Bob Gibson blew through Seattle and did a concert here back in the late 1950s. He was in town for a couple of weeks (had a brother who lived here) and I had a chance to chat with him some. He said that when he first started out, he wanted to be sure he could grab the audience, so he put himself through a fairly grueling piece of training. He'd walk into some beer joint with his banjo, then after getting the bartender's permission, he would start to sing. Sometimes he'd suddenly have an attentive audience. But many times they turned into a bunch of hostile hecklers. He'd keep pluggin' away, and give up only if they got physically hostile. He said that over a period of time, he learned some bits of patter, funny comebacks to hecklers, and was soon usually able to grab even the more hostile audiences. When he could do that consistently, he decided he was "ready for prime time."

Tough apprenticeship!

But I think the best piece of advice I got was from Juanita, an older woman who played the guitar and sang Mexican folk songs, and had been a night club singer for many years. She was retired, but she kept her hand in by singing two evenings a week in a local tavern (in Sausalito, California).

She said, "No matter how much the audience ignores you, if one person in that audience is listening to you, sing for them. And even if you don't see anyone who's listening, there might be someone who is not totally ignoring you. Sing for whoever that person might be."

Tough situation, but I think Juanita's advice was well worth heeding.

Don Firth