I’m finding it hard leaving your love behind me

It was the one time in my life where I could reasonably describe myself as a “working professional musician.”

I’ve made passing mention of it a few times in this series, but during my college years, for three consecutive summers, my primary job was working at the local dinner theater in my hometown. The space was an old movie theater that had been converted into a wedding and event center. A catering company operated out of a building on the same property, and they’d struck up a deal with a local entertainer to put on three shows per week at the venue to help bring in customers and sell a shit ton of food and alcohol. Most of our customers were in or nearing the retirement age bracket, and most of the songs we performed were hits from yesteryear, to make sure we were appealing to that demographic. We switched up the show theme and the setlist frequently across those three years, and songs fell in and out of rotation. But the one song I sang at almost every show we ever did was “Can’t Smile without You,” a ‘70s pop hit made famous by Barry Manilow.