North America Guitar Tour
Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival
July 26, 2014
I checked out of the motel early and headed to the Brown County Playhouse, where the contest was held. Nashville, Indiana, is a tourist destination, and it feels a bit like old Karuizawa. There was no parking space behind the venue, where the meeting place was, so I parked my car on the street in front of a house a little distance away and headed to the venue with only my guitar. When I opened the back door at the bottom of the stairs, the participants were already practicing silently with their guitars. There were some faces I had seen at the pre-party, but the peaceful mood from the night before had completely disappeared, and the whole room was tense. There was almost no conversation. There was an atmosphere of regret for participating as a passing participant. I remember that the order was decided by drawing lots, but I have forgotten the procedure. Anyway, I was the 23rd of the 24 participants, and Edgar was the one before me.
When everyone gathered, the contest was explained, and we were told that we were not allowed to "sniffle" or "make noise." At this point, I couldn't tell if this was a joke or serious. Also, the word "International" was added to the title, which wasn't there at the eve of the festival, so I thought that there was someone else from overseas besides me, but it seems that it was because I was there. It was a strange feeling. First, there was a contest for the younger group with a few people, so I decided to leave the suffocating waiting room and go watch it. Even if I started practicing hard now, nothing would change. The hall was so large that it was hard to imagine from the size of the entrance when I first checked the location, and it seemed like it could easily accommodate more than 200 people. It was the most impressive of all the performances I've had on this trip. That alone made me excited. The photo below is from the official Facebook page of Brown County Playhouse.
Soon the senior section started, and I returned to the waiting room. When my turn approached, I was instructed to go up the stairs and sit on chairs lined up behind the stage curtains to wait for my turn, but I was the second to last. I stayed in the waiting room the whole time, except for taking a break outside occasionally. It was interesting to see people who looked very tense before their performance, but when they came down after finishing, their expressions became rounder, like a different person. Most people had already finished before me, and the atmosphere in the waiting room was completely different from when it started. When the 20th person was about to perform, I was instructed to go up, and when I sat in the designated chair, Edgar was next to me. Each time a performer was replaced, the seats shifted one by one, and I listened to Edgar's performance through the curtain. It started with a song that wasn't "Bohemian Rhapsody," but he was clearly not in good shape, and it wasn't the performance I had heard him play until then. He even inserted a part of "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the middle of the performance, so it was clear that he was on his way to "win". I heard later that he had left his familiar footstool at the hotel.
When it was my turn, I was given a name tag and went to the stage, and smiles naturally spread across the almost full audience. As soon as I put the tag in the designated place and started playing the first song, "Penny Lane", my metabolism started to improve, and by the time I was playing the second verse, my nose was about to start running. I somehow managed to hold on and sniffed my nose over the "lane" part in the chorus. If the explanation of the precautions was serious, I was out at this point. However, apart from this blunder, the performance itself was by far the most perfect of all the songs I had played up until then. I had planned to go with the flow for the second song, so I continued by playing my original song "Folk Song", which had come to mind in the final section of "Penny Lane". Of course, this was perfect, too, but the applause from the audience after the performance was so warm that I reflexively muttered "Thank you" under my breath. I'm probably the only one who did both of these things that shouldn't be done. I was careless. When I went down the stairs, people who hadn't even looked at me until then raised their hands to welcome me. Of course, everyone was smiling. Soon the last performer finished, and it seemed that the finalists had already been decided at this point, and I was not included. Regardless of whether the warnings were serious or not, my mind had already switched to driving that night. Some of the participants approached me and asked, "Why aren't you in finalists", but I can only answer that I think it was because I couldn't follow the rules. However, I realized that the participants appreciated me, so that's enough to satisfy me. When I went to the audience seats to watch the finals, several people nearby said the same thing, and I could tell that the audience enjoyed my performance. The photo below was borrowed from the official Facebook page of the Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival.
As expected, I didn't have time to stay just to watch the evening performance, so I thanked the participants and staff and left the venue. By the way, Helen, who greeted me with a smile as I came down the stairs after the performance, was the first to greet me (she also played a great performance but did not make it to the finals). She won the Winfield Grand Prix in September.
Well, I can't be happy forever. I have to drive a distance that the navigation system says is more than 12 hours to the venue of the garden party, which starts in almost 24 hours. That's 1,200 kilometers. This is the start of the most stressful journey of this trip.
*The people mentioned in the text are written using their initials until their identities can be confirmed.
Contents
Introduction
Until Departure
Seattle
To California
Day Off
Sunnyvale
To La
LA 2 Days
To Tucson
Albuquerque
To Colorado (beginning of Miracle)
Berthoud
Denver
to Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City 2 days
To Texas
San Antonio
Georgetown
Dallas
Houston 2 Days
Benton
Nashville (CAAS)
Roswell
Tampa 2 Days
Miami
Orland 2 Days
Myrtle Beach
Chapel Hill 3 Days
Kingsport
To Indiana
Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival
To Staten Island
Manhattan
Phillipsburg
Nazareth (Martin Guitar Factory)
To Massachusetts (end of Miracle)
Methuen
To Montreal
To Buffalo
Meadvill A Day Before
Meadvill Ghost Hotel
Detroit
Chicago
Minneapolice
Spin Off #1
Spin Off #2 "EU Tour IN 2008 / Until Departure
Czech 1
Czech 2
London
Liverpool
Chesham
To Germany
Lemgo
Ingolstadt
Bregenz
To Italy
Florence
The Last Gig
Going Home