[stephenT]

I'd left a Sunday night gig I hosted for 23 yrs, left it twice actually. And was asked to return, again,.. so last Sunday was the first of the weekly gigs. I was apprehensive, not certain I wanted to go back, not certain i wanted to be in a bar room full of people,.. But I had my covid booster a few days before, been taking my high dose vitamin D so I went for it.

In my down time I'd been playing casually with (amateur) buds and and learning songs outside my interests which helped me in unexpected ways.

Gotta say it went well. Not taking all the credit, I'm one of four in the band but the word magic was bandied around by several people, from the boys in the band and from the audience. Tip bucket was full of $20s and there was a line of women in front of the band grooving and listening. Pretty much what you'd want. I do enjoy playing electric guitar in this particular room and to me the Northside Tavern stage is sacred.

I've been told the band doesn't sound the same without me when I was "retired" and we all have feelings about our value, but it felt great to received acknowledgment of the fact. I prefer to try to stay on the humble side o' things. There's always someone "better" at guitar but we add our own contributions to the "gumbo". Listening and reacting to your fellow musicians in real time is a big deal, not everyone can do it.

So much for bragging, let's just say it's nice to be wanted and appreciated. Besides the Sunday nights I've added a dozen acoustic duo gigs to the calendar into 2022. Glad to be back and still kicking at 70.

I was jamming last summer at a 12 person get together, wasn't paying attension to where the host plugged me in and my amp lost power as we played. Thought the amp was messed up for a couple weeks until I figured out it was plugged into a power strip w/ lot's of other players and I was connected w/ a 100' (old) extension cord. Thankful the fix was cheap,.. don't plug into that cord again.