Andy Somebody

I’ve told this story soooo many times at the wine bar, it seems impossible that I would forget it, BUT, I’m going to write about it anyway because there have certainly been plenty of things that I never thought I would forget, and I have.

Last year, when our dear friend Allan was visiting, we were holding interview/auditions at the wine bar for acoustic musicians. Since Allan was in town, I was late arriving for one of said auditions.

I walked into the wine bar and over on the other side of the room, was this guy, Andy, playing the guitar and singing one of his original songs. I got chills. The combination of his voice and guitar were perfect, just perfect. He stopped, we introduced ourselves to one another and then he played his next song. I got tears in my eyes.

Andy finished his audition, I booked him for a couple of dates later that month and he left.

An hour or so later, it dawned on me that I didn’t know his last name, his phone number, his email address. Nothing. All I knew was his first name was Andy and he was scheduled to play a couple dates that month. Great. As a MARKETING person, I obviously am obsessive about flyers and ads and website updates and event postings. And what did I know about this guy? Nothing. The employee who worked for us at the time and doesn’t anymore (but not because of this incident, although it is indicative of why she doesn’t), didn’t get any information from him either, even though she was the one who scheduled the audition.

So what to do? It occurred to me that I should simply be honest. And this is what I wrote:

Andy “Somebody”
We don’t know anything about Andy, not even his last name. All we can tell you is that we were so mesmerized by his voice and music when he came in to play for us that we completely forgot to ask him for a bio or a photo. Andy is a mystery man, but we can guarantee that you will enjoy listening to him so much, all clear thinking will go straight out of your head.

I love Andy. He is the sweetest, nicest guy ever. He played the wine bar this past Friday and told me he’s going out on his first tour and will be gone the entire month of June. I’m devastated. Well maybe that is overstating it. I’m disappointed. I don’t like good-byes, I suck at them, always have, even the ones that are for short amounts of time. So Andy won’t be back until July. He assures me my phone will be ringing the minute he’s back in town and he will be anxious to come back and play for us. He better.

Oh, his name is Andy Henningsen.