Birthdays are for cake, presents, and doing your favorite things with your favorite people. My birthday is coming up on Sunday an my favorite thing (especially right now) is playing music, so I figured it would be a cool way to celebrate by finding a Sunday night writer’s round and inviting my friends to enjoy a few beers and a couple songs from some locals.

Thing is, Nashville doesn’t have a ton of open mic nights on Sundays. The internet led me to two. One of which, I had emailed months ago and got no response. So I do what you do in these situations — I sent another message, and (magically) Rocky of Bobby’s Idle Hour got back to me. He hosts writer’s rounds on Sunday night. He said he was full for the Sunday evening, but if I had a group of friends come out he could let me play before at 6:30.

“I trust you’re good,” he said, though he had literally no information on me other than my first name and phone number. He didn’t ask me if I played, where I played, who I played with, etc. Literally the guy just gave me a gig if I wanted it.

Uh, yaaaaaaaa!

I mean, I’ve been on some sweet stages before, but never playing my OWN tunes for my OWN crowd. Granted, it’s just going to be me sitting on a stool with a guitar and some basic chord progressions, but hey! This is a big ol’ step!

When I got off the phone with I felt like I just spoke with a big city executive in a silver screen film offering me a job if I could start in the morning. And my character was a humble farmer in the Midwest who would exclaim, “Yes! Yes, sir! Thank you, sir! I’ll catch the midnight train and be there by morning!”

I’m currently taking a break from a serious strum session. I have the tunes, and I feel pretty good going into this, but there are quirks of making 1 tune comfort level into a 5 song set. It needs to be cleaner. I need some intention behind my song choices and some polish. If you play 1 or 2  songs at an open mic and you fudge the chords a little, it’s no big deal. Nobody probably notices or cares because it is casual. But I have 5 songs. I can’t fumble every song and think people won’t catch on. Ya know?

That’s my subtle way of saying I’m more than low key stressing about making everything sound good. But what is amazing to me is that I’ve lost all track of time. This is my third antisocial evening of just playing and practicing. I’ve turned down plans, stayed up late, and I’m having a blast. Losing track of time because of how engaged you are in an activity is truly one of my top 5 favorite feelings. (Up there with happy crying)

I’m excited to be writing this update. I’ve been working damn hard on this musical pursuit, but it takes so much time and energy I have been neglecting the blog. A good problem to have, big-picture-wise. But, if it isn’t in the blog, did it even happen?!?!?!!

Cheers! To birthday presents from the universe. See you Sunday at 6:30 on Music Row 😉

-Caroline

For more updates and music follow @carolinemcgowanmusic on Instagram. Nothing posted as of this minute, but *spoiler* it’s coming.