I had  an evening farmers’ market in Easton, a gig I’ve had a hard time booking, in spite of a long history of playing the Square. I had a spot under a pop up tent on a small patch of grass. There were only a few folks and a few families stopping over but it was a low key and friendly evening. The vendors seemed to appreciate the music and I scored a pizza, some mead and an iced tea, a couple of bucks in tips and two CD’s sold.

 

It was nice to see the twilight settle in in the city and I got paid and headed out for Andy Kilcoyne’s open mike down the river at a friendly tavern in Riegelsville. Things were just kicking off with Andy and friends doing some nice jazz and Sarah Ayers doing a Sippie Wallace tune. I settled in next to Dina for my slot on stage. I struck up a conversation with a fellow next to me. He said he was about to play for the first time in 30 odd years.

 

He got up and did a fine job, though he thought he was somewhat froggy. More on him shortly.

 

I got up after some rather long jam sets and went for the jugular with Giants. Andy was a sport and played Thunder Tube with Charlie on clarinet. Nice reaction and I got the audience’s attention. I had in mind a tune, Wonder Where the Lions Are from Bruce Cockburn, that would be more of an ‘art’ tune. Dina stepped up for vocals and Andy added some great acoustic leads and it resonated with the room. I followed with Little Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes for a rocker to finish out the set. Andy did tasty slide. It was neat to have such a fat sound with only two guitars.

 

Dina followed with her good set, including It’s All Right with my mandolin. Both sets commanded the room and Andy’s calm presence setting the atmosphere.

 

I was glad to get out of the apartment and play.

 

The gentleman who played for the first time in years showed up tonight at Godfrey’s for Alex Radus’s CD release, his first visit to GD’s. I thanked him for his set last night. He was talking to Dina about membership and he signed up for as a $1500 life-time member. That was some karma that came back in spades.