| No. | Title | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Better Days | |
| 2. | Early | |
| 3. | Hey, Baby, Hey | |
| 4. | Goodwill | |
| 5. | 'Cept You and Me, Babe | |
| 6. | These Hills I Call Home (Iris DeMent) | |
| 7. | Shit Out of Luck | With Karen & Pete for rest of show |
| 8. | Kokomo | |
| 9. | Smell of Coffee | |
| 10. | Blue Car | |
| 11. | Think about You | |
| 12. | I Want My Country Back | |
| 13. | Preachin' the Blues (Son House) (encore) |
Reviews
| Review No.: | 1 |
| Last updated: | Friday, July 29, 2005 |
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June 10th
Notes: The Birchmere is my favorite music spot - general admission, good food and drinks, and great acoustics. They don't allow recording, even with permission, but give only a very cursory purse check for cameras, etc. I sometimes have seen people doing it, anyway. Ahem! Very brief opening by Karen and Pete. It was only 3 or four songs, though they did come back on later. Greg opened with Better Days - to prolonged applause, this being in the DC area. Introducing Early he talked about the genesis of the title - he imagined it because of the beauty of the Iowa dawns and sunsets, but found the reality to be a Judge Early who won the town in a poker game from a Pole with a name consisting of a lot of w's, z's, and c's - so weren't they lucky. Don't know if it was just a joke or not. Beautiful Hey Baby Hey with a little gardening talk incorporated into the end of the song. 'Cept You And Me Babe was melancholy-beautiful and it brought tears to the eyes of someone I was with, who was unfamiliar with the song. He did Iris' Hills That I Call Home and then talked about the unexciting reality of his songwriter's life. As an example, he said he had just gotten off the phone with his wife who had been at Target buying a collapsible crate for the puppies. He also talked about her new album and how beautiful it was. Said he didn't usually talk about her and she would kill him if she knew he was. I've never seen her, but someone at my table who had been to her last show here, said she had such bad stage fright she stopped her song and asked someone to bring her out a shot of whiskey before she could continue. That must be so painful - I thought stage fright was supposed to disappear once you got started. I can't quite remember when K&P came back on, but I think it was about here. When I figure out how to download onto the computer the from the little digital recorder I just bought, I'll check. Unfortunately I could only record part of this second show because I hadn't yet downloaded the previous night's show. It's supposed to have 4 hours, but I must not have done something right. Never having used it before, I have no idea what the sound will be like, anyway. I don't think the audience knew quite what to think of Shit Out Of Luck, but they loved Kokomo. The last song he played was Preachin' the Blues and he and Pete had a lot of fun with it. Pete was more involved with Greg in his playing this show. He and Greg leaned into each other sometimes and sort of traded off. In Preachin' Greg jumped into the air a couple of times doing a sort of scissors kick, as well as some other physical clowning and gestures. Looking at the setlist I wrote down, it seems short, but then Greg's shows always seem too short to me. I hope I haven't left off any songs, don't know if anyone else from the list was there to correct me or not. Fashion report: Blue jeans and VERY bright, coral colored, long-sleeved button down shirt. Best I can say about it is it coordinated nicely with Karen's black and coral skirt. Sunglasses throughout. Wish these reports were a little more musical, but hopefully you all know all the songs well enough you can hear them in your head as you read. Nancy R. |
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