“Do you have a gig yet?”
That question has been posed to me by friends and family back home since I moved to Nashville three weeks ago. While I know it comes from a place of friendly curiosity, it certainly amps up the pressure as well.
For a moment I was feeling discouraged. I was at a dead-end with no official gigs lined up. I had auditioned weeks prior at Tootsie’s, which I felt went very well, but the communication was sparse afterwards.
Finally on Wednesday, I received a phone call from Anita, a drummer and booker for several venues on Broadway. I had sung a few songs with her band the week prior.
“Are you available tomorrow 2 to 6 p.m. to play with a band in the backroom at Tootsie’s?” she asked me over the phone (Tootsie’s has three stages).
I accepted the offer immediately and then proceeded to do a few celebratory air kicks.
Walking into Tootsie’s the following day, besides my past experience of playing music for a living, it was like walking into a new job on your first day.
I knew no one there, not even who I was playing with yet.
Arriving an hour before showtime, I walked up to random strangers in the bar, thinking they may have been my still unknown bandmates. I was embarrassingly mistaken, multiple times.
I waited another half an hour and finally I met Andrea who just moved to Nashville back in January from Switzerland.
All in all, there were five of us on stage, with Andrea and I assuming lead vocal responsibilities.
About five minutes before we started, Anita phoned our bassist and called him away to another gig, sending in a last-minute replacement.
Things move fast down here.
With the gig commencing, Andrea and I swapped singing tunes back and forth, with her catalog mostly consisting of country hits from female artists such as Shania Twain, The Dixie Chicks and Patsy Cline, among others.
My primary goal was to show I was capable of three things: Captivating an audience, playing a wide variety of music and standing out among my fellow bandmates.
I am proud to say that the mission was more than accomplished.
Sure, some songs’ endings were shaky. The band had never met one another, let alone rehearsed together.
Still, the audience was responsive, singing along to the bar room chants of Hank Williams Jr.’s “Family Tradition,” attempting to squeeze in a dance move or two before security asked them to remain seated due to COVID restrictions.
Two key highlights stand out most.
First, we received a paid request to play the alternative rock jam “Hold On” by Alabama Shakes, a song I knew well but had never performed live. Tom, the lead guitarist, quickly pulled up the track on his phone, listened for 10-to-20 seconds and then played away.
The band did not shy away from performing songs they had never heard or played before. In Nashville, a request is a request, especially because tips are how the musicians make their money on Broadway. The compensation from the venue itself is very minimal, often just covering the expenses for parking and purchasing a beverage.
However, the shining moment was receiving a request to play an original song from the audience.
I quickly told the band the chords to my 2014 single, “Up,” cueing them for chord changes along the way.
After the show, I thought to myself, now what?
An hour or so later, I received a text from Anita, booking me for Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, same time slot at Tootsie’s, going forward for the near future.
Not only that, but the next morning I received a call from Anita while grocery shopping to cover a no-show for an acoustic gig at Rippy’s, another venue on Broadway. I dropped everything I was doing and darted downtown to get working.
And like the snowball effect, the journey had truly begun.