Right before my EP was released, when I wasn’t in the hustle-bustle of random paperwork and trying to get bloggers to review the damn thing, I had the chance to be featured really special new type of open mic night happening on historic Commerical Street at Lindberg’s Tavern in Springfield, Missouri that was inspired by a particularly special open mic witnessed by Krista Meadows in Los Angeles a few years ago, and it has been a dream of hers to bring that vision to the stage.

She’s calling it “Tuesday Night Lights,” and it has two sections: the open mic portion (which occurs via online and in-person sign-up) takes place first, and each artist has about 15 minutes to play. After the general open mic segment finishes, “The Rounds” begins, which is a collection of officially booked original songwriters and musicians across genres, working together and playing a collection of each other’s songs on stage. Each artist takes a turn, and each artist offers their own talents to the songs. Meadows also is diversifying the nights to accommodate a wide variety of musical genres and even comedy, and hosting it in much the same fashion. Pretty cool. Very cool, actually.

I love gigs like this.

Not only is it essentially a band with no commitment (perfect world), but it’s also a wonderful way to see how others interpret each other’s songs and what each different artist brings to an arrangement. Also, I like a good, valid excuse to play a shaker or my foot tambourine (@jakeimnotshure will laugh at this, as my shaker causes issues for him from a sound engineer perspective). I’m no lead guitarist, and while I contributed a couple of harmonies, mostly I just shook that shaker and stomped that foot tambourine like my life depended on it.

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Be Satisfied is, inherently, a looper song, as you’ve heard me play on Steemit before, and it also appears on the new EP, which I played through in its entirety when it was “my turn” during “The Rounds.” Instead of using the looper, I had a stage full of talented musicians to accompany me!

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I mention all of this story in the video’s description on YouTube (btw still can’t get videos to upload to Dtube from my iPhone), but the way this song came together was so cool...we were taking a little break and I just randomly burst into it while Krista was sitting next to an upright piano and I asked her if she could pick up the piano hook for the song (which of course she can, because she’s such a proficient musician), and then all of a sudden it was turning into this sonic journey of sorts of hand percussion, lead acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano, rhythm acoustic guitar, and a room full of voices...it was so so so cool. Such a neat experience, especially with this song...which really is supposed to be grandiose, not only because of the matter of the content (Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet inspired), but also because I always see that song as needing to be grand.

Anyway, here it is for your viewing and listening pleasure. I do hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did playing it.

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The artists featured on this video are (from stage left to right):
Krista Meadows: keyboard, backing vocals
Daniel Dossey: auxiliary hand percussion
Jessamyn Orchard (me): vocals, rhythm guitar
Joe Dillstrom: lead guitar, backing vocals
Cord Bishop: mandolin, backing vocals
Chris Mau: auxiliary hand percussion, backing vocals

The A/V was captured and edited for YouTube by Matt Joyce, an amazingly talented artist and performer in many rites, for whom I am so grateful. I’ve linked everyone’s music pages so you can see how diverse this lineup truly was. Everything from classic rock, Whiskey-a-Go-Go performance vets, to Americana, to new rock, to an award-winning Scottish drummer & drummer for Branson, MO’s Million Dollar Quartet, based on the Broadway musical. All coming together for the common language: music. Despite the genre.

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Be Satisfied (Live at The Rounds)
Jessamyn Orchard & Friends

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THANKS FOR LISTENING! Share and Follow for more music more often!

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Sunshine on my shoulders almost always makes me high. —John Denver

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COMMUNITY IS THE NEW MONEY