Another long night...

It's almost 0100 hrs. I've been on this cursed machine for hours now.

I've been sending email. A grand total of TWO emails. Both if which I struggled with the topic. Both of which I wrote, read, re-read, deleted and edited repeatedly.

To give ya some idea, I'm on about my fifth CD. It's been an eclectic mix.

RUSH "FEEDBACK". It's a great set. RUSH covers a load of 60's tunes that they listened to as kids.

A Molly Hatchet greatest hits disc. (Sometimes that Southern Fried stuff can snap a funk for me.)

A Joe Ely disc. I could pull it back out to see which one it was but it doesn't matter. It has 'Row Of Dominoes' on it. I lost track of how many times I hit rewind on that tune.

I can't find our "Live at Antones" or "Live at the Liberty Lunch". They are here somewhere, I must of miss filed them in the latest CD reorganization.

'Liberty Lunch' is my favorite Joe Ely. It has THE BEST version of "The Road Goes On Forever".

Yes, Robert Earl Keen wrote it. We saw him play it live.

At the beginning of the show I said, ''If he plays it, I'm going over the fence.''

The Architect just grinned at me. Ya see, I didn't say what "IT" was. He just knew.

Well, Robert Earl hit that first chord. I looked at the Architect. He looked at me with that, 'Sumbitch, you weren't bluffing?' look.

Over the fence I went, hell bent for leather headed for the stage. I made it about three steps before I met a VERY large and very polite young bouncer,

"UH, Sir you are going to have to go back where you came from."

SIR!?!?!?!

"OK, I just had to win a bet."

Sheepishly, I climbed back over the fence.

The Architect and I laughed ourselves to tears!

So, tonight Sir Elton John was up next, "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy".

By the time I loaded it in the CD player I already knew that it wasn't going to be enough so I backed it up with "Madman Across The Water".

I backed that up with "The Essential Bob Dylan" disc two, just in case.

Well, here we are and 'Rotten Peaches' is almost done and I'm still typing.

I warned ya. Another long night.

I am beginning to appreciate some new music.

There is a "13 year old guitar sensation'' playing here this weekend and I've got a free admission, he is playing the blues. (Hey, apparently the kid has two or three CDs out already and has appeared with some heavies.)

Anyway, new stuff can strike me sometimes but it's the stuff I grew up with or grew into that I turn to in times like these.

Nights light these.

When I'm deep in heavy thoughts.

It's the familiar I guess. Everybody loves a song they know every word to. Or an album that ya know what the next track will be. (To wit... I just backed up the stack to "Captain Fantastic..." it has three 'bonus' tracks at the end. That's nice. They don't belong though.)

So what is it about these tunes?

None of us have identical sound tracks to our lives or histories but many share the same feeling about the songs and singers that have said SOMETHING to us over the years.

Tonight, rather this morning (we're pushing 0200) my theory is; they are familiar and comfortable and we don't have to think about what comes next because we already know.

That frees us up to think. It works for me as long as I can keep from sinking into the past and times that the songs represent for me.

Thinking, dangerous stuff for a man like me.

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The sun is up now. I finally turned this thing off at about 0300. This morning I reopened this post and deleted a huge portion.

It just got too dark, morbid and depressing.

I'm not going to rewrite the thing but I don't want to be cryptic either.

Two airplane crashes began to press down on me. I have a personal connection to both of them.

Ten years ago I witnessed the first one.

The other occurred last year. I know nearly everyone involved in that one. Including two of the four people that died in it.

See, ya really didn't want to hear all about that did you?

I didn't want to delete it entirely or send it to the draft bin with so many other crippled incomplete posts. I wonder what my Post to Draft Ratio is? I haven't done the math yet but I'm going to.

It's a brand new day. Let me see what I can make out of it!

Maybe I should stick to music...

I have seen a bunch of live shows lately. Mostly local and regional folks. I've got a few photos to pick through and post. (A ''FEW''!!! LOL!!! I took 505 photos at one event alone!)

Among the fodder-fotos are a couple of real gems. Including...
"The Man, The Legend, The Myth! Mr Johnny Winter!"