Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 38

Chef’s prediction that we’d be busy had been right, we were packed. It was mostly people from school, celebrating the end of the semester and the beginning of their vacation, but there were still a fair number of other locals there as well.

Even though Willie was back, we’d kept the same pattern as when he’d been gone. I played the first set for about an hour and a half and then he took over and played a second set with just him and the band for an hour. I’d tried to have everything go back to normal, but Willie insisted once he saw that we were full every night during that first hour and a half. He said that since we were all getting equal shares, everyone made out better this way. I didn’t know if I agreed, since part of playing is being up in front of the audience doing your thing, not just the money, but he and the rest of the guys were adamant.

Although the setlist we’d settled on for today wasn’t that different from what we’d been playing for the last month, everything felt different. The audience was in a great mood, probably because there were so many kids happy to be done with school for several weeks, and they were giving us a ton of energy. People were singing, moving with the music, clapping, and a few times even signing along at the more well-known parts.

This was what I loved about playing. I got swept away by the crowd, putting everything into the music, sweat pouring down my face. Hanna was off work and she and Kat were sitting on the far end of the bar in the back, both of them facing towards the stage.

We neared the end of the setlist when I changed things up. I’d planned a surprise for tonight. The last several weeks working with Mr. French, I was starting to get happy with how my song was turning out. It still felt like it was missing something, but Mr. French said that it wouldn’t matter for a live performance, since the things it was really missing would only matter if I ever wanted to try recording it. He also pointed out that it helped to play a song for people a few times while you were working on it, since everything was different when playing for an audience.

Since everything else we were playing was starting to become routine, our last several practices had been mostly dedicated to getting my song ready. They’d had some great input and we’d really fleshed out parts of it even after all the work Mr. French and I’d done to it. Besides the band, I hadn’t told anyone else what we planned for the last song, though.

“Alright, that about finishes us up,” I said, going off the patter I usually used as we finished up for a night, letting them know we were on the last song. “You guys have been great and we’ve had a lot of fun playing for y’all tonight. Before we go, though, we have one more song to play. This one is special to me, because I wrote it. It’s still a bit of a work in progress, so you’ll forgive us if it isn’t perfect, but I hope you’ll like it. It’s called Country Road.”

The song started with just guitar all on its own, slowly picking out a melancholy tune, before the band kicked in just as the first verse started. It was somewhere between pop and modern country, with the chorus sung in harmony like you find in country, but with speed and rhythm closer to pop.

It was a story about a young man lost in the woods, trying to find his way home, hopelessly lost, when a girl shows up and tells him she knows how to get back. It’s revealed in the second verse that his home burned down and he ended up in the woods running from the charred ruins. The chorus was a four-line repeat in harmony that went:

Can’t find my way out.

Can’t find my way home.

No one can hear my shout.

I’m lost and alone.

The final verse was the two breaking through the tree line to his house, new and unburned. It’s never said outright, but the verse alludes to the idea that home isn’t the building, but the people he’s with. He realizes that he’s been home the whole time, since he had his friend with him. The chorus then played one last time, but the words changed to:

I found my way out.

I found my way home.

I never needed to shout,

Cause I was never really alone.

I still felt like the song was missing something. I was happy with the lyrics and the harmonies really worked, but it sounded somewhat flat to me. I just couldn’t put my finger on why.

The audience didn’t seem to mind, and for my first time playing my own music, I was pretty happy with the response. I said my goodnights and let them know Willie would be back up in a little bit for a change of pace, just like we did every Saturday.

A lot of the audience started clearing out as I packed up, but I was happy to see some kids from school staying to hear more. As much as I preferred rock and pop, there was a lot to learn from listening to classic blues music.

“That was great, Charlie,” Kat said as I joined them by the bar. “I didn’t know you were working on your own music.”

“I’m glad you liked it. Yeah, I started several weeks ago, but this is the only one I’ve been working on. Mr. French used to be in the music industry and has been helping me, although I still feel like it’s missing something.”

“I don’t know; it sounded great to me,” Kat said.

“Thanks.”

“Okay, my dad’s gonna get pissed if I stay out too much longer, so I have to go.”

“No problem. Thanks for coming, I still find it unbelievable that anyone wants to hear me play.”

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments.”

“He does that,” Hanna said. “It’s our job to keep his head from getting too big.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Kat said laughing. “Okay, I gotta go.”

“I don’t have to go right away,” I said as we waved bye to Kat. “Do you want to sit out on the porch for a bit?”

“Sure.”

As usual, there were a fair number of people sitting outside. You could still hear the music, especially if you were by the door, and it was nice out. The air had turned cold enough to need coats, but it hadn’t snowed yet. Everyone told me the temperatures would start dropping over the next week or so and we’d have snow until about the end of February. Chef had put up these standing heaters along the porch, to keep everyone warm. It ended up where your feet were cold and your head was warm, and the rest of you felt like that perfect point where ice cream met a warm piece of pie. It was kind of perfect.

We went to the end of the porch near the corner, since most people didn’t sit that far down. I always wondered why everyone stayed by the door, since down here we could still hear the music inside, but we could also hear each other without raising our voices. True, it was dark and the heaters didn’t go this far down, but I liked it.

“I really liked the song,” Hanna said. “The music was kind of sad, but the words made me feel, I don’t know, kind of relaxed.”

“You’re the girl in the story, you know.”

“What?”

“Mr. French said that the best songs are ones where the writer shows how he feels about something and the goal is trying to make the audience feel the same emotion. He said you tell a story about what you want most in the world, and that’s what this is. The guy in the song thought he’d lost his home and family forever and the girl in the song shows him it was never gone, he just had to know where to look for it. I’m the guy, and you’re the girl.”

“Huh,” she said.

“It’s been a crazy year so far and getting my foot broken sucked, but it was all worth it. After all those years moving from place to place, nothing ever really feeling like home; and then the summer, just me and Mom in the trailer. I’d never really felt like I belonged anywhere, you know? Then I met you and you filled in all those missing pieces. Now, I have the Blue Ridge here, with Chef and Willie, the gang at school, and I have you. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

“You know if you switched the characters and kept everything else the same, the song would still be true? I might have lived here all my life, but I was pretty lost after last year. All I could think about was getting out of here and starting over where no one knew me. We helped each other find what we were missing.”

“I guess we did,” I said, looking out into the night, actually feeling content for the first time in my life.

The End