Favorite Fair Bean treats:
Iced White Mocha, Red Symphony Latte, Orange Bars (like Lemon Bars but with orange!), Veggie Chorizo Empanadas, Hard Boiled Egg
Other things I like about Fair Bean:
Fair Trade coffee, comfy couches, plenty of plugs for laptops, big glass windows to let in the light and allow for people watching.
