I had two good gigs last Friday and Saturday. Here's what makes a gig good:
1. I like my stories and songs.
2. Other people like my stories and songs.
Bede and Lucia came to my Saturday gig, and afterward Bede said that my performance style had become a lot warmer and less formal. Lucia pretend-snored during the final song, because she is seven years old and she thought it was funny.
The last song I played was a Travis-picking version of "The Big Ship Sails" (also known as Illy-Ally-Oh, and Ally-Ally-O) inspired by
Kate Rusby's version. I even managed a simple guitar solo with suspended chords.
The
lyrics of the original song are much more interesting than the version I played. I'm in the wrong time period and part of the country to sing to preschoolers about ships sinking to the bottom of the sea and
staying there. My lyrics:
The big ship sails on the illy-ally-o...
The big ship sails and it's rocking on the sea...
The big ship sails and the clouds are racing by...
The big ship sails and it's coming home again...
Like many folk-songs, this one has 3 chords and follows a I,IV,V chord pattern. However, the suspended chords give the song more texture and helps to evoke a daydreaming mood. That's why my daughter pretend-snored, the stinker. I'll try to put together a simple recording (of the song, not the snoring) for the blog.
After both gigs, I heard people singing "The Big Ship Sings" as they gathered up their books and children. That was good to hear.