While We’re Talking About House Concerts…

I thought that I’d share an email I received from one of our House Concert Hosts in California. We’ve known each other for a while. They’ve been to a few of my shows in Key West and Las Vegas. This email really touched me. I thought that I’d share it with you on the off-chance that you’re considering hosting a House Concert for some performer/s and were teetering on the fence!

Kind of Summing Things Up…

Hi Hugo,

Well it almost feels like it never even happened…

I wish I had video taped the whole thing. I talked about doing that prior to your show, but never dug out the old video camera, checked to see if the batteries even worked, or bought 6 cassette tapes…  or assigned someone to be videographer. I guess next time I should just mount the camera on the roof.

I really didn’t even take that many pictures, like I usually do. In part, my camera was on its last battery leg and the re-charger was broken… I was saving pictures for any last minute special occurrences. I did get some really nice pictures, and a long video of you doing “We’ve Got dreams”, which I simply love. Had to choke back the tears during that one.

My wife, after you guys left, said she wished she had requested a private song on Sunday. Had she mentioned it, I would have asked too, but truthfully, the mode of mind I tried to set myself in for that day was that we were just hanging with friends… I was trying to stifle my desire to jump up and down and scream “My God Hugo Duarte is in my house!”

Man its weird how you can look back and see what went right and what I should have done differently. But MAN, I had fun. I wasn’t able to hold the tears back that day either… maybe you noticed.

I was happy that the Parrotheads from the Sacramento club made the trek, though there were  some I had never met before. We did talk as they arrived and as they were leaving and they were most complimentary and thankful, and thrilled with the evening…  So, oh well, just gotta move on. I am sending out a thank you to everyone via e-mail this week.

But MAN I had fun last Saturday. I made sure I sat and watched every minute of the show. I wish we could do that every weekend for a month. No question word has gotten around. Every time I see a friend it’s “We had SO MUCH fun! That was SO NICE. Incredible time! Can’t wait till next year!” Me neither!

A final tally: 12 bottles of tequila, 130 limes, 95 cans of squirt, 20 pounds of meat. Counting all the kids (7 including my two) the bartender, my two closest neighbors, the cook and his wife, plus two of their friends that slipped in late, that’s 60 people including us. WOW! And I thought it was going to be hard getting 25 people to show. And I’ll say it again… everyone was SO PLEASED with the whole evening.

Man it was so worth all the effort. And the added bonus, we worked so hard to get our pool up, the gazebo, get the grass growing green, hanging lights, the stage… that this weekend we just sat back and enjoyed and relaxed and reveled in it all. The stage is still in place and we look at it and sigh. My wife made the comment, “we will always look at that back corner and see Hugo and Rob standing there.”

Speaking of our neighbors, it’s almost like their lives were transformed. She says she bought two CDs from each you and we hear them playing them at night in the evening as the sun goes down. I popped over the fence for a look and they got their tiki torches blazing, having some drinks, listening to your music, and dancing together in the middle of the grass. She made the comment that seeing the show and having such a good time and meeting new friends, (they sat at the tables with the Parrotheads, who they said were super fun to hang with), that they decided they don’t get out and enjoy life enough. Man, talk about a successful night!

And speaking of Rob Mehl,  I was turned on to new music that night and it was really pleasing. Rob is such a nice laid-back guy. I admit I only heard some of his music samples on CD baby before last weekend, and I didn’t buy any of his CDs cause I was cashless that night, but I will be ordering some of his favorites real soon and sit down to expand my mind.

I know I can’t be your BIGGEST fan, but I know every one of your songs and can tell you which song is one which album and I can sing them all. That list I handed you that night was first penciled out and was about 20+ songs long. I darkened with a purple pen my favorites out of the 10 songs I ripped that portion of paper off then handed you… sorry if it was hard to read. Really though, I will listen to whatever you want to play, because I love ‘em all!

It went by too fast Hugo. The flyer I made will hang on my wall here at work until I replace it with a new one. Next year will be even bigger and better!

By the way they, (Dave and Jim), both sent me e-mails of thanks saying they had a fabulous time… and that’s rare… I usually don’t get thank-you e-mails from them, so it’s apparent that they really enjoyed themselves. Heck I usually don’t get e-mails from them at all… we just call and say, “hey I’m coming by”.

Well I’ll leave it at that. Just wanted to express my feelings and let you and Rob know we love you guys and “mi casa es tu casa”. Anytime my friends.

Sincerely,

Rob and Olga and kids

Well, I think that just about sums it all up, as Rob said at the outset. I’ll add some photos to this post as soon as I find them! Thanks Rob B for such a great message! Your Friend, Hugo

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