We uploaded this video to YouTube back in December, but for some reason it never got posted here.
Written in 2002, “Music Man” may be Kevin’s biggest hit. It’s a beautiful song of grief over a lost loved one and the friends and fans who make it all okay.
Kevin says he often has people asking him whether it’s about his own life. In fact, he wrote it about his uncle Roy Norton, himself a popular local musician, just after Roy had recently lost his mother and suffered an accident at work.
Our 1st Set
1) Funny How Time Slips Away
2) Natural Woman
3) Highgate Shuffle/Baby, What You Want Me to Do
4) Every Day (Jo Song #1)
5) Willin’
6) Helpless
7) Love, Please Come Home
8) On The Verge
9) Every Picture (They Say You)
10) All Around the World
11) Desperado
12) Working Man Blues
13) Summertime
14) Sitting on Top of the World
Our 2nd Set
1) Ready For Love
2) Son of a Preacher Man
3) 200 Days
4) Shoot For The Moon
5) Stormy Monday
6) Shooting Star
7) Danglin’
8) My Little Girl
9) Me and Bobby McGee
10) Moondance (with Glenwood Smith)
11) You Can Close Your Eyes
12) Why Can’t You See (a Glenwood Smith original, with Glenwood Smith)
Thanks to everybody who came to see us!
Now that the Bistro is going to instrumental music for the inside season, we need a new place to play. We really want to keep this once-a-month thing going!!!
The week before last, my brother Paul and his family were in town from near Tulsa, OK, for the first time in five years or more. Getting to spend time with them was great for all of us. All of our kids have grown up so much, and our younger sons were so young back then that they barely remembered it.
Paul’s older son Caleb, who’ll be 16 in September, has been singing like crazy in school choir, musicals, and talent shows. He and his mom Rebecca came to see Kevin and me sing at Frank’s that Saturday. (See picture above.) When we were hanging out at my parents’ house the next day, we begged Kevin to get his guitar and play some music.
So while we talked and laughed and worked that crazy Virginia puzzle with Caleb’s younger brother Sammy, Kevin played and talked Caleb into singing with us. Caleb’s an Eagles fan, so Kevin tried to find a couple of songs that he knew (though he’d never played them before) and that Caleb was familiar with. We tried to record it, but it disappeared from my phone. GAH!
The next day, we got him to do it again, so we could get a decent recording. I used the H2 recorder, but something happened evidently, because it recorded at a very low volume. I’ve been using that thing for years and have never had this problem. Thankfully, I was able to boost the levels without too much loss in Audacity. It’s still a little bit too low, but you can definitely hear how good Caleb is. :)
We recorded three songs. I’m ready to post the first two today:
Atticus went with us and enjoyed his hot dogs (ketchup only, as usual) and playing Plants Vs. Zombies 2 on his tablet. Kevin and I had dinner after we played, too. They had a big grill set up on the patio for hamburgers and hot dogs, but I ordered a chicken wrap from the kitchen.
I’m not exactly raving about the food, but it was okay, and everyone was very nice and helpful, although the food ordering and paying-for process wasn’t running as smoothly as it could.
We got to hear some other musicians play, including a solid set by Little Stuey and the Strangers (our friends Mike, Kristie, and Stuart), but we left pretty early to get Attie in bed, still way past his regular bedtime. And we got to talk to a lot of other good friends, as well. :)
Kevin and I played a set during our good friends Little Stuey and the Strangers‘ show this past Saturday night at the grand opening party for Frank’s new patio.
He spent hours meticulously molding this fabulous set list, which I wrote on paper big enough for us to see on stage … and then I proceeded to brazenly switch it all up during the actual set, hence the scratched-out titles and renumbering mess I made afterward.
Kevin said he didn’t mind at all, but he has pointed out repeatedly that his original set would have been just fine without any alterations. :P
We got a lot of compliments on our set. I think “Son of a Preacher Man” went over the best of all, but if you were there and don’t mind commenting, I would love to hear it! Kevin was awesome with his black hat, Mr. Trilby, on; he even made a few comments, which he rarely does. (We have that in common. :/)
Stuart, Mike, and Kristie sounded great, as usual, and had the crowd dancing and singing along. At one point, Dolly and her friend even had a two-person conga line going on. LOL
Ooh! And Kristie let me come up at the end of the night and sing “White Rabbit”! That was fun!!
Overall, it was a fun night with friends … and family, too! My sister-in-law Rebecca and nephew Caleb came with us until after our set, since they were in town (with my brother Paul and other nephew Sammy) from Oklahoma. :)
Ooohhhhh…and a special surprise: We haven’t officially announced it yet, but we booked our first actual show: Saturday, August 9, at the Golden Leaf Bistro from 6:30 to about 10! We asked Mike and Kristie Strange to alternate sets with us that night, and hopefully we’ll be doing some collaborations, as well. :)
I like a lot of kinds of music and have a lot of favorite singers and other musicians. And although I’ve been around a lot of music for many years, I haven’t really seen that many of my favorite professional artists live.
Sheryl Crow
I’ve Seen… (in no particular order)
-Neil Young
-Loretta Lynn
-Huey Lewis (twice)
-Stevie Ray Vaughn
-Robert Cray
-ZZ Top
-AC/DC
-Grateful Dead (seven times? eight?!)
-The Band
-Crosby, Stills and Nash
-The Who
-Todd Rundgren (twice)
-Tom Petty
-Pat Martino
-Marshall Tucker Band
-.38 Special
-Steppenwolf
-The Guess Who
-Sheryl Crow (twice)
-Dave Matthews Band
-Phish (twice)
-Widespread Panic
-Julie Brown
-John Anderson
Well, that’s a longer (and weirder!) list than I thought it’d be. But, then again, it’s been quite a number of years…
I’m going to start a list of people and bands I’d really like to see live.
But before I do, I want to make one of people I won’t have the opportunity to see:
Ella Fitzgerald <3
:( I’ll Never See… (in no particular order)
-Ella Fitzgerald -Billie Holiday -John Lennon -Louis Armstrong -Miles Davis -Janis Joplin -Django Reinhardt -Jerry Garcia -Elvis -Les Paul -Jimi Hendrix -Ray Charles
That would make a pretty cool all-star band!
And now for my list of must-sees. This is not an exhaustive list of my favorite bands or musicians; some of those I guess I’m okay with listening to and not necessarily experiencing. And I’m not saying I wouldn’t see other acts if I had the opportunity. :)
Joni Mitchell :)
I’d Love to See… (in no particular order)
-Joni Mitchell (Something Miles of Aisle-ish would be awesome!) -James Taylor (sharing the stage with Carole King would be great!) -Billy Joel -Simon (with and/or without Garfunkel) -Paul Rodgers (preferably with Bad Company but not on a bill with Lynyrd Skynyrd…) -Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks -Crosby, Stills and Nash WITH Young -Steely Dan -Peter Gabriel -Paul McCartney -Warren Haynes (preferably with Govt Mule) -Rolling Stones -Pink Floyd (with Waters AND Gilmour)
How many of these are simply pipe dreams? A couple at least. If I think of any more, I’ll come back and add them to my list.
Last night, we played a set in the middle of Norm Aquilo’s Golden Leaf Bistro show. Great place out on the patio! We were also able to enjoy Norm playing with his old friend, Mike Meadows, who plays with Taylor Swift.
We ended up playing all originals except one, but they seemed to go over pretty well. The owners are interested in getting us to come back and play, but they definitely would like more covers. :)
That’s a Notes entry on Kevin’s iPhone, but since we’re synced, it’s on mine, too. :)
We took a little trip to Richmond, a little less than three hours northeast of us, this weekend. The main item on our agenda was attending Mass at our diocese’s cathedral, the beautiful Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in the heart of our state capital.
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza (on the 14th floor, no less!) down on Canal Street because of its indoor pool, and the kids had a blast for hours, even though the pool room and water were way too chilly for my taste… (Not too pleased about this, and the company will be hearing from me!)
Mass was beautiful in the 1906 Cathedral, although we were all hoping that Bishop DiLorenzo would be there. We stayed a while afterward to take in the stained glass and statues. Awesome!
The boys say their favorite things about the trip were going to the Cathedral, eating at City Dogs on East Cary (even though we ended up taking it back to the hotel because of the horrendous parking down there), and especially playing in the whirlpool at the hotel.
