ben wakeman : : Journal

Red Door Playhouse

February 13, 2006

Saturday night (February 11th) I played a little place in Roswell Georgia called the Red Door Playhouse and had a blast. It's a great little venue run by a wonderfully talented and enthusiastic couple, Seth and Leah Decker. The venue is actually a children's theatre by day, but on the second Saturday of every month they have started what they are calling the Atlanta Folk Club series.

They run the night with a variety show format similar to a Prarie Home Companion. A young writer, Russell S. Thomas read an exerpt from a novel he just completed, Katherine Irwin Thomas & Doug Murray played some wonderful authentic Irish reels and humorist Jim Hemauer read a hilarious short piece about his childhood. There were also two wonderful musicians playing Saturday. Liz Brown came up to me right away before the show, embraced me and told me we had done a show together over 14 years ago in Boone, North Carolina. I was floored. I could not place her until I read her bio and realized she used to sing in a band called Liz and the Tomcats then it all came back to me. My college band, Eskimo Sunburn did a show at this tiny little place called the Klondike Cafe. I remembered her huge voice, and the place being so packed that you developed a physical relationship with two to four strangers before the end of the first set. What an amazingly small world it is.

By far the biggest surprise by far (other than the fact that I was considered the headliner ;-) was Pat Walsh -- what a brilliant songwriter. We talked a bit before the show and I was taken in by his modest, friendly nature and his candid talk about his struggle as a musician. His songs blew me away. He has this wonderful sound that's like the Birds, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello and XTC and yet so fresh and original. I've listened to the CDs he gave me all weekend and the work is truly brilliant. You should make it a point to find this man and hear his music.

As for me, I guess I played okay. Nobody threw anything, or if they did they had poor aim and attempted while my eyes were closed. I had a couple of moments in spite of the blocks of ice that subsituted for my hands, the occasional mind wipe of a few lyrics and of course the looping pedal fiasco. I think "Get Your Ass Up Off the Floor" was well received, and I was happy with that since it's my new baby. Everyone had a chuckle over "Feminine Side" and I think "The Secret" went well (the intro looping pedal fiasco aside). At any rate, the crowd made me feel like I played a hell of a lot better than I did and I enjoyed myself, inspite of myself ;-)