Playin' fer Kids

Every Monday at noon, and every Wednesday at 10am, I perform solo at Airplay Cafe in Portland. This is a blessing because every songwriter should have some spurs a'workin on 'em. Nothing gets a song done like a deadline. I suppose if I had thousands of people interested in my band, I wouldn't need a bi-weekly gig to stir me to action as a songwriter, but so be it--I cherish the freedom of mild anonymity.

Anyways, the Airplay gig is great because I quickly get sick o' singin' the same old tunes every week. I know plenty more songs than you could ever fit in an hour, but that's not the point. The songs I perform have to appeal to the audience that's there, and that audience is interesting. It's all young mothers and their toddling kids. Some days there's no more that eight folks in the joint, some mornings I'm playing for over fifty people, and it gets rambunctious. Generally, young kids are more captivated by strongly rhythmic tunes, so I bring out the fast ones. Here's a typical set list composed of the fast songs I play on a solo day at Airplay:

"Talkin' to You, Mama" - Blind Willie McTell
"Spanish Harlem Incident" - Bob Dylan
"Shake It and Break It (but don't let it fall)" - Charley Patton
"Hard Travelin'" - Woody Guthrie
"Hide Me in Thy Bosom" - McTell again
"Boy in the Bubble" - Paul Simon
"Swing n' Friction" - an original song
"Freeways at 3" - another original
"I Was Made to Love Her" - Stevie Wonder

In between these songs, I'll perform whatever slower tunes I think I can get away with--but the people want to groove and jive, so I've gotta keep them hoppin' beats comin with the strummin.
What this means is that I'm driven to expand my repertoire with more covers (Last week I added Johnny Cash's under-appreciated tune, "Big River") and write more upbeat songs to appease dancin knees and behinds. Thus, a weekly gig is a great spur for new material, never mind that you might premier a new song and no one notices sometimes--whatever. Any chance to perform is a blessing, I'll always believe that.

The less selfish gratification for the Airplay gig is that young kids dig music--I could be up there with just my harmonica and, provided my rhythm was regular, the kids would love it. That's not all though: kids are attentive. I consistently see kids that are still nursing who will watch me for three songs straight without looking away. Their mom's rarely look my way for 1/3rd that long.
Also, I encourage the kids to dance, so when they do sometimes I'll watch and experiment with different strumming patterns and rhythmic styles to see what it makes 'em do.

I'm damned lucky to have such a fun, dependable gig.