Throw-back Friday to 7th & Hope's (my trans-Atlantic songwriting duo with Betty Lawrence of London) first L.A. performance at Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles on Monday night. We've been writing (mostly over FaceTime between Los Angeles and London) and recording together in Los Angeles for about two years, but our first live performance together was Saturday at the West Coast Songwriters Conference in San Francisco on Saturday September 8, and our second show together was two days later at the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles!
For those who don't know, performing live is different from the studio. For live, you need different musical arrangements that work with the instruments you have on stage, as opposed to in the studio where you can layer and multi-track many instruments. Also, there are no do-overs.
Here we are performing our award winning song Great Day to be Alive on stage at The Hotel Cafe. Betty is playing the Ed Sheeran signature Martin guitar we won for the Grand Prize in the WCS International Songwriting Contest. Photo credit: Gregg Rugolo