It still happens. I still feel like the two-headed calf sometimes.

So my jam band, Pelican Railroad, was setting up to play for a wedding reception. Guests were already sitting at tables. I got my gear set up, plugged, sat on the stool holding my G&L and chatting with the band manager.

At the table closest to the band was a woman and her gradeschool-aged son. She saw me sitting there with the bass, and said,

"Are you going to play that guitar?"

I replied "Yes," realizing by now that there was no point in pointing out that I would be playing a bass, not a guitar.


"Good!" she replied. "We never seen a girl play guitar before."

Classic.

Band manager and I rolled our eyes and chuckled to ourselves. Got out my cell phone and updated my Facebook status with it right there.

My work, it seems, is never done. Until someone actually sees a woman playing an electric instrument, it might not occur to them that it can be done.

Certainly it never occurred to me that *I* should be playing one until I saw another female bass player.

In the meantime . . . no, I'm not holding onto the bass until my husband shows up. I'm holding it because . . . I'm the bass player.

Ma "the circus must be in town" Geezer