You read it right! It’s going to be a busy one today. My first gig will be performing solo guitar for an office party for TimberWest in downtown Vancouver then I’ll rush off to perform again at the Willowbrook mall.

I’m leaving my place at 9:30am to get into downtown Vancouver at 11am. That will give me lots of time to find a great place to park and load in.

I’ll set up at TimberWest at 11:30am and begin my first solo guitar performance at 12:30pm.

I arrived downtown at 10:45am (traffic was light) and called the client to find the best parking location. Looks like parking at the Vancouver Library may be a great choice however I found a great spot at an office building across the street. Only $10 for the day. A great bargain for downtown.

Once I arrived I met with my onsite contact who showed me both rooms were I’ll be performing. (Yikes!, 2 rooms??) As normal I’m prepared for most anything. I used my yamaha sound system in the main room and was able to use my behringer B212 monitor as a PA in the smaller board room so the two rooms were easy to accommodate. I began performing early (12:10pm) as I was ready and people had started to arrive. At 1pm everyone made there way to the second room so I unplugged my bose mixer, grabbed my guitar and followed every one to the second room. Within 15 minutes I was back to playing again. This was a small group (aprox 30) who were really fantastic to play for. At 2:30 I was done and quickly packed up and headed off to Langley to perform at Willowbrook.

I was scheduled to perform at Willowbrook for 4pm and I was already driving out of downtown Vancouver by 3pm however the traffic on the freeway to Langley was very slow so I wound up at Willowbrook right at 4pm. Fortunately my Dad was already there with our merchandise table all set up and ready for business.

My Willowbrook performances are very casual. I provide entertainment for their customers and they allow me to sell cd’s and dvd’s. It’s a great arrangement and most years I’ve been extremely successful. However this year (and the last), with the economy the way it is and with most people buying music from itunes. We don’t sell as many cd’s as in the past however, the gig is still very, very important as every year hundreds of people see me here and it’s now all about everyone getting to know us. From here some buy a disc, or go on line to download my tunes, maybe sign up for guitar lessons, they may also join my mailing list and come out to a live performance or possibly hire me for their own private event. So the gig has now become a great marketing vehicle.

Today I began performing at 4:30pm and wrapped up at 8pm. It was nice to get home and relax after this one as I really didn’t get much of a break all day.

Tomorrow it’s off to Surrey for a performance for Merit Consultants. Stay tuned…