I has an opening guest set at Godfrey’s on Friday night with my friend and poet Danielle Notaro and several other of her friends: Cross-over Night – Poetry and Song. This made two Godfrey’s sets in three days!
Since Danielle and I were going to perform here poem, My Father Was a Cowboy, I decided to concentrate on cowpokes. I began with Paul Siebel’s Pinto Pony (I asked who could name some of the Saturday morning TV cowboys: Sky King, Roy Rogers among others). I followed with Rodeo Rider on my 12-string – what powerful instrument to go with a powerful song. I accompanied Danielle on her poem with a loping guitar part, which could have gone better. I think Danielle was a little rushed, but so it goes. It was improvised, after all. Since we were to explore some genre-stretching, I followed with Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) on my trusty mandolin. Although, slightly out of tune, it was fun to bang in out on the old gal. Since I only had two verses in my version, I looked up the longer version from Jimi Hendrix, and offered a couple of those lyrics, rather more demonic that the ones I know. Interesting.
I followed with Giants, asking my new friend Rhys to come up (with his Dad “Earl”) and play. He’s a precocious elementary kid, and, since he was there early with his dad, we struck up a relationship. I told him he was going to play on stage, which set him off on a string of questions for the next 45 minutes. When we finally got up there, his eyes bugged out and he lit up the stage during the song and he relished the experience. It was a solid way to finish off my cross-over set.
Brother JT
Danielle brought up Brother JT, (John Terlesky), a local dive-bar legend from the 80’s band The Original Sins, who often played at the Funhouse next door. I had heard that he had made disparaging remarks about the folk music scene being played next door, so I was curious to catch his set tonight. A good part of tonight’s audience was here to hear him, so I was appreciative of that. He was a tad uneasy due to some performance rust, but warmed up nicely. Folks were glad to see and hear him. His collaboration with Danielle featured a looper, and the two did a nice job.
Danielle with Earl and Gus
After a short break, Danielle brought up two musicians who helped her release her CD Limn the Mask: Gus Stauffer and Ernest Knuckle. Each did a short solo piece and combined their electronics to accompany her poems. It worked quite nicely and accentuated the cross-over theme in the end. 
As always, it felt great to play this stage and with my good friend, Danielle Notaro. Back to our occasional breakfasts at Darto’s – best breakfast in town!