Time For Yourself

Most times, when I am on the road, my focus is the gig.   Everything I do is about the gig.    Every decision I make is about the gig, and I prepare for the gigs at least twenty four hours in advance.

But once in a while you have a day or three off while on the road and could or should use it to rest and recharge.

However, you also must live your life and you must involve yourself in life.   Staying in your hotel room, vegging out on tv, or fluff novels may help you recharge but it won’t make your life interesting.

The more you involve yourself in life the more fun it is.    The reason I bring this up is because of the other day in New York City.   I played a wonderful theater called the Triad on West Seventy Second Street and had the next day off.

I was staying with dear friends John and Patti on the east side and another dear friend, Burt, invited to do the Russian Baths down on 10^th St.  

The baths have been there since 1892.  How could I refuse?  It was immersing myself in the city's history.    I steamed and sauna’d while some braver souls were even lathered up and beaten with leaf filled branches of some fragrant tree by Cossacks from the homeland.    I once experienced something similar in Taiwan, though it was young beautiful women doing the washing.   It was just more  appealing to me than the cossacks.

I  alternated between the steam, sauna and cold plunge and my pores lost stuff that had been in the since high school.  Great fun.   Then I had some Russian pickled herring with onions and tomatoes, a traditional dish. 

We walked up first avenue for a while, feeling our pores vibrating to the pulse of the city and then fabulous Chinese food, followed by a $40 cab ride to Brooklyn to see Tommy Tunes “50 Years In Show Business”.    If you get a chance to see this when it comes to your town,, do it.   Great fun and Tommy Tunes seems to have never gotten any older.  

He’s dancing and singing his buns off and has a great band, and great songs.    Much different than what I do, but I loved it none the less.   He’s a pro’s pro.

Then we rode the subway back from Brooklyn to City Hall and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.   Yes, back towards Brooklyn and then stood in the middle and looked at the fantastic New York skyline as the sun went down.

Caught a cab back to the building and who should becoming into the building, but Tommy Tunes!    He lives in the tower.   Amazing. 

I gave him a CD and his partner Peter ran upstairs and came down with a lithograph which Tommy signed.

Then I packed and drove to my old pal, Peter’s home in Connecticut.

What a day.    You need to have one of those when you’re on the road.   The memories and the experiences will come out in your music and your performances.

Comments

[Joe Kenny]

Over the years I had completely forgotten how much I had (mis)played. I remember one time going to set my guitar down and it was attached to the green tinged ruts in my fingers. I had to disengage it with the help of my right hand. It was actually suspended from my left hand, dangling there, as I gazed at it stupidly.And I always played sober despite the dictum that all you really need is a six string and a six pack. Please Lord, tell me that it was the little acoustic and not the the big Bigsby laden Gibson.