The Stuff Of Dreams

Once the outdoor gigging season (roughly April to November) winds down for me - as a solo performer - and my band (Sorella Jack), I enter what I call the “hiatus”.

This is actually a very important time of year for me and the band. And for our “stuff”.

As a performer, I have a lot of stuff. Here’s a partial list: microphones, microphone cables, microphone stands, instrument stands (they come in different sizes and configurations for different instruments), sound system (speakers, mixers, monitors), music stands, picks, capos, electronic tuners, etc., etc.

Oh, yeah. Instruments, too.

(Pro tip: Have TWO of everything so you always have a backup in case the first one breaks!)

That’s a long list of things to keep track of. It’s why I literally have stored on my laptop a list of things to take to each gig, and I check it before I go out to play. There’s nothing more frustrating than traveling 80 miles to a performance only to find once you arrive that you’ve left something essential back home. Yikes. Think-on-your-feet-and-improvise time!

But back to the hiatus… This is the time of year when the stuff - pretty much all of it - gets inspected, cleaned, repaired and, if need be, replaced.

Mic stand adjustment screws can loosen or their gears get stripped, picks can wear down or split, strings need to be changed, cables are coated with dirt and dead grass clippings, sound systems with annoying buzzes need to be addressed. So, the hiatus is a perfect time to do all that kind of repair and maintenance activities.

It’s also a great time of year to assess the set lists I’ve been using. Now I can honestly look at my list of current songs and ask myself, “Are audiences really connecting with this one? If not, is it the song or my performance that isn’t working? Do I have too many slow ballads and not enough uptempo pieces? Do I need more cover songs?” And then I can begin to mine my trove of unused songs and begin practicing them for next season’s sets.

The hiatus is less frenetic time than the performing season, but there is still plenty to do. But it also leaves some space for songwriting which, for me, requires some solitude and uninterrupted time: precious commodities in our fast-paced world but a little easier to find in the quiet winter months.

So, if you don’t see me performing a lot in the off-season, just know that I’m not sitting on my hands or vacationing in the tropics. 

I’m hunkered down with my stuff.