Not sure what to make of this

Don found this one, which clearly has nothing to do with My New Invention, but purports to offer songs from the 1998 My New Invention CD for download:

http://www.hello.dj/my-new-invention

Swamptooth Live, 8 February 2012

Old Torrance Coffee & Tea

From left: my knee, Derek, A.R., Richard
"The Dark Stranger" McDowell, and my milkshake

Swamptooth returned to play songs at Old Torrance Coffee & Tea for the first time since October.  Actually I was billed as "Swamptooth Featuring Bill."  Since my last appearance they had moved the live performances indoors to escape the weather. (if you can call it that in Southern California!)

Also, pressure from performance rights organizations (like ASCAP) had resulted in OTC&T changing over to a policy requesting performers to stick to original (or uncopyrighted) songs.

This particular crowd, maybe ten people at any one time, was very sedate and very attentive.  With that mood dominating, I made a snap decision about which song to open with: "Come My Way," a B-side from the Black and Blue Second Time Around single.  I really like this song, but I tend not to play it because I'm afraid of wearing it out and losing the connection.  Not a big deal, I'm just saving something for times like this.

Swamp guitar face

Songs performed:

1. Come My Way
2. Life is Black (end of first set)
3. Big Tin Truck
4. Above You (end of second set)
5. A Song for You - joined by Mike Munoz (acoustic guitar/vocal) and Derek (conga drum)
6. Sin City - Performed my Mike Munoz, with accompaniment from me (vocal, guitar) and Derek (guitar).

Come My Way turned out very solid.   I had introduced it as a "serious" song, about a very brief love affair.  I think that one really hit the mark, and I could see people reacting positively to it.  I was worried it was a bit of a slow number to start with, but I was wrong, because it has enough dynamics to keep things from dragging, and turned out to be a foot-tapper.  Unlike the CD, I played it with capo-2.  Likewise with "Life is Black," but I had a D harp so I could still do the old Stickmen arrangement, just with more harmonica breaks.  Trouble was, "Life is Black" came out fine technically, but the irony fell completely flat with the crowd.  I had described it as a "silly" song.  But really, it's not.  If anything the song is very dark.  I think Matt has the charisma to pull it off, but I won't try it again solo.

Big Tin Truck went over quite well.  It was pretty much the standard Black and Blue arrangement, only without a rhythm section.  I got a heartfelt compliment afterwards on that one.

Above You, my "teenage angst" song, is barely excusable now given that I am almost twice as old as when I wrote it.  That said, the music was catchy, and the song is in a low enough key that it's hard to hear what I am singing except in the bridge, which is the best part of the song.

Derek snuck in several cover songs.

I stuck to originals for the proper performance, but then during the post-show jam session, a couple of Gram Parsons covers surfaced.  Of those, "A Song for You" was totally unplanned but turned out really great sounding with a second guitar and a conga drum.  After I had pulled out one Gram song, Mike replied with another, "Sin City," which I sang along with.  But Mike is hard to sing along with, because he does kind of a Van Morrison/Joe Cocker thing which is very unpredictable.

At one point I loaned my guitar to a self-conscious chick who was almost like a young Odetta, and who sang one very sultry song dedicated to her man, who happened to be sitting next to me.  Someone said "Damn, you can play like that and you just sit there all night?"  After this impressive performance, she got all embarrassed and left.

Once again, the whole affair was very fun and worthwhile.  Thanks to Derek, who I had just met (who hosts an event in Carson), and Richard, who I knew from last year, I ended up after the show with appearances planned in three different venues by the end of this month.

Now if I can just get Munson up here.