I woke up in my car outside of Pete’s place, in his driveway. I climbed into my car’s front seat and did some writing. I could have stayed inside Pete’s place last night, as he definitely offered, but I really like staying in my car. Why do I prefer to stay in my car? Simplicity. When I’m staying in my car there is little chance of me being interrupted. What do I mean by interrupted? One example is, I may get caught up in a conversation inside Pete’s house with one of his room mate’s and then that could take my day to a whole other place that I was not intending, such as writing this document.
I went into Pete’s house at about 9am. We were planning on going to breakfast at The Frontier restaurant (an institution here in Albuquerque) as we always do when I come to town and play a house concert at his place. However, I got into a discussion with his roommate Nick about how I believe that the dissolution of the family unit has led the world to brink of complete chaos that we are experiencing now. Nick is a great, smart and tolerant guy. Our discussion turned into a debate when we came upon some points that we disagree about, but the debate never turned into an argument. Pete walked in and out of the room as we debated. We didn’t leave for breakfast until almost 10am. See! That’s what I mean by distractions when staying at other people’s houses. Pete and Nick are some of my most favorite people in my life. They are both very intelligent and have their lives in order. Staying at their house would lead to much fewer distractions than many other people, but still, there are distractions. One time in New Zealand my band mate and I stayed at a house with a woman after a concert and woke up to the sound of full on screaming outside our door. This was after we discovered that the mattress she offered us to sleep on was covered with blood stains.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes distractions are good things. Distractions can even lead you to beautiful places. However, when I’m on the road I have very limited time for distractions, so I do my best to minimize my distractions. The idea is to visit friends without them complicating my journey AND without my journey complicating their lives.
If you ever get a chance to go to Albuquerque you have to go the Frontier for breakfast. The breakfast burrito is amazing covered in their chili sauce. That’s what Pete and I ate for breakfast, along with fresh squeezed orange juice and a cinnamon roll.
Over breakfast Pete and I discussed our usual topics of women, how absurd the world seems to be and life in general. I respect the fact that Pete chose to get the COVID vaccine and he respects the fact that I choose not to. Pete is very highly educated, especially in physical sciences and it’s always good to have conversations with him because he never attempts to brow beat anyone. He may not agree, but he’s not going to go out of his way to ridicule anyone. We spoke about how science is ever evolving because new evidence surfaces and new data is collected. It was good having breakfast with Pete, as always.
I left Albuquerque at about 1130am and headed down to Silver City, New Mexico, about 4 hours away. It was a beautiful drive with big blue open skies and big patches of highway with few other cars. So beautiful!
I arrived in Silver City about 5pm, which was perfect because my gig at Q’s Southern Bistro” started at 6pm. The room was filled with big tables of 6 people eating dinner and having drinks. I did my sound check and I noticed the crowd noise was pretty loud and the corner I was playing in was kind of muddy sounding, meaning it did not sound very clear. I was a bit concerned, but after 20 years of playing shows like this, I knew I’d figure it out. And figure it out I did! The crowd loved me!
The crowd was mostly hispanic and Native people, so I was a bit concerned about how they would react to some white dude with a mullet in white sunglasses playing the banjo, BUT they loved it! They sang along to my cover songs and applauded excitedly to my original songs. They bought CDs and tipped well and said thank you after each set. When complete strangers can be this kind and receptive to me and my music, it almost brings a tear to my eye. Humanity really is mostly good people who want to show love for one another. I have been playing in Silver City since about 2003, so I have many friends and fans here, but non of them were able to make it tonight except for one and we hung out after the gig. It was a great night overall. Thank You Silver City! I will keep coming back every year because you have always been good to me :)