Epic day in and around Chiang Mai, mostly rolling with my buddy John Fengler (aka the finagler). He got me out of my one square mile comfort zone, as we zipped about in his Audi, first a trip up to the lake where we had some lunch, then a visit to his favorite coffee place near there where I met the owner, a very artistic and one-of-kind Thai woman named 'Amy'. (I think he was trying to fix me up with her). Nice woman, not my type as she 'doesn't like kids' and takes care of 10 cats, while her mother has 20 more next door. Nice to meet you... see ya... A few errands around town, some sights I wouldn't have known about otherwise, and eventually a dinner stop at Yummy Pizza in the Hang Dong (I kid you not) district south of Chiang Mai.
As we entered, John told Tony (the boss) that I'm a good musician and Tony said, 'OK you play after this act that's on the stage now'. I tried to demur, but he wasn't having it. 'Don't even think about it, just play'. Tony is an Aussie muso (musician, Aussie style) who apparently sold a lot of records in Germany in the 90's and he now runs this place in Hang Dong, a good pizza restaurant with a great PA and a great vibe. Hey, if the boss says play, I play.
There was an electric guitarist and drummer who backed the last guy, and they hung out to play with me too. I did two songs, Same Same and Bhang Lassi and people loved it. I saw that our pizza had arrived so I had an excuse to get off the stage, but after dinner, Tony asked, and I did some more songs Boom Boom, Happy Finnish Girls and Weed and the Whiskey... all originals, all adult-ish in nature, and with the exception of Finnish Girls, which was too many chords for a first-time jam, they went over great. The guitarist, in particular, was super complimentary about the songs, asked if there was a CD of them, said that it would sell because the songs are great. He was a very good player, was laughing along and knocking out some nice solos, adding some bass lines, great to play with.
Turns out he's a bit of a famous person (in some circles, anyhow). Oliver Benjamin is the originator and founder of the 'Dudeism Society' which is a funny (and lucrative, for him) organization based on the 'philosophy' of the Big Lebowski' a movie role acted by Jeff Bridges in 1998, and something of a cult favorite. Benjamin is a writer, wise-guy, entrepreneur and tasteful guitarist, and he's got something pretty clever going on with his 'society'. And it's paying the bills. You can poke around at www.Dudeism.com
It's funny stuff.
After that gig, John and I headed to CU Corner where I ended up playing from 11 til midnight, and once again, having a lot of fun. Something is changing with my music, the more I play in the bars. Sometimes people are listening, other times I'm more in the background, but I don't mind. I'm just playing the songs as well and as freely as I can, polishing the craft. And it's working.... my voice is strong and I'm pretty freed up in terms of going off script, making stuff up, messing around with timing, just being in the moment with the music. Lots of compliments lately, more than usual, and I think it's a reflection of the change.
These two older hippie types (and by that I mean 'older than me') wandered by around midnight, and the guy asked what was up with all the guitars hanging on the wall. (Just like I did two years ago). They had just gotten to town after a super long day of travel and were exhausted. But he wanted to play a couple of songs, so I joined him. We weren't plugged in at that point as Taew has to be very mindful of the noise level and it was after midnight. We hit it off effortlessly on stuff like 'For What It's Worth', 'Good Lovin' etc. They were ecstatic, he said, 'I've been dying to jam for the last month'. Just after they left, I realized that I had met them on Koh Tau last month. It was a day I had walked over the hill to this snorkeling place and I asked is they would watch my stuff while I swam. We ended up talking for awhile, and yep, it's them. They're gonna get a big kick out of the coincidence when I see them tonight. Small world apparently.
Had a great talk with Toby about Cambodian travel. He's my linguistics buddy, speaks 16 languages, and he told me a great story about crossing the border between Thailand and Cambodia. It's a bit of a dicey situation, lots of scammers trying to convince you that you need such and such a paper when you really don't, but folks are confused and vulnerable, so the touts are raking it in. Plus things keep changing so there is some amount of confusion. Anyhow, Toby was going to stay in the border town for the night and was being hassled by various government types who are into their own border scams. As he tells it. "They were speaking Thai so I started talking to them in Thai, and they immediately switched to Khmer. So I started talking to them in Khmer, and they immediately shut up". They didn't know what to make of the guy with the American passport who could speak both of those languages. He was scam proof, and was later told by a young guy who was assigned to be his 'minder' that he had freaked them out. 'They can't fuck with you', the young guy gleefully told him. Yup, that's Toby all right.
Today I took my $100 guitar to the music store to have them install a combination pickup/tuner so I'll be able to plug into a PA wherever I am on the road. I dig this guitar, so it felt like a good $70 investment to have something to use electrically. And now it means that I'll more than likely bring it home as my second guitar. Thank you, Chinese slave labor. It's a great ax for the money, and I went with the higher quality Korean pickup so I'm hoping it works well and sounds good through a PA. I hear that there is a burgeoning music scene in Siem Reap (home of Angkor Wat), so I'll be equipped to get on stage and maybe even make a little money over there. I hear it's not as uptight for the foreigners to work musically in Cambodia. The Thais are pretty strict about this sort of thing, so whatever I make here is very under-the-table.
I have 4 more nights here in Chiang Mia before I grab the night train to Bangkok on Monday. It's been a great stay, this place is home. Conceivable I could return this way before the end of the trip in March, but that will reveal itself. But I have a great circle of folks here and I love this place.
