Maddy and the Grill

Last night I was at the Acoustic Grill, in Picton, with Snuff (a friend from high school who I reconnected with through facebook). The Grill was having an open mic night. The first five performers were under 16. All of them were great. The very first was a girl, Maddy; 11-years-old.
Maddy played guitar (very well) and sang. And when she sang, she didn’t sound like an 11-year-old, she sounded like one of The Be Good Tanyas: a blue grass/alt-country band out of BC. They did the song, ‘Littlest Bird’, that was on that commercial, I can’t remember which one . . . you could always youtube them if you’re curious. “The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.”
Someone was videotaping the show so Maddy might end up on youtube herself. That’d be good.
As Steve (the owner of the grill and another friend from high school) said after Maddy was done, (and I might be misquoting a bit) “I don’t know whether to be excited for her or angry at her.” That combination of admiration and envy was in us all, I think. Good and evil raging inside.:)
But admiration wins out, most of the time, and envy turns to inspiration. A gentle nudge of encouragement to spend a little more time working on our individual crafts.
Thank you to all the kids, and other performers, that took the stage last night. I needed a creative kick in the butt.