Setlists for 5/27/11 (Balticon "Meet The Artists" Reception)

       5/27/11  Balticon: "Meet The Artists" Reception

01) Catch The Wind
02) House At Pooh Corner
03) Galway Shawl
04) Play Me
05) Cool Water
06) Queen Of All Argyll
07) Enchanted Gypsy
08) The Whistler +(inst) Banish Misfortune
09) Boots Of Spanish Leather
10) The Highwayman
11) Butterfly
12) The Walrus & The Carpenter (poem set to original music)
13) Can't Find My Way Home
14) Maggie Mae (Rod Stewart)
15) Maggie May (trad)
16) Yoshimi  Battles The Pink Robots (pt 1)
17) For My Lady
18) Life On Mars?
19) Wondrous Stories
20) A Trick Of The Tail
21) Guinnevere
22) Triad

This was a "secret surprise" at Balticon: my mission was to provide some
live music for the "Meet the Artists" reception. It wasn't listed on the
schedule, but it was an opportunity to play two hours of music in performance
as opposed to the usual 1/2 to 1 hour slots that musical guests usually get.
I did this once before two years ago and it went well then.

Some things worth noting about this set:
1) I got the sound really really nice for this show. I was just loud enough to
have a pleasant, audible presence above the room's noise floor, but not so
loud as to be difficult to talk over. I'm told I filled the whole room very
clearly with alot of audible detail in my mix. I got alot of great reviews
from both staff and attendees. I recall last time doing this two years ago,
that I was having some problems getting the electronics to behave, but it all
came together to work spot on for this time.

2) I got to play alot of songs that I added explicitly for playing to sci-fi
convention audiences, and what's more, a bunch of the songs I played at this
show were what I call my "next generation": songs that have more complex
structures and progressions than alot of the folk and rock songs I play.
They're very special to me, and some of them are "long term" musical goals
that I've finally gotten the skills to get into my performance repertoire.
A case in point is "Guinnevere", which I've been wanting to learn for
20+ years, and finally have a version that is fit for performance that I've
been practicing and slyly debuting at VARF this year.

This was a win.