Wonderful moments all. Keep 'em coming!

I suppose that it's well past time that I 'fessed up and told you what got me thinking along these lines in the first place.

There is a little coffeehouse, here in Madison, WI, called Mother Fool's. Once a month,on the last Friday, they hold an open stage. The "hosting" chores are rotated amongst the people who play there regularly.

One night, a couple of years ago, when I had the duty a gentleman named Ira MacDonald came in to play. He had just moved to town from somewhere in Michigan. He did a nice jazzy sort of set made a point of letting me know that he had enjoyed himself and that he would return.

About two months later I found out that Ira had started hosting an open stage at the other end of the neighborhood at a coffeehouse called Speed Jump (how's THAT for a name for a coffeehouse?) on the other three Friday nights of each month.

About two months ago Ira moved back to Michigan. I made a point of being at his last open stage in Madison. When I finished my set Ira went up to the mike and said something which I could not possibly have imagined that anyone would or could say.

He said, " I wan't you to know something, folks. Stephen lee is the main reason that we're here at all doing this. When I first got ot town, I went to teh open stage at mother Foll's and Steve made me fell so comfortable and welcome that he inspired me to start another one. So thankyou, Steve, from all of us!"

There was a round of applause and I got up and took kind of a sheepish bow. It is a rare and unique moment when one fells justified in using a word like "flabbergasted".

A couple of days later I started this thread because, at the time, i wasn't sure how to react to teh whole thing. I haven't told the story until now because i wasn't sure how to do so without sounding like I was bragging (I'm still not sure that I have achieved that).

With a few months worth of perspective and your various stories I think I've finally got a handle on it. If nobody ever sings any of my songs or even hears my name again, I'll still know that at least once in my life I did my job right. I got someone to go out and share the music.

Stephen Lee Rich