Rain, rain, go away!
Come again another day!
Wouldn’t you know it! All this bad weather forced us to postpone tonight’s opening of The Rosine Barn Jamboree’s 33rd season.
That means we’ll have to reschedule the Bill Burden Tribute, probably until some time in June. When we have a new date, I’ll share it here at Notes of Blue.
I was really looking forward to honoring Bill tonight. I had been thinking about singing one of the many songs he sang on Fridays in Rosine, but I decided to leave that to those who knew him a lot longer than me.
I only came to know Bill very well in about the last ten years. Before that I only knew him from afar. I’m thankful for the friendship we formed.
I was also keenly preparing for the first “open mic” of the new season. I had brushed up on a few Monroe songs to sing this evening, two of Bill’s and one of Charlie’s.
Of course, I was also excited to be sharing this new blog of mine with the crowd tonight. I had ordered some Notes of Blue business cards to hand out, but they aren’t set to arrive in the mail until next week. Makes me think of Bill Monroe’s “No Letter in the Mail.”
If the cards arrive in time for next Friday, that’ll be the only good to come from this confounded deluge and cancellation.
Well, wait a minute now. That might not be true. There might be another bit of “good.”See it’s been a frenzy since I started this whole blog thing. A stressful frenzy. The tech is kicking my behind just as I figured it would; the website hasn’t even begun to take shape.
The only thing on the website is the blog. And I have so many ideas and plans I’m bursting at the seams. In fact, one idea just came to me yesterday.
This idea, like the blog business cards, involved ordering something online, so I wasn’t going to be able to share that tonight either.
But maybe, juuust maybe, pushing opening night back a week will now provide me the opportunity to share some of my new ideas.
Let me be clear about something, though. They may be called business cards, but I don’t see my blog as a business. It’s really just another outlet for expression, and I’m pretty big on that.
Everyone needs an outlet for creating and expressing what he or she thinks and feels. Hold all that inside for too long, and bad things will happen.
What? Wait! No! No, I did not forget that other idea that came to me just yesterday? I was letting the suspense build. And now that you’re properly suspended, I’ll tell you.
I’ve been slowly thinking of ways to emphasize the color blue since the blog is Notes of Blue. Makes sense, right? Naturally, I made the business cards blue.
As I was brainstorming, I realized that the best chance to be “blue” is every Friday night during opening mic.
First, I thought about wearing a blue hat. I thought better of that, though, because the local folks, the regulars, are too used to my brown Fedora.
As it is now, if I come in with something else on, or Heaven forbid, no hat at all, Harry Grimes or Barry Geary will let me know about it right away. So no blue hats.
I actually need something a little more prominent anyhow. What could be more prominent on stage than a guitar. That’s right! From now on for open mic, I’ll be playing a blue guitar.
Already ordered it. An Oscar Schmidt. Hope it arrives in the mail before next Friday!
Two things I discovered when I went looking for a blue guitar was their abundance and low cost.
So inexpensive, in fact, that I just might start a collection of cheap, blue guitars, and swap up each week. One week the Oscar Schmidt, the next an Epiphone, then a Yamaha, then whatever I can come up with. Then start the rotation all over.
Don’t expect me to walk in with a blue Martin or Gibson, though. Check out these prices!
Can’t afford that! Can’t even smell it!
Whatever I end up with will be way, way, way back down at the other end of the scales. But I promise if one of these blue guitars can’t meet the standard on stage then that one will be staying home and going back on the market.
I would like to ask a favor. In your travels, if you happen to spot a relatively cheap, blue guitar, perhaps in a pawn shop or flea market, please make a note of it. What brand is it? What condition is it in? Price? If you would be so kind as to share the whereabouts of this blue guitar, I would be mighty grateful.
And if it’s not too far from home and it’s within my means, I just might check it out. And if the stars line up juuust right, I’ll add it to what I’m going to call my Rosine Barn Jamboree Open Mic Collection.
Leave a Reply