So far I/we have played at:

restaurants - bars - hotel balconies - coffee shops - eclipse festivals - fundraisers - cookouts - wine tastings - farmer's markets - weddings - rehearsal dinners - elopement party - grand openings - business anniversaries - deer camps - bike races - halloween parties - Christmas parties - birthday parties - nursing homes - crawfish boils - bike nights - assisted living communities - celebration of life reception - Bentonville Testicle Festival - elementary school assemblies - corn maze/pumpkin patch - breweries - cub scout campout - elementary school stickhorse rodeo - craft shows

Here is my entire musical background:

In junior high and high school I was in choir because that's where the good-looking girls were and there were a lot of field trips that got us out of class. It also meant one less class I'd have to take.

In college a couple of guys and I got guitars and decided we'd teach each other how to play. Lessons involved fishing tackle, beer, and chili; None of us learned much.

Most of the time after college I usually had a guitar or two. They sat in the corner for probably a couple of decades. I'd pick one up every couple of months, thinking one of these days I'd get the time to play it.

Close to 20 years or so ago I built a deck around our house. Most of my time on it was spent playing a guitar for stray dogs, cats, squirrels, deer, and a couple dozen head of cattle across the pond behind our house.

Found out that a few co-workers played and started up a weekly pickin and story telling meeting at the workshop of one of them that we called the Cathouse (there were a few cats around). They were the best mind mending sessions I've ever attended. Best time I ever had playing. Still looking for something close to those sessions....

After I retired, we went to a restaurant because they had muffalettas on their menu and we hadn't found a good one in NWA yet. When we got there, they were having an open mic full of people who were very entertaining; We went there pretty regularly; Not for the muffalettas, but for the people.

After a while, that place closed, but I went to some other places with some of those people. Met a guy there who did the booking for a few pubs. Started playing at a few pubs and ran into a some people who were a lot better than me. Now I play with some of them when I'm not playing solo.

This was not a plan. I was just looking for a good muffaletta and another "cathouse experience" and accidently stumbled into a hobby that doesn't cost anything. I never could have planned anything close to this...

That's pretty much it, minus the details, names, and the unlimited and growing number of characters and stories...