Back in the days of wine and cheese parties, when bar/restaurants actually hired folksingers because they brought in customers, I auditioned for a choice weekly spot on the schedule of at a soup and sandwich wine bar

. I was "on" that night, there was a full house, and I had written some great new material. The place was packed, and all folks in front of the stage were singing a long with me.

The other guy played through a cheesy little amp that had one of those wire echo/reverb effects. He played David Gates-copy song on a crappy Framus thinline archtop with a whammy bar, and absolutely the only thing he could do was a slow, Ventures-style arpeggio--He was so lame, I felt sorry for him--

Then, as he walked from the stage, the manager ran up and gave him the job. I was stunned.

A group of friends were sitting in the back, I stopped and asked, "How was I?"

You looked like you were having a lot of fun--we couldn't hear your guitar at all, though--


As to gear, did I mention? I have an old Gibson archtop with a Bigsby--I play it through an old Peavey, refitted with JBL's--it's got parametric EQ and I can set it up to sound like one of those old tweed Fender amps. I've got a couple different reverb stomp-boxes, but I usually play through a rack mounted effects processor--what was I telling you?