lucky weekend

I saw Chris Isaak last Friday night. It was a great concert. He threw his guitar pick into the crowd and it landed on my foot.

Then I went to see Brandi Carlile on Sunday night, and when she threw *her* pick into the crowd, my friend caught it and gave it to me.

So now I have guitar picks from two of my favorite artists. (That and $4 gets you a cup of coffee.)

In case you don't believe me, I took a picture...

One other thing: the Brandi Carlile concert was a benefit for her charitable organization, and they had a deal where a few fans performed onstage at open mic before the concert. My friend who got the tickets put my name on the list as a surprise for me last month. Given how awesome Brandi's voice is, it was a little intimidating to take my one year of guitar lessons and 6-note vocal range up there to sing/play for 250 Brandi Carlile fans. The other acts had real talent, but it went fine, the fans were nice, and it ended up being a lot of fun. I got a hug from Brandi and handshakes from her band, so maybe now I'm famous. I didn't say it was an interesting story.

Anyway, Brandi and her band are a class act, and I like the humble and no-nonsense way she runs her charitable giving.

And in case you wanna see what I looked like through a cell phone, and with crappy sound, here you go:

The song (half of which is in the clip) is actually a poem written by my talented cousin; I threw some chords around it two days before the concert.

I was glad the audience was kind; setting their expectations low (plus a shot of Hornitos before going onstage) made it all work out :-)

Oh, forgot to say: at the end of the concert all of us who had performed beforehand got invited onstage to sing an encore (Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues) with the band. We sounded better than this kid, but we weren't nearly as cute... :-)