- Hurricane Days
- On The Road
- City in my Brain
- Arms of Love
- Dark End of the Street
- Above You
I came in late, at about 7:30, and they asked me to go on immediately, which I did.
The place was completely packed, and I had almost no ability to even take my gear out inside, let alone tune. So I scuttled my initial plans to deploy harmonica. Somehow I left my guitar pick at home, and had to use the emergency one that I always carry in my wallet. Unfortunately, it is a light gauge pick, which greatly inhibits my picking style. With that in mind, I tried to emphasize songs with lots of strumming.
I used a capo on first fret for the first two songs, as a boost to my voice. They plugged me in, which worked pretty well. When I came back on for a second set, the place had just emptied out after a drum circle. So that somehow spurred me to try "City." Probably because I knew not many were listening. It was way too low for my voice. I accompanied myself with the usual C harmonica.
The audience came back. "Arms" and "Street" were pretty standard, with no capo. "Street" was the best of the night for me. I should have stopped, but they asked me to keep going. So I hemmed and hawed, and then finally capoed somewhere about second fret and launched into Above You. But the capo threw me off and I blew a whole bunch of chords, especially in the bridge, which fell apart almost completely. Embarassment. After that, I called it a night.
This was my first foray after recovering from pneumonia, so the purpose was more just to get out there than to turn in really great performances. Still, I would have been happy to have recorded my version of "Street."
Richard McDowell asked me to come and play at Gilmore's this Saturday. I am thinking about it.
