Chapter 38

Chef’s prediction that we’d be busy had 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 set list 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 all in a great mood, probably because it was 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 set list when I changed things up. I’d planned a surprised for tonight. The last several weeks working with Mr. French, I was starting to get happy with where 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 yall 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 it’s own, slowly picking out a melancholy tune, before the ban 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 as 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 reveled 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 break through the treeline 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 the 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.