Something Funny Happened at The Cutting Room

Gary Burr and Georgia Middlemanasked me to be a guest for their ongoing Nashville To New York Songwriter Series. I love playing, I love Gary and Georgia. I said yes.

I never played the Cutting Room before. I mostly default to my tried and true Bitter End. I’m always welcome. I feel comfortable. I know the walls.

So this was an unfamiliar space. But, cool. Challenge me. And is the piano turned? Yes. Is it positioned just so – I’ll be able to feel the crowd to my right. Wonderful.

The managers? Hospitable and super friendly.

I order a pu pu platter in the green room. I never order poo poo platters. Why did I do that? I wasn’t even hungry. But I didn’t want to get hungry. As if hunger is what you think about when you’re on stage. Maybe an hour after you’re off?

We’re waiting for the ok to start when someone approaches Georgia and says something about a leak upstairs. But not to worry. They’re coming to shut off the main valve.

I didn’t catch the details because I was … not really nervous but, preoccupied perhaps with, pre-performing thoughts. Like…

Both Gary and Georgia have their lyrics scrolling on an iPad attached to their mic stands. I don’t. Never did. If I go blank, and Adam is in the room, which he often is, he’ll shout them out to me, like a prompter in the wings, to an actor who forgets their lines.

I’m pretty good at remembering lyrics. It’s when I’m nervous about forgetting them, that I might actually forget them. The thing is, you can’t think about them. You’ve been singing them for years, so if you just relax, you’ll be fine. Probably.

Also, I’m inclined to make a mistake I never made before. What will it be today? Who knows. But it will happen. I decide that when it does I’ll blame it on my pic. Or my capo.

Here we go.

I start with “What a Girl Wants” to set my tone before I go dark. Cuz I’ve got dark stuff. Then Georgia and Gary knock it out of the park. If you’ve never seen them play together, see them.

I love how she looks at him

While they’re playing I’m looking out at the crowd, blinding light in my eyes, and I think I see what looks like … rain? I mean … in the room, not outside.

No. No way.

My turn. I play “They To Try Again” – a song that will accompany, via embedded link, my young adult novel-in-progress. I wrote it in an alternative tuning I’ve become addicted to – the 4th string dropped to an E. Such easy finger movement for all that open sound.

Then Gary and Georgia sing. There it is again. I’m not imaging. Water. Big drips. The people underneath it are adjusting their chairs but they’re not going anywhere. So that’s a good thing. I guess.

But in my head, I start thinking about the combination of H2O and electricity, which there is a lot of on stage.

I’m looking at Gary and Georgia for any sign they see it too. But I don’t see a sign and the show seems to be going on.

Any minute now, someone will show up and turn off the valve. Otherwise there’s bound to be a mass exodus from the Cutting Room.

By the next round, it hadn’t stopped.

As if there’s not enough going on in my head during a performance, now I’m thinking there might be enough water up there to collapse the whole ceiling. That would not be good.

But no one is leaving.

Ok.

I move to the piano. I can see my daughter’s face over the music panel. Great! I love that face. I play “Love Is War.” Once, Britney was set to record it but down to the wire she said it made her seem too vulnerable. I was like, what’s wrong with that?

I haven’t played it in years … gave up on it. But I’m embracing it again. The song’s meaning has changed for me. I might have written it with Britney in mind but over time I realized it’s not really a song about any one relationship. It’s a love song, to love. What we do for it. How much we bare for it. That we head right back to it, even after it’s broken our hearts a million times.

After the show, veteran music exec Susan Dodes told me she couldn’t believe the song has never been recorded. She has ideas. I can’t wait to hear them. Seriously. Every song has a right time right place. Maybe they just haven’t shown up yet.

We did six songs a piece. I didn’t forget a word. We didn’t blow up and the ceiling never fell. Miracle.

Everyone stayed around afterward for hugs and a piece of Gary’s birthday cake. They never showed up to shut off the valve so we continued to be dripped on and continued not to care.

If you’re reading this and you were there, you know how surreal it was. So, thank you for staying and joining me for yet another adventure worth documenting in this space.

And … I hope you found a towel.

And then she went out for her NY slice

Thanks for being here. You can subscribe to my blog here. Get a signed CD or a copy of “Confessions of a Serial Songwriter.” And here’s My Serial Songwriter Facebook Page! 💋Stay tuned for my new YA novel What A Girl Wants 💙