Wednesday, December 15th 2021

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At the behest of my absolutely wonderful friend Lucho, I find my way to this real-life Roadhouse-style dive bar north of Boston for a weekly “Open Jam Session” north of Boston. I arrive to the garish blare of unadulterated American rock, and fight my instinct to bounce immediately. With a lot more effort than I would have preferred, I eventually burrow my way to a seat at the bar to take in the scene and wonder where Lucho and all these friends he talked about actually are.

They arrive in good time and with plenty of cheer and the calibre of music steadily climbs throughout the evening through an absolute swarm of musicians. Everyone is so surprisingly encouraging of me though, in spite of never having heard me before. Lucho talks me up to his friends. “Oh you sing and play ukulele? That’s so cool!” I neither see what is cool about that nor how I am supposed to parlay with the mood on the stage in any way. But I trust him.

After a lot of fun dancing and some great performances, it is is like; my turn.

The musicians on stage are starting to clear out for me when I mention I have a couple chords they could play. They sit back down, we get in a groove, and we’re off!

Lucho videos the first 40 seconds or so (Hank Williams), before coming on stage to take over the bass because “the guy was playing the wrong notes.” (True.)

What a thrill to look over on stage and suddenly find myself playing in a BAND with my FRIEND.

Wild!

The crowd goes wild actually, and I play another song (Paul Simon). The Open Jam host says it was awesome and asks if I can play another. The third one is more of a struggle with the band (CCR), but I dial in on the vocals and receive incredible accolades after with lots of folks giving me their contact info and asking to start music projects with me.

It all seems like a dream. Yet I know to breathe, try to ground myself and continue to embrace these portals that keep opening up in my life and which keep pouring experiences through me lately.

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2021-12-16 Jenny’s Open Jam debut @Revere MA [0:42]:

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I can hardly wait to go back.

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