Mike Mccall, Spanish Guitar - June is over

Wow... What a busy month that was.. I played wedding gigs at Mountain Terrace (Woodside), Solage in Calistoga, Half Moon Bay Methodist Church, The Ampitheatre at Crissy Field (under the Golden Gate Bridge), Deer Ridge Winery in Livermore and Garre Winery in Livermore. All the weddings went really well other than a brief late-May hailstorm at the Solage gig.

Now it's time for a little break.. Other than a very fun winery gig (Byington Winery, Los Gatos, July 1), I don't have another gig scheduled for one solid month. As much as I love playing at weddings, I did need a little bit of a break. So I hope to see you at Byington gig or at the Wine Bar in HMB, July 23rd!

Why I play at weddings

Sometimes I even think about it, so don't feel bad if you have. He's 46, has a wonderful wife, crazy dog and a full-time job. Why does he play guitar at weddings on weekends?. It's a fair question. It's stressful, includes some travel and the money is not going to allow us to retire any sooner.

It's really a two-part answer. First, it's a challenge and I like challenges... To play music for people, when everyone else is silent, on the day that they'll remember for the rest of their lives, is very stressful. Not many people would do it. But personally, I'm convinced that the only way to beat stress is to meet it head on. And this is my way to take a bite out of it.



The second part I just discovered tonight. Elizabeth (I'm playing at her wedding), who is getting married in less than two weeks told me on the phone tonight told me something that really hit me. She said that in the midst of all the chaos of wedding planning, she visits my site, listens to my more mellow pieces and the stress just sort of melts away.. at least for the time being. It was very sweet and brought me back to the late nights writing some of these songs while picturing Montara Mountain, the fields below the mountain and the ocean just across the way. How could I not write peaceful music living in such a place?



Lastly.. music is definitely something to share.. and when someone appreciates your gift, it's really magical. My wife likes what my kindergarten teacher (or was it 1st grade?) wrote on my report card. "Mike likes to share with others". Maybe the years don't change us as much as we might think?

Mike

In Memory of Bart

Some gigs fly by and don't leave much impression. Others are incredibly rewarding and I will look back on them from time to time. But I don't think I will ever forget playing at Bart's Memorial last week. Bart was a 26 year old llama tasked with guarding the goats at theHarley Farm's Goat Ranch in Pescadero. Bart had died peacefully in his sleep and was found by a worker on the farm.

My wife and I only met Bart one time... A few years back we were hanging with goats and Bart stuck his face (his face, albeit sweet, looked sort of like Austin Powers) right next to mine. We were later told by Harley Farm's owner Dee Harley that "Bart doesn't like to have you in his personal space, but he loves to be in yours".


The memorial was attended by 50-75 people, with many small kids who knew Bart in attendance. It was festive, but somber. Bart had a personality that most Llamas don't possess and loved the baby goats. It was definitely a sad loss.



But Bart's departure brought home for many of us some things we don't often think about. Such as how valuable life is and that the "circle of life" is always in play (especially on a farm). My hands were trembling as I played "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" during Bart's slide-show. As we left, my wife and I both felt that Bart had restored in us those basics that we forget sometimes. We're glad to be alive, glad to live in such a beautiful place and we feel blessed to have such an incredible array of friends and family....Everything else is just noise. :) Thanks, Bart.

Cheers,
Mike

Dogs and Spanish Guitar

Okay.. To be honest, I just included "Spanish Guitar" in the subject line to improve my rankings in the search engine. This is just about dogs. For those of you who don't know, we have a slightly-insane, but very sweet cattle dog named Monty. He only has one eye (ill-advised handshake with a moving car), is very gassy, but is our son and makes us very happy.

A couple of weekends ago, Monty got together with his next-door neighbor and girlfriend, Peller.

It seemed like their typical play-day. Lots of growling, hugging, kissing, biting.... But as you can see from this photo, Peller took certain "liberties" with Monty... No, no.. Not that kind. Get your head out of the gutter and look at the picture.


You can clearly see the cheap-shot I am talking about. Charlotte and I are not in total agreement as to now we will seek "satisfaction", but let's just say some very talented $500/hr lawyers are ready to hop on a plane at a moment's notice.

Okay, there is one more picture that some stupid people have said shows that Monty provoked the vicious blow. B.S. In this picture, Monty is smiling at his girlfriend, not growling and moving in for a face-bite as one might assume


Well, that's it. just wanted to share that with you. Sometimes it's tough having a perfect dog. Others want to bring him down off his throne. Luckily, the camera doesn't lie.

It's a sunny day in Montara and we're going to go and enjoy it.

Cheers, Mike

New Drinking Establishment in Town!

Well, not in Montara. But in the Harbor (Half Moon Bay), there is a little shopping center called Oceano. And in the shopping center is a nice little wine bar appropriately named The Wine Bar. With great flights or red and white, as well as an incredible beer selection (all bottle, very fairly priced) and a good selection of sparking wine, this will be a popular place in the harbor. They also have small sandwich plates, cheese plates and olive plates.

They also have music and.... You guessed it! I will be playing there on Jan 30th as well as the night before Valentine's Day, Saturday Feb 13th.

Check out the Wine Shop and tell them Mike sent you (but don't put the wine on my tab)

Mike