Booking shows can be interesting, and sometimes a little frustrating, and sometimes just plain strange.

I was scheduled to play at Expressions in Winchester this past Friday night, or so I thought. I had confirmed with the girl who does the booking, who seems really nice although I haven't met her yet since this was to be my first show there. I was listed as playing there on their Myspace page, had confirmed through email a few days back, and thought everything was a go.

So anyway, I'm sitting in front of the computer surfing the net Friday morning, the day of the show. The phone rings, and it's Bradlee Burtner, another local musician and all around great guy who I've been friends with since playing a show together at Common Grounds over a year ago. (a great musician and songwriter, check him out. He's in my top friends). He tells me he's been getting calls from his friends and family who plan to come see him play that night at Expressions. At first he doesn't understand, since he's scheduled to play common Grounds in Lexington and according to Expressions web site, I'm scheduled to play there. He calls the good folks he knows at Expressions and finds out they've been advertising him all week in the newspaper and such. And since Winchester is his hometown, apparently they are expecting quite a few people to show up to hear him.

Now is where it gets really weird. If he doesn't show, he'll look bad because all his friends show up to see him and he's not there. And Expressions will look bad because they've been advertising him all week and someone else is playing. As for me, I'm going to feel uncomfortable as hell when I walk in because they were expecting Bradlee. Now here's the twist: Bradlee wants to swap gigs, he'll play Expressions and I'll play Common Grounds. I think about it for a minute, and I'm thinking yeah, that makes sense. Besides, I love playing Common Grounds, and it's closer to home. So Brad calls up Eric, who does the booking for Common Grounds (another all around great guy and musician/songwriter. Check him out as well, he's also in my top friends).

So, long story short, I play Common Grounds and Bradlee plays Expressions. I had a GREAT show, and made some new friends in the band called Dementia Cookie Box who played a set before me and gave away free Oreo cookies. (apparently they do this at  all their  shows. GREAT idea!) An old friend and awesome musician from my old high school drives up from our hometown of Beatyville to see me, courtesy of Facebook. Hopefully he'll be playing some saxaphone, piano, and bass on the new cd I'm currently working on. Maybe he'll be able to join me at some live shows as well, we'll have to wait and see.

That my friends, is the story of this past Friday night. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow and everything will be OK.