A fun perfomance

[smilnJackB]

I saw a local player on our small town's public TV channel today. #This man is well known for playing around the county at nursing homes, etc. #People really enjoy him. #
# #He is an okay player and an okay singer and a GREAT performer! #What makes him a great performer? ##1. #He so obviously enjoys it. ##2. He is able to RELAX, interact and have fun. #3. He plays simple songs that people know. # #
#Pretty cool. #I don't know if I will ever be able to achieve ##2 (above) but I know that is where I am lacking when it comes to playing on my own in front of people. #Maybe the same is true for others.
#Best wishes. #Jack # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[jim simpson]

SmilinJackB,
You bring up a good point about the concept of being a great entertainer. I think there are a lot of regional or local performers that fall into this category - everyone leaves the show feeling they got their money's worth. Now when some of these same folks record a cd, the entertainment value doesn't always come across on the recording. I saw such a group a couple of years back and the humor of the group had everybody rolling. I bought their self produced cd - very dissapointing! I guess they were best enjoyed live. You will read reviews of cd's from groups like this in Bluegrass Unlimited. Man, I would never send in my group's recording for review. I wouldn't recover!

[Billy]

That kind of reminds me of John Hartford.He won't the best singer or picker,but he was a great entertainer.

[Wm. Joe Batterton]

I will agree about John Hartford accept he was a great picker. Different but great.

Joe

[smilnJackB]

Quote from Billy: "He wasn't the best singer or picker,but he was a great entertainer."

That is exactly my point and my new goal. I will never be a real good player, picker or singer, just good enough to have fun. What I've learned, is that you can perform and entertain fun stuff. That's the direction I want to go in.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif Jack

[mrbook]

A friend and I recently sat in with a fiddler who seems to make a decent living being constantly on the road. I mainly went to see him to discover why the promoter was paying him $800 to play when we only get $200 (the guy lost money on him, but usually makes a couple dollars with us). He was a nice guy, invited us up during two sets to play with him, and I've never had so much fun sitting in with someone. They were decent musicians, and he really knew how to entertain a crowd.

I wouldn't want to play his music all the time, and from the stories he told at the table I couldn't keep up with the drugs and booze - but it was fun that night, and I wouldn't mind doing it again sometime. He really knew how to have fun playing music, and did a good job putting the playing and entertaining aspects together. His CD had some great, funny songs that I'll never sing because of their content, but didn't capture the fun of the performance.