Patty and I have a number of musical stories from times before we were together as members of Sound Traveler. Here’s a story about a time when I played in a small restaurant in Newland, NC.

In Raven Flight…

The restaurant was called “The Filling Station”– a very small restaurant, doing a small business. The establishment had once been a corner gas station in a Southern Appalachian town known for little more than hardy people and cold winters. The food was good enough, very good actually, but the clientele was composed mostly of locals for whom anything more than ham hocks, beans, and bread was deemed completely unnecessary. For them, food needed only to be served fast, hot, and filling.

My partner Ellie, and myself, performed at the restaurant on Fridays and Saturdays, for little more than pocket change and the opportunity to practice before living human beings. Our two guitars, three mikes, and small amp more than filled the space between the cash register and the door. We often had to step out of the way when several people entered the establishment at the same time. We played a collection of almost every kind of music we knew – a little folk, a little gospel, even a little acoustic rock and roll. At times we could get some interaction going with the patrons; much of the time we played for our own amusement.

On one night, business was somewhat better than usual. The several tables were each filled, and people would look at us from time to time, occasionally smiling, sometimes tapping their fingers on the table. At one table, at the very center of the small dining room, a striking woman and her slightly uneasy escort shared a meal and seemed quite interested in the music. The woman was slender with very tight fitting jeans. Her attire was Western, in a country music sort of way. Most memorable was her long, perfectly black hair.

When I’m on any stage, even one as small as that one, and I sense that I have an audience really with me, I gradually become energized. I will begin to throw in some ad-lib lines, attempt some more difficult leads on the guitar, and generally put on a show. I’ll take requests and play songs that I won’t have played in years, feeding off the energy of the crowd. This was that sort of night; playing the guitar and singing those songs was like riding a bicycle – smooth and easy. I hardly had to think about what I was doing.

Ellie, my music partner, is great in those situations. People like Ellie. She is a big woman with a big voice. She connects with the audience, any audience. Although she is a fine performer in her own right, she defers to my musicianship, such as it is, and follows my lead. Best of all, she’s game for any of my flights of musical fancy. She senses when I get into a “zone” and she knows how to hold on.

On this night, after we’d played for an hour or more, the young man accompanying the striking woman at the center table came up between songs to talk with us. He said that his girlfriend sang in clubs down in Hickory, North Carolina. He said she really liked us and wondered if she could sing a song with us. Earlier, I said that we played a little of everything. But we play almost no Country and Western music at all. Normally, we have a policy not to have someone we don’t know come and perform with us. But things were going well, we felt good, so Ellie and I said, “Sure.”

In a few minutes the young woman was beside us. When she had been seated at her table, she looked like a Country and Western type of person. When she was standing with us behind a microphone the picture became unmistakable – 100% Country and Western. Ellie asked her what she’d like to sing. She mentioned a Tim McGraw song popular at that time. I had never played the song in my life. I had only remembered hearing it once on the radio. Even that was a fluke since I don’t listen to Country and Western music. Nonetheless, immediately, confidently, and without thinking, I said, “I can play that.” Ellie, normally supremely confident of my abilities, looked at me like I was from Mars. With a nice strong introduction, I began to play.
The young woman with the amazing black hair began to sing. She sang with a clear, strong, melodious voice that was both impressive and moving. Somewhere during the middle of the song, I realized that I had no business being able to play the song. But I was playing it, and I was playing it as well as anything I had played that night. Somehow I knew it, and I knew I knew it despite the fact I had never “learned” it.

All eyes in the restaurant were firmly fixed on the singer. For a moment the sound of silverware and dinner conversation ceased. Some seemed frozen with a forkful of lasagna poised in mid-air. As the last chorus came to a close, the small dining room erupted in enthusiastic applause. Her face, framed by those raven waves, broke into a glowing smile. She turned to me and said, “You’re great! That was perfect.” Only at that moment did I fully realize what I had done. Having never played the song before, having only heard it once, I had expertly accompanied this accomplished singer. She said, “Come down to Hickory. There would be a lot of places that would love to have you play.” About this time, her date came up, thanked us profusely, and glowingly whisked her away.

I’ve been playing guitar for a long time, and I have a lot of stories. But I don’t ever remember an experience quite like the one I had in that little “filling station” restaurant. I just know that at that moment, without fear, I jumped off a cliff into the unknown. And instead of falling flat on my face, as one might expect, taking such natural forces as gravity into account, I flew. And because of me, before a small nondescript audience, the beautiful woman with the raven hair soared. — Bob Tatum

Sound Traveler is having a great time this week in southwestern Florida. We played to enthusiastic crowds at the Sarasota Folk Festival and at the Sailing Squadron in Sarasota. Tonight we will play at Kojak’s in Bradenton, FL.

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5 Comments to “SongTravelin’: 3:29:11 — Sometimes There’s Magic”

• March 29, 2011 at 7:20 pm
  Kay says:

  I know I wasn’t there that night, but I remember coming to that filling station! I think….
• March 31, 2011 at 10:30 am
  Bob says:

  I believe you were there, but your tastes were of a most refined quality!
• March 31, 2011 at 10:49 am
  Patty says:

  Just attribute your ability to play that song to magic. Because music, after all, IS magic.

  Keep on making magic, Bobby!!
• April 5, 2011 at 7:14 pm
  Ellie says:

  Love this little piece of time travel! I do remember that night. Once you launched that song I perhaps wasn’t as surprised as you were with the outcome… but I remember being awed! And I’ve seen you pull off many many surprising moments of magic!
• April 6, 2011 at 7:17 am
  Bob says:

  You were a big part of that magic, Ellie. We were a good team and could often put something together on the spot. I have never seen anyone else who could weave interesting and beautiful harmonies as well as you to anything — whether you had heard it before or not. Sing on!