Another good open mike tonight. My friends continue to step up with new songs and challenges and raise the bar, even for me.
Dina Hall worked up Diamonds and Rust, a Joan Baez tune that made her focus on a nifty guitar passage, Mike Duck worked on his vowels (I though he said ‘bowels’, Sam Steffen continues to amaze with new and challenging ballads, ed McKendry brings his “Southside” Godfrey’s tune up and I got to do Lessons from Pete in front of the OM’ers for the first time. We’re all working on it.
Part of the benefit of recent two hour gigs in front of no one in particular is that I get to rework and refresh some of my old songs. I did ‘Bird of Paradise’ tonight, one that is off my Pearls album and one I had not quite forgotten, but felt unsure of the verses. I did it tonight without a hitch and that felt good. It’s a good song and one that is unfamiliar to my contemporary audience.
Sam’s set preceded mine and he continues to amaze me and the GD audience. I said at the beginning of my set that there was a new OM phenomena – having to follow Sam Steffen’s set. You know my humor is always tinged with reality and tonight was no different.