Willie-O: You're right, at least I did get the cash and tips. Could have been much worse. The first weekend there, the closing staff didn't know I hadn't already been paid and closed the register without giving me any money. I was able to recover it the following weekend, though.

Really, every time I perform, I learn a lot about performing. I don't get that opportunity much, as a sometimes-working musician, and my natural personality is introverted and shy, so I have a hard time wanting to do anything besides just get up and play guitar. I'd rather play guitar than talk to people - when I played last summer at a winery, some people who were there the entire evening commented on how I played really long sets and took short breaks in between. It's really hard for me to work a crowd or even make eye contact, much less actually talk to anyone. And I'm learning how to do that. So next time will be better, I hope.

Maryrrf: It's just a generic kind of place. In fact, it's mostly a lunch cafe, and it's only recent that the owner got a liquor license and started serving dinner. They do a Thursday night singalong that's well attended, where there's a pianist who performs for a bit and then passes out sheets for old tin pan alley chestnuts. Maybe he expected something equivalent from me, but I can't imagine why - he's seen me play before and knew what kind of thing I did.

I try not to play too many obscure songs, and I try to make sure I have enough uptempo stuff. Let's see, the last time I played, I did "One Meatball," a raggish version of "Puff the Magic Dragon," a country blues arrangement of "Blue Eyes Cryin' In The Rain" followed by an approximation of Blind Blake's "West Coast Blues" (for some reason they make a good segue), Scarborough Fair, Loch Lomond, a dropped D arrangement of "Little Drummer Boy" and a few other Christmas songs. I play a lot of Paul Simon/Simon and Garfunkel, some Townes Van Zandt (including, obviously, "Pancho and Lefty"), and "Don't Think Twice" plus a few other Dylan songs if I'm in the mood for that. If there are kids there, I play "They're Burnin' Down the House I was Brung Up In," which for some reason is a consistent hit with them (I don't know why) and "The Fox," and maybe "This Land Is Your Land" or anything else I can think of that might appeal to them. I have a really hard time classifying my repertoire, since it includes folk ballad rearrangements of pop songs (e.g. Friday I'm In Love), traditional stuff, country blues (a la Blind Blake, Roy Book Binder, and Rev. Gary Davis), a Joe Hill song or two, and some 70s singer-songwriters like Townes, John Denver, and Paul Simon, plus a touch of Willie Nelson, Warren Zevon, and other random things that just haven't come to mind at the moment.

Maybe there's still too much slow stuff in my repertoire. The bar experience I posted about when I started this thread involved the owner complaining about that, but I also got the impression that he wanted me to be a Rolling Stones/Doobie Brothers/Tom Petty/etc. jukebox, and that's just not what I play (well, I do play "As Tears Go By," but you don't identify that with the Stones so much). I don't know what the problem is, or how to even market myself to avoid this kind of thing in the future.