2021: Time to Get Back Out and Play!

Howdy guitar gang!  Man, was 2020 a "B with an itch"!  and so far 2021 has not been much of an improvement.  If you're like me you've been asking yourself "when will the world be normal again", and as a guitar player "when can I get back out and PLAY LIVE GIGS again?  Right?  Well as I pen this blog in late April, the answer for me was last Friday. It was a fill in gig for the Swamp Monsters, a band I'd never heard of.  They played a lot of Zydeco/Creole and Tex/Mex tunes, many I'd never even heard before.  The bar allowed SMOKING, no kidding!  But ya know what?  It was AWESOME!  Yep, I came home smelling like an ashtray with beer spilled in it, and kinda had a hard time getting going the next day, but it was TOTALLY worth it!  The band was actually excellent, and I held on pretty friggin well, and we made some damn fine music.  And dude, as a guitar player you haven't lived until you have played Metalica's Enter Sandman Cajun style!

What's my point here?

Times have changed, it's always been hard for a guitar player to actually get the exact, perfect gig, and now it's harder than ever.  So, that means it's more important than ever to be up for ANYTHING that may come your way.  Hey, when the local polka band comes a callin', go for it!  If nothing else 1) you'll be out playing with real live humans, and 2) At minimum, you'll have a great story to tell!  It's kind of like what I was trying to say in my blogs about why it's good for a guitar player to play BASS some, or even DRUMS.  Folks, getting out there and playing anything beats playing nothing!

See ya next week when we talk about the proper etiquette for playing in public in a post-covid world.