Lago tonight.

Tonight I'm the featured performer at Lago in Meredith. As both my faithful readers will know by now for sure, Lago's singer/songwriter night features original material exclusively (well, I've heard a couple covers in people's sets there before, but shhh). But since it's so nice to have a place to play the original stuff, I'm going to take the opportunity to expand on my thoughts about Lago a little here.

I'm perfectly okay with doing covers at my shows. In most cases, that's what I'm hired to do, actually. The bar/restaurant wants stuff people will enjoy, and a song they know and can sing/dance/stumble along to is much more likely to keep them at the bar or table. The work may be creative, but the job is really another cog in the service industry machine. (That sounds more cynical than intended.) I do throw a song or two of my own in, but I balance that by making song lists available to the crowd. If there's something they'd prefer to hear, they can ask for it.

But Lago, now there's an interesting thing going on. Linden Mazurka is the driving force behind the singer/songwriter night. Every Monday he plays a short set and then introduces the featured performer, who plays for 40 minutes or so. And then the stage opens to anyone with the material and the panache to take advantage. It's a small but receptive crowd. Having other musicians in the room who are doing original material guarantees that at least someone will be paying attention to what you're trying to do, which helps a lot. It's a very nice thing to have a place to reconnect with the things that made me want to pick up the guitar (or piano, if I were in better shape) in the first place.

If you're in the area tonight, things will probably get going around 6pm. They tend to start pretty early over there. The setting is beautiful, the food is very good, and the bartender knows more about 80s music than I do. You could do a Hell of a lot worse on a Monday.