"Guitar or electric?"
"Electric only. I Made it slower and lifted the bass line." She bites her lip when she sees me cringe.
"Drop the bass again and stop lifting it until we fix your track. I will do the rest. The electronic stuff is your sound so keep it, I will follow your beat."
"Wait, you’re coming back out with me?"
"You’re fucked if I don’t Lexington." I had to listen to lectures on my playing, my teachers were brutal and made me want to work until my fingers bled to prove them wrong.
She needs that same passion. She needs to be hungry for it.
She nods and just walks away. I get it, it’s gotta be intimidating. HadSlashorAnguslaid into me like that at a solo show when I was twenty-one I would probably have cried, but I would play crying and take it for what it is worth.
Sound fuckin advice.
We played like that for the rest of the night and by her final song, she never touched that bass and it changed the vibe of her show. It boosted her confidence to tear into her singing without fear. She took chances vocally the same way Chad does, mixing it up with a simple inflection.
And I played. Played music I have never played before or ever thought I would. "So?" I ask, because I want her to admit she needs my help.
"You’re amazing Cal, you know that." She shakes her head in wonder and I see her nerves kill the confidence she had on stage. "I can’t create music like that though. I don’t know what would make a song better. I’m a singer and a lyricist. That’s why I sing covers."
I nod as we walk out the back of the building as I help her carry her gear. But there is only my Jeep in the back. "Where’s your car?"
"I don’t have one. It's cool though, I'll callUber."
She goes to open herUberapp and I stop her.
"How about we go get some grub and I don’t know, maybe I can help you out a little."
She smiles in some flirtyfangirlway that creeps me out a little. "Are you asking me out?"
I laugh, but not with humor. "No, I'm not. I... my thing... it’s complicated." I am not about to pour my heart out to a stranger so I let her figure her own conclusion out.
"So why take me out then?"
I shake my head and can’t stifle my chuckle. "I plan to head toIhopand talk business. If either of those things are what you consider a date, raise your fuckin’ standards kid."
I open the back latch to my Jeep and a few of Axe's toys fall out. "You got a kid?" She asks as she hands me her guitar, ugh no case and I realize my project is going to be a hell of a cleanup. Starting with taking proper care of her shit.
"Yes. A son." I close the latch and look at her. "Get a guitar case and treat that guitar like your lover not your ex. Feel me?"
She laughs and nods as we get in the Jeep. "So why you wanna help me? Too rich and too bored so you wanna take the poor girl to the top?"
I shrug. "Something like that."
"Sounds Robin Hoodish." She says with a chuckle as I look at her deadpan. "Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor, so I guess that makes you Robin Hood."
"I guess so." I watch her out of the corner of my eye while I drive. She looks back at her guitar, then at me. "I got that guitar out of a dumpster two years ago and fixed it as best I could. I can’t afford a case."
I look at her shocked. "You rebuilt that from the trash?"
She nods as I look at her shocked, a little proud. "You did a hell of a job. I would never have known. I can tune it for you so the sound isn’t choppy."
"Yeah that would be great."
"Did you take lessons or self-taught?" I ask as we pull intoIhop.
"Self-taught. I only play it on a few songs that don’t have piano."