“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” — Bha­gavad Gita

So maybe this is a lit­tle dra­matic, but it’s on my mind right now, and here’s why:

In Novem­ber of 2005, my friend Jenny and I did a CD release show for her new album, and we did it at a great lit­tle cof­fee shop/music venue called the Lost Cat near down­town Kyle, Texas. We had played there a few times, and it was a really cool lit­tle place, plus they had a great out­door patio. We were play­ing with a full band, and it was a per­fect spot. The show went well and we had a nice lit­tle crowd. Unfor­tu­nately, the own­ers had decided to close down the place, and we were the last ever act to per­form there, as they closed the next day.

The space stood vacant until some­time this sum­mer. A cof­fee shop called the Lucky Spot, which pre­vi­ously had been located in Jenny’s hous­ing divi­sion of Plum Creek, decided to move into the old venue and start up again. We had played at the old Lucky Spot a few times, and Jenny knew the own­ers, so before long she ended up host­ing a open mic on Tues­day nights. I hadn’t had a chance to make it out until last week. I drove down to Kyle, and Jenny and I played, along with a few other acts, includ­ing one of my stu­dents mak­ing his solo debut. We had a really nice night, and it was cool to be back in that space. Then yes­ter­day, Jenny went by to get a cup of cof­fee on her way to work, and guess what? Closed for busi­ness! She spoke to the owner, and they had actu­ally closed Wednes­day, or the day after we played. Same space, same thing. And I can’t really imag­ine what hap­pened! Jenny and I have played dozens of cof­fee shops, and haven’t killed any oth­ers yet! I’ve been com­pletely baf­fled by this all day, until I came up with something:

Sam.

That’s right world, Sam Leather­wood. He’s been a stu­dent of mine for years, and has devel­oped into a tal­ented singer-songwriter. He hap­pened to come down to see me play at the Lost Cat for Jenny’s CD release, and he came down to the Lucky Cup to play at the open mic. He’s the com­mon link. So i guess the quote above is really about Sam more than me. But just to be safe, Jenny and I agreed that if a new cof­fee shop opens in that space, we will never, ever play there.