My last minute Pub show in Lexington, KY at Blue Stallion Brewing Company

One of the great joys of being a musician is the jam session. There's nothing like getting into a groove and just having fun with it. The song can go on for ten minutes and continues to be a blast to play. If you're really lucky, it's also a blast to be heard.

I had a wee jam with LT Panzarella at PandoraCon this weekend. LT played drums for me at PandoraCon and also GenCon. He's a good, solid drummer. We had a blast at GenCon, especially when I lost my voice the last day and we played instrumental tunes.

On Saturday night, I played in the Atrium of the hotel. The Atrium was a horrible sound venue. The music was all over the place. The vocals poorly understood. At the end of the set, I played “Johnny Jump Up”. I LOVE that song. It's the one song I've learned to jam on. I could happily draw it out forever I think, and I think my audience would just get more and more into it. Saturday, we pulled in some dancers, so I kept it going until our time ran out. It was a blast.

Andrew (of Brobdingnagian Bards) and I used to have some great jams at faire. We wrote a number of instrumentals that way. I started with a rhythm. Andrew wrote a melody on the fly. It was brilliant fun. We got some great tunes out of those jams. “Fellowship of the Rings” is one that was born that way, as was “Tolkien” (though not at faire, hear the songs on Memories of Middle Earth).

All in all the weekend at PandoraCon (and Lexington before that) was fairly laid back. I got a great response to my Sci Fi Drinking Songs. My first show had everyone singing along. Now I just need to finish recording Sci Fi Drinking Songs. With my next two CDs (A Celtic Christmas and Scottish Songs of Drinking & Rebellion), I should be able to get back to recording soon.