The Chetboard

I have never played a real gig but have a question for those of you who do. I noticed that in the Richard Smith and Jim Nichols live album Richard asked Jim "shall we play a little bit of blues" or something like that and Jim said "later". I don't think that that song ended up on that album. WHen I was at a Steven King concert I asked him to play "I've got Rhythm" because he was taking requests and he said "later". He didn't play it that night. My question is this: is saying "later" gig code for "I'm probably not going to play it"? Mind you I wasn't offended. I just wondered about. thanks.

Personally, I think they just meant that they wanted to warm up for a while first and then they forgot your request. I've seen this happen and then the person will request the song again and the performer responds with "Oh, that's right! OK, here goes!"

Write the request on the back of a $5 bill.

I guess it's money talks and empty requests walk or something like that.

Rich Irvine

Rich, in my case when someone knows I can play a particularly difficult song and then requests it early in a performance, I simply tell them that I want to "warm up" with a few others first but I always remember to play it later.