Well, as history has shown us, no matter how well you may THINK you are doing....lol.... there will ALWAYS be some "speed bumps" in the roads of life....lol.
Last night was my third segment in the "Soul At Ceol's" series at Ceol's Pub in Brooklyn, where Soul Music is served with Soul Food. I perform at this spot the last Wednesday of every month from 8pm to 10pm. We have been fortunate thus far - the crowds have been strong, the food has been great and the feed back has been pretty good....
So imagine my surprise when we (Jacqueline & I) arrive at Ceol's almost an hour early (well WE thought we were early until we saw the sign with a new starting show time of 7pm...lol) and saw that the place was nearly empty.
As soon as we entered the doors of Ceol's we ran into Cluni & Miss Eda dining at the front of the house because the back was empty. We sat and chatted for a moment and then someone told us that Mary Moore, my publicist and Chef Syncere's wife was already seated in the back. So we packed up our things and Eda & Cluni had their meal moved to the back, so we could all sit together. Shortly after we were surprised by my longtime friend Craig Bannister who lives right up the street. A few of Mary's friends also joined her later on.
lol...Murphy's Law teaches us that whatever can go wrong....generally will go wrong...and baby let me tell you - Murphy HIMSELF was in the house last night!
The empty room was the first sign for me but if I should have missed that sign....Another one smacked me right in my face when we were setting up the room! My usual sound person Alex (who I love, love LOVE!!!) told me that he was leaving early that evening and promised me that he would show the person who was covering for him how to set up the mike and the music BEFORE he left.........It seemed as if everyone was leaving early for the evening......
Well, I don't think the wind was on Alex's back good before we started having problems with the sound system (which worked perfectly last month!). My first set was scheduled to begin at 8pm and it took till almost 8:30 before someone figured out what the problem was.....lol....at that point it was still cool because only two more folks had joined us by that time.
By 8:30pm, I had finally taken the stage and began my first set with Aretha of course - Rock Steady to be exact. When I saw what was happening in the dining room (lol...nothing for the most part), I nearly changed that first set to almost all ballads but decided to just continue as I had planned. I had to have a chat with the two men who had joined us while we were working on the sound system because they actually thought that they were going to sit behind me during my set and THEN TALK OVER ME.....NOT!
Mike in hand, track still playing and still singing - I politely informed them that most certainly was NOT going to happen on my watch. lol...they smiled and were a little quieter after that but they got the hell out of Dodge when they finished their Guinness's.
Towards the end of my first set a few more friends joined Mary at her table and as I was ending my first set, I found out that one of the guests at Mary's table, a brother named Smokey was not only a singer but he was going to be singing a few tunes that evening. That was most certainly a surprise to me - this was the first I'd heard about someone joining me on the bill and I gotta tell you honestly - I wasn't happy about it at all.....not at all. It's a "Singer's Courtesy" Thing....But nonetheless, I asked him to join me onstage for the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell tune "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", which was comical in itself because Smokey didn't know the words (he only sings original tunes)....but it was fun way to pass the time, so I asked him if he'd join me later, once I found something I thought he might know.
As I took my break, I headed outside and automatically began looking for a ciggie to process my thoughts. Jacqueline caught me a the bar and as we began talking I lost my craving for the smoke. Syncere came out shortly after and we had a lengthy chat and together we cleared up some things for the both of us.
By the time my second set came around, several more people had joined us for dinner and Mr Smokey had performed a couple of selections (with some very interesting lyrics I'm told) for the crowd. The second set went off with out too many glitches and Smokey even rejoined me onstage for an er...very interesting rendition of The Temptations "My Girl" & "Just My Imagination" folks actually began trickling in at around 9:45pm...lol....with 15 minutes to the shows end. Well something they heard made them come back to the dining area and make some requests for the Runway Diva to sing a little longer....and after a few hot toddies (my new favorite winter drink!)....I happily obliged.
It was close to Midnight when we managed to get out of Ceol's relatively unscathed, I left Mr Smokey in the dining room, where he was finishing up his drink - I was tired and ready for this night to be over....lol....expeditiously!
By the way.......
Soul at Ceol's happens the last Wednesday of Every Month from 7pm til 10pm.
for more info - check out http://www.ceolspub.com/
“There is only three certainties in tis life. The laws of physics, the laws of Murphy and death.”
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