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There’s just something compelling about a guitar that kids can’t stop watching.   So there I was, in my third of four continuous hours of playing and singing at “Legends”, a restaurant/bar in the casino. Piano, vocals, and guitar. It was a busy night. With the exception of an input jack on my archtop that was not cooperating, everything was in flow. It was a great mix of a crowd. Think: DMV with a bar tab. I had already played close to two dozen requests: “Satin Doll”, “Piano Man”, “All My Exs Live in Texas”, Neil Young’s “Old Man”, “If Tomorrow Never Comes”, “Look On the Bright Side of Life” . . . you get the drift. I had already warned the room that if anyone yelled “Freebird”, I would play it continuously until there was $100 in the giant goblet. “Tennessee Whisky by Chris Stapleton?" "Sure! Pour one for me and I can do it.” And that was the way the evening went until he walked up to me. They had already dimmed the lights in the room when an older gentleman came up to the piano. T-shirt, John Deer cap, work boots that had been cleaned up for the evening, he was a little hesitant. “Can you play . . . . “Clair de Lune”? Did I say that right?” Clearly a song that is not in my normal repertoire. The original by Debussy is in Db, not what you would call my key of choice. So I played the first three iconic intervals from memory in the key of C and smiled, hoping that might suffice and allow me to segue into something by Kenny Rodgers or the Beatles. His eyes lit up. And then they started to fill up. He turned to his party at the table. “That’s the one isn’t it?, he asked them. Then he whispered, “Please” as he leaned in. The first three intervals are easy. Then come the tricky parts. (If you aren't familiar with this piece or haven't listened to it in a while, do yourself a favor and give it a listen - its beautiful.) I got through the first eighteen bars from memory, very rubato, and while I know I was doing incorrect voicings, I knew I had the right harmonies - and I added as much emotion into the notes as I could. He stood frozen leaning on the grand piano. He was "having a moment". People started glancing over. And I suddenly realized that if I didn't land this plane, we were ALL going to have a moment. As I was approaching the end of the first eighteen, I started to worry about the next phrase and I knew I had to resolve things so I cut to the end, the final fourteen bars, which starts with a reharmonization of the main theme and has lots of rolling arpeggios, from C to Em7, back and forth. Things were so in flow I felt like I would never be able to pull this off again. A few Ebmaj7s thrown in for good Impressionistic flavor, and then Debussy’s beautiful ascending resolution to C major, which I held forever. I was a little afraid he was going to say, “Where’s the middle part?” Instead, with tears in his eyes he softly said, “That’s the one”, turned and left the room, back out to the slots and the tables.  |
AuthorBoyd Holmes, the Writer Archives
February 2025
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