I’ve been waiting for this weekend for several months now. One of the biggest conventions for songwriters and musicians is here: the Taxi Road Rally

For the past 9 years, thousands and thousands of crooners and songbirds have flooded into Hollywood for this event, and this year promises to be the best yet. Mentoring sessions and A-list guest speakers, A&R listening panels, and of course, the Hollywood Open Mic. (stay tuned…)

Day 1 was pretty much a lot of waiting in line, but I guess I’m getting good at that. (Took 2 hours to get here from my house 20 miles away — in L.A. waiting in the traffic line counts too.) Another 2 hours in the Taxi line to get registered, and I was just… well, happy to be alive.

When you register, they give you a little yellow slip to play in the open mic. You fill out your info and toss it into a big box of other yellow slips. Everyone I talked to said, “Yeah, everybody wants to play at this open mic. If you get to play at all, you’re lucky.”

So I figured I’d go check it out, thinking the odds were against me. Nope.

“And the third act tonight,” Rick Menck, the host says, “Nick Dar… um Daugherty. Let’s give him a hand folks.”

Gulp. That’s my name.

So I played in front of a crowd of 200 or so people, including Taxi President Michael Laskow and L.A. Songwiting guru and a new mentor of mine, John Braheny. This is the stuff you dream about. And my gosh, it just happened.

I gotta sit down.

Nick with Taxi President Michael Laskow