Throwback Thursday: Alex Auguste "Storyteller" Jam Session
The year is 2017, and I'm scrolling through EventBrite looking for something cool to eventually catch my eye when I finally stumble across something close enough to interesting. At the time, I was at a crossroad between looking for really good networking events to attend, and a good open mic for me to just enjoy some time on the mic with a performance or two.
Instead, I found the Tampa Songwriter's Collective, inviting people out to bring their music for a "jam session". No one then - and I can't even speak for now - was doing anything of the sort, so I went. Much like Creative Writing classes in school, it started off as one part sitting down talking about our craft and our love for music, and the other part would just what they said it would be: a jam session.
Long before publishing We Missed A Meeting, or I, Too, Cry Purple Tears, or any published works, I was a Final Judgment Specialist at a small law firm in Tampa handling court documents for foreclosure cases. It was gritty work. Actually, it was nasty sh*t - and 23-year-old Alex Auguste had hopes that post-secondary education life would be a bit more...vivid.
And that's when I took to sticky notes in my cubicle to write one of my first songs ever, "Storyteller".
"Stood on stage in front of my peers and heard boos and cheers/ It's kind of funny, when you're drinking, it be boos and cheers/ I'm too close to perfection to have inertia/so f*ck you if you doubting, insertion erection/Rapping for a classic is drastic/ it's easier to lose yourself than keep up with chapstick/it's madness/balance, I'm not sharing my happiness, not sharing my wealth unless we sharing some callouses/it was a Myspace page with the tunes back in the day/A poet too consumed by words on a page/[my mom] is concerned cause damn I got some rage/it's a real vicious life, goddam get me on stage/so I could strip away the pain/the demons and the worries/just take it all, My God/I want it all/my heart will never stop, it's win or go home, just like the playoffs/writing for the night cause I'm scared of a day job"
Video: The 24hrs Leading to the Purple Tears Book Launch
The sessions would start with a song being played, and then everyone in attendance would either add their own sound, grab a mic, and sing backgrounds, or eventually merge their own work into the present sound. In the case of this video, we had more than enough players to orchestrate something dope out of literally nothing.
The Tampa Songwriters' Collective lasted a full year with one of the final pieces being a feature show that took place at Downtown's Attic Cafe. I haven't seen many groups like this pop out in Tampa since, but it would be something dope to be part of again or at least witness.