Almost too soon to be true, we'll meet again this Monday, Dec. 7th at Paddy Reilly's (SW corner of 29th and 2nd), 7:30 for Bluegrass & Beyond.
AJ will be handling most of the jam himself, as Bill is taking his first night off in over a year. Who knows, perhaps I might even have to do some work this week, beyond color commentary... we'll see.
Wow, the last jam was great - we got AJ's co-hosting career off to a good start.
AJ started off the night, perhaps trying to impress his fellow co-hosts, with a solid slow rocker - the Stone's "Beast Of Burden".
But later on, perhaps pressing his luck a little too far, he did Willie's "Mama, Don't Let Your Drugstores Grow Up To Be Cowboys" - which would have been fine, EXCEPT that he modulated (in public, no less) from D to E - thus, opening the floodgates for the waters named Scotty to pour through!
Yes, Scotty opened with Lionel Ritchie's "I'm Easy" (yeah maybe, but your songs aren't...) in Ab, and, after I reminded him that we weren't downtown at the Blue Note - modulated up to the key of A to a flurry of sliding capos. And those were the lucky ones! After suggesting to everyone else to capo the song, I steadfastly went down with the ship trying to play a break in Ab - talk about blue notes... kudos go to Karen, Alex and everyone else who grabbed a lifeline when it was offered.
Scott was far from done for the evening - he stayed 5 hours after all. Besides leading a right off the record version of "Fire And Rain" (everyone's breaks were so good that I wish I had a recorder!), and a great late-night version of Billy Preston"s "Will It Go 'Round In Circles" - he had my wife, Sarah, singing "Crazy" (a song she'd never done), reading the lyrics off of his IPhone, all the while continuously giving us updated weather and movie listings between verses!
Sarah later did the Traveling Wilbury's "Handle With Care" as well; and, held up the classic country end of the evening with Hank Williams' "Lost Highway".
Phyllis, always a defender of the old classics (she even defends me occasionally...), brought in Kitty Well's "I Guess I'll Go On Dreaming", along with Hank"s "Your Cheatin' Heart"
Howard - the man with the killer uke - led a move-your-feet version of Bob Marley's "Stir It Up". Not bad for a relative newbie to the B & B scene. Later, wanting to show his sensitive side, he did "The Bramble And The Rose" a beautiful, traditional sounding song from Barbara Keith. He did thankfully refrain from modulating (and from playing it on the uke).
Co-host Bill finally, after months of threatening, brought out CCR's "Susie Q", and joined with Mike and Jon in re-aquainting us with some great instrumentals - "New Camptown Races" from Frank Wakefield and Bill Monroe's "Kentucky Mandolin". Good to see some different instrumentals coming into the jam - Bill and I are working on a few others for the future - "Pickaway" , "Theme Time", "Down Yonder" and "Dixie Breakdown" (all in G).
Karen stayed out past her bedtime - again - leading Reno and Smiley's "Love, Please Come Home" among others.
Leslie continued on her tear (although she's dropped a little from her earlier "La Bamba" peak) with Gillian Welch's "By The Mark" and a Lynn Morris tune "It Rains Everywhere I Go" (sounds like my drive back from Nashville a few weeks ago ahead of the hurricane).
Jon went folky on us with Dylan's "Dont Think Twice, It's All Right" - much to Chris' delight.
I had a pretty good night myself (if you disregard that little Ab business), surprising Leslie with Michelle Shocked's "Memories Of East Texas" (again delighting Chris), ruining AJ's night by doing his least favorite Beatles' song "Run For Your Life" and bringing Jon out of the back room (where he was apparently working on his latest Paddy's "Songwriter Idol" entry) with John Prine's classic "That's The Way That The World Goes 'Round" (a whole enchilada, and you think you're gonna drown...).
All in all, one of our better jams of the year - good going everybody.
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