Rapunzel's Gig & the Big Storm!

It was quite an adventure playing out at Rapunzel's in Nelson County VA last night! It was 102 degrees out yesterday and not good weather for folks to venture out. But venture, they did (thank you!) and I had a good first set with friends Sandy Goodson (flute & guitar) and Jean Sampson (poet) joining me. I tried a few new things that was fun for me. One of them was that I made up a blues song (lyrics to a blues melody I play) --I had audience members choose the topic. Chris in the audience said, "motherless child" and I sang,

"I woke up this morning and my kid was gone,
I woke up this morning and my kid was gone
I hope he won't be gone too long...

I went downtown and I found my son
I went downtown and I found my son
and he looked like he was having some fun

I know he's bad
but he's all I've had.."

... don't remember the rest of the words.. 

Another new thing I tried was doing a drum & flute improv with Sandy. She brought in a bunch of percussion instruments and gave them out to the audience. They seemed to enjoy jamming along with us.

Then it was  break time and that's when the power went out! Boom! Derecho. No warning... total blackness. We could hear howling winds ripping through town. The staff was resourceful and lit a bunch of candles and I continued with the show.

Without the AC on, it was very hot in there and it was so unusual singing to an audience in the dark like that but we all needed to wait out the storm.

When the storm died down enough, I ended the evening so folks could get home safely. We managed to find all our instruments in the dark with our cell phone lights but learned that the hwy going home was closed down due to fallen trees. My friend Kate put Jean and I up for the night and this morning we had cold coffee and peanut butter on graham crackers for breakfast. What an adventure! I am so glad to be home and I think I will fix me another cup of coffee!