This year I sold some of my paintings from my own collection which I never thought I’d do. They were sentimental to me and have been with me for 10 or more years. But I felt it was time to let them go and open up to the new, and knowing they were going to a good home where they would be appreciated helped too. I invested back into my creative endeavours, buying art supplies and also some music equipment which I was especially excited about. The Boss RC505loop station and Roland Cube busking amp have been great tools to take my music to a new level…
It took this hermit five months to build the courage to use it in public. I was quite happy taking it into the garden to serenade possums and magpies, they seemed to enjoy it and got increasingly curious and close. Then the Mullum Music Festival was on my doorstep, almost literally, so I thought I’d jump on the busking bandwagon and find a cosy spot to debut my long anticipated (by me) set. I chose the deadest part of town, but one with the best acoustics, the arcade near Scratch Patisserie. Perfect! No-one around and great sound! A car of people pulled up and stopped to listen, then they parked, then they got out and sat down to hear the rest. They were hill-dwellers just popping into town to get cigarette papers, not intending on partaking in the festival so they were pleasantly surprised. This tiny attentive audience was a true blessing, their positive feedback was invaluable in building my confidence to go to the next level, that being a more populated place! The next thing I knew I’d been invited to play in the Santos Community Gardens so I packed up and played another complete set there which was lovely as it had a bigger audience, but in truth I’d been spoiled for acoustics at the previous location!
The next day I pulled my little golf cart rig to a beautiful setting under the trees situated on the route between festival venues just opposite The Drill Hall. I was soon approached by some young women asking if I minded if they set up their food wagon next to me. So, between us we had a lovely, laid back pop up venue complete with refreshments! As it was the last day of the festival people responded really nicely to my music which some described as soothing and unobtrusive, blending in with nature…A woman who made friends with me instantly on Facebook and realised on the spot that we had mutual friends gave me the idea to set up in beautiful natural locations, spreading the word through social media. This is definitely something that resonates with me and I am planning to do this soon. I played for a couple of hours until my fingers were black and blistered from my guitar strings, I was enjoying myself so much I hadn’t realised till I finished!