Here's another advantage of trying to make a go of music when you're older: curveballs tend to throw you off-track less.
I thought I had everything sorted out: I had the merch all sorted into a small Ikea bag and everything fit. I had the set list printed out. I had the banter rehearsed, the cues for audience participation all sorted in my head. I had the chance to give the entire set a dry run at an open mic at the Pour Boy bar on November 1st. I thought I had it all taken care of. And then I woke up Tuesday morning, felt a little off, and thought that I should test myself as a precaution.
Welp.
I don't mean it to sound like investing a ton of effort will result in guaranteed failure; that's not how life works. But there comes a point where, when you're hit with a curveball, you just sit there and let it go, and let life not move you from where you've worked really hard to go. There will be knock-on effects to this: I was supposed to go into the studio to work on more tracks next weekend, but I don't feel safe exposing the producer and her family to this. As a result, I'm trying to be positive and work on some other stuff that doesn't require leaving the house or being too physically active.
But damn it.
I had the best set worked out for you guys. I had the patter, the tunes, even the guitar solos down so tightly you could've used them to pick food out from between your teeth. I was going to blow you all away. This just means that I'll have to do it later.
But damn it. I wanted to do it Tuesday night.
Back to the drawing board.
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As a post-script, I'd like to add that I've started to get caught up on my reading, and I'm really enjoying Brian Fauteux's Music in Range: The Culture of Canadian Campus Radio, published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in 2015. It's a fascinating look at how campus and community radio stations like CKCU and CIUT have been instrumental in providing a platform for local artists when commercial radio doesn't, and how that forms part of their mandate for community outreach. It's especially relevant these days, when a lot of Canadian campus radio stations are doing their annual funding drives. Brian can be found on The Platform Formerly Known As Twitter at https://twitter.com/brianfauteux. His work with CultCap is also fascinating, especially if you want to get more insight into the hardly-functional relationship between artists and streaming services.)