Confessions of the Starving Artist - 4/3/08

I've been told
that life is what you make it
And dreams should not be sold
and likewise not forsaken

The last Friday of March (28) roared into an open mic at the Starving Artist Cafe. The cafe sits on a small island in New York City called, funny enough, City Island. I look forward to open mic night each month. The diversity of genre and styles. Poets, singer / songwriters, comics, anything all in one evening. The levels of professionalism from amateurs breaking in to pros breaking in new material, we get them all. I'm happy about this. I'm also happy because half the room is just there to listen and not to any particular artist. When I was a young guy playing the "hoots" as we called them in Greenwich Village, the entire room was there to play. Our open mic is developing a following and the house is packed these days. I'm happy about that too. Oh yeah, Frank and Cheryl missed a good one.

Saturday night, March 29, the blues came to town in the form of Bennett Harris. We called it a "Saturday Night Blues Party" but really he took us to school, and it was a master class. Delta, Memphis, Chicago, he took us up Highway 51 and back down again. Playing an old Gibson and a 1930s National Steel resonator, he played the chestnuts and peppered that with originals. Bennett is a performer and student of the blues in the tradition of John Hammond Jr. and Taj Mahal. A roaring, rollicking night of blues played by someone who knows how. And, by the way, "happy birthday" again to our good friend Jon.

Sunday afternoon, March 30, proved that the grass isn't always greener. Sometimes it's blue. The Sleepy Hollow String Band came into the Starving Artist for their 3 p.m. show - and so did a packed room full of bluegrass lovers. The band - Connie McCardle, Bob Bernstein, Ben Freed and Rick Brodsky - were joined on stage by Stacy Phillips on fiddle. What a great afternoon of music. What a crowd pleaser. What a crowd! Uncle Bill and I cooked to the pace of the music. This group was great and they'll be back. I want to thank my waitresses Mariel and Shannon for their help this weekend. Shannon jumped in though it was her day off and she just came in to live right. And Monica my wife came in from R&R to run the front room. And of course Uncle Bill, thanks!

A wonderful thing happened to me this week. I received a royalty check for approximately 300 downloads of my songs from my CD, "I've Been Told." It's available in its entirety at CD Baby, or as individual songs on iTunes, Napster, and the site that sold the most for me, Verizon V Cast. Treat yourself (and me) this week. Thank you to those who bought my music so far.

This weekend is another power-packed program of performers. Check the calendar. Click the links. "Click on Glick" at Neil Young's Living With War Web Site (#104 - Baby This One's For You; #111 - Bitter Tears). Be good to yourself and others, and come in, and live right.

Elliott Glick