Look at us! Four weeks in a row of generally on-time columns! Only 40-something more to go! And now that I’ve said it out loud that feels kind of impossible! But on we press!
GIG OF THE WEEK (BEFORE I FORGET AND TACK IT ON AT THE END LIKE i USUALLY DO BECAUSE BY THEN I’M SICK OF WRITING AND DON’T FEEL LIKE CUTTING & PASTING IT TO THE TOP OF THE COLUMN AND THIS JUST MIGHT BE THE LONGEST SENTENCE I’VE EVER PUT IN PARENTHESES): Saturday night at Anglesea Pub, Terry & Jerry, 8-11:30. Why not 8-11 or 9-12? Because I managed to squeeze a little extra money from notorious tightwad Sean MacMullan, so he is squeezing us for his pound of flesh… he, uh, he doesn’t read this, does he? Regardless, Anglesea Pub is a great Terry & Jerry room, as those of you who’ve been there can attest. We’ll have something of a residency there later this spring, playing every other Friday for the most part. We also have one, potentially TWO, new venues we’ll be playing this summer, but I don’t want to say anything until the ink dries, the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed. But you’ll have to walk over some boards to get there… I’VE SAID TOO MUCH!
GIG OF LAST WEEK: We finally (finally!) got on the board again Saturday afternoon with a gig at the Brown Room at Congress Hall. As ever, they loved us. But I feel like they love us everywhere we play. But they seem to especially love us at the Brown Room. (Sidebar: Brown Room or The Brown Room? Discuss…) It was a large, friendly crowd for the duration. And it just wouldn’t be a Brown Room gig without Alex & Lynn Sosik (DING!), our staunchest supporters. (Wendy & Randy Redelico, it’s really time to up your game… you’re going to have to love us extra hard when you see us to make up ground.) It was also great to see Sandy & Ralph Mannink, who are swiftly climbing the ranks of T&J groupies. Just an overall friendly crowd and a great vibe all afternoon. I’m back there on St. Patrick’s Day (Sunday, 3/17, 6-10) with the lovely and talented Nancy Malcun as Jerry will be away for work. Or so he says. I think he’s just gonna get wasted on Guinness all day…
SONG OF THE WEEK: As you know, I’ve been a massive Billy Joel fan since… 1983? The enormity (for me) of having a new Billy Joel song to listen to is still kind of settling over me. So, of course, as I’m one who tends to run before he walks (figuratively, you wouldn’t catch me dead running, or you’d catch me dead shortly after running) I told Jerry to learn it so we could play it. Jerry, rat bastard that he is, said, “Okay.” (His greatest trait as a partner is saying “Okay” to all the weird shit I make him learn. His second greatest trait is breaking my balls when we play that weird shit and people just kind of stare at us.) So I prepared for the song. Listened to it on the way to and from work, in the shower. Made up a lyric sheet, making sure I had all the nuances down in writing. I did everything but sing it. Why? Because I could not get through even listening to it without choking up. No way in hell I could sing it. Until the tail end of our first set on Saturday. Jerry called it at about 220pm. I said we should hold off a little and close the set with it because it’s kind of a big deal and I like to close our sets with something a little more memorable. Rat bastard that he is, Jerry agreed. Which meant I had an extra 25 minutes to fret over it. I was choking up during the songs BEFORE it just THINKING about having to sing it. Finally, the moment arrived. We played it. I sang it. And it was… okay. Not great, not bad. A decent first attempt.
Surprisingly, during our 3rd set, we got a couple of Billy Joel requests. I sang Just the Way You Are, Jerry did a great job on Downeaster Alexa, a very difficult vocal. So I said, “Let’s do the new one again. Only this time, because it’s not hard enough, let’s raise it a half-step to match the original key which we’ll be playing it in at the Anglesea Pub on May 11th at 8pm!” Or words to that affect. So we did. And it was… better. Not perfect, but better. Lynn and Sandy were kind enough to post recordings to Facebook and I don’t think I embarrassed myself. And yes, of course, I had to sing through a little emotion, but that’s why we do the things we do, right?
Here’s the clip. Temper your expectations. It’s going to get so much better and I cannot WAIT to do it with the full band.
Video courtesy of Lynn Sosik.
Sang it twice, cried twice. Cried a third time when Alex Sosik told me he was proud of me. But he said not to tell anyone he said that.
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