Guest Book

Off to B'ham and Rusty's this AM. Spent the weekend with my old friend 3/21/03 in the player, just as the notes of Little Martha after the Layla encore fade away, cell rings, Bluedad, Chatt. forgotten. Except, I'm now wondering if I'm headed for clusterf$%# II. I've only done one street festival since 1994, and that was Music Midtown 2000. Throwing-up drunk kids everywhere, puke on the ground, sick kids not old enough to drive. "Whee II." But this is different. This is my home track. For the Brothers. Wondering if civilization has declined to the point that the kids in Chatt. and Music Midtown are where we are as a society. Not to worry. At Rusty and Donna's, I met two of the kids Mr. and Mrs. John Howard have raised. We have a joke here: Q. Why did the chicken cross the road? A. To prove to the 'possum that it could be done. The Howard girls prove that it can be done. Renewed my faith. Great time, as usual, hanging out with the Blythe's, the Howard's, the Banes's, the Atkinson's. A call from Hasidja (sp?) and wife, plane grounded in TX, plane change, delay. Off to the venue, still worried about a Chatt. repeat. First sign of Trouble No More was Brent's bass player, Frankie Marbut onstage, hanging with Kofi during a great OPM show. Several hundred enthusiastic souls, a Miss Terry sighting, and Barb Potter had found some shade. We all gravitated to where Barb was, dubbed the site, "The HTW Family Tree." And so it remained throughout the evening, home base. Rusty and Bluedad did and airport run to pick up Hasidja, who I'll call John now, and his wife. They got back to the Family Tree just as DTB started. I guess maybe City Stages is big enough that our obnoxious kids had somewhere else to be, I don't know. But I do know there were plenty of kids at our stage for OPM, DTB, and ABB--and they were there for the music!! Hope lives!! Great set by DTB, a little short, Anyday showed up here. And Maki Mandi. VERY enthusiastic audience, perfect vibe. As they started, I saw 8-9 young folks from Gadsden under the wing of Albert Simpson and wife. Many years ago, Albert and a guy named Taylor Hicks started a dead cover band called Highly Kind, Taylor dropped out, Albert carries on. They just finished 8 gigs in 5 days at 3 AM Sat. night, Albert opened for CRS 12/30/05, totally "gets it." He rounded up these 20-somethings, people highly interested in real music, brought them to City Stages. They set up hole high from the Family Tree, about 20 feet out in the street. Among them was Big Stephen McCollough, sometimes keyboard player for the Skydogs, a regular at 2nd Street Music. He spots me, joins our group for the ABB show. It's his first ABB show, he says he wants to spend it with me, understand what he's seeing. Was it the best ABB show I've ever seen? No, but close! Damn near perfect. Killer Rockin' Horse, Les Brers w/JaBuMa. Hell, these people were even into the percussion solo, clapping along, applauding each. Final song One Way Out, special guest Taylor Hicks on harp. Moans from the true believers, but he held up his end, didn't overplay. Nobody Left to Run With for the encore, nice response, lots of tears when Duane was superimposed over Derek and Warren. Sometimes they would show Duane with today's Gregg, Butch, and Jaimoe. Nice footage of Allen Woody, some shots of Berry too. The place went nuts at the end, I was surrounded by Peachheads and kids from Gadsden, all of euphoric, hugging, some crying. As I left for my car, I took one look back again to absorb the moment, as I always do now. My eyes fell on the Family Tree, brought a smile and a tear. On the way out, I saw the Howard's again at the HTN table. I mentioned to Bluedad's daughter Kirsten that she would probably never be around that many people that were so happy in her life. Her big smile as I left reassured my hope for the road we're traveling. Happy Fathers Day to the dads. Thanks to all of you for letting me be a part of this. EAPFP