by Jim Cathcart

At the National Speakers Association convention in Phoenix this past week I’ve had a mixture of wonderful experiences. I heard an inspiring speech from Nando Parrado, one of the survivors of the Andes air crash many years ago. He reminded me to keep my “problems” in perspective. By comparison, I’ve never truly had a problem. Issues yes, problems no.
I also learned much more about Social Networks, Publishing, Authorship, Seminar Promotion, Meeting Room Design & Arrangement, Group Psychology, and much more.

One afternoon I was playing my guitar and singing with friends in the hotel’s atrium lobby. When dinner time arrived we went to the elevators and inside one of them I continued the ‘concert’ with the great acoustics of that small space. More people got on and joined the fun. When we got off on 3rd floor we continued to sing and people came out of their rooms to join in and to take photos. What a treat!
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The big highlight was after the final awards banquet when many of us had a Jam Session in a ballroom with microphones, stage & all. Probably 7 guitars, some percussion and one grand piano. There were famous recording artists, songwriters, publishers, and me. All of us performed solo and then joined in other songs. We did jazz, folk, country but most of all Rock n Roll. The audience stayed with us for two hours then at midnight we adjourned, or so I thought.
When our host announced that the time was up, most of us packed our gear and left the room. I was the last to do so.
As I walked toward my guitar case someone asked about a song I had written, so I stopped and played it. Then I played another, and before I knew it we happy few, just over a dozen of us, had circled the chairs near the stage and continued to sing together as I played for two more hours!
At 2:10AM the hotel staff flashed the lights to nudge us to retire. So we finally did. But with great big smiles on our faces and lots of music in our hearts. What a night.
I’ll remember and treasure this one for a long time.
We video recorded 16:38 minutes of it on my FlipVideo. It’s pretty rough but if you’re up for it you may watch it here. It begins with a song I wrote called Riding Free, then we sing most every song anyone can remember. Robert Fishbone joined me on percussion.

(See, life’s not only about business.)
Enjoy!

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