Great night, lightly attended by excellent people. We did a second round, so here I am performing 6 songs. For the second set, I indulged myself by singing a vulgar song that–as my pal and would-be manager, Geoff, observed–has the structure of a children’s song. Hopefully children will not sing it.*
* Incidentally, the aforementioned vulgar tune was inspired by a recent visit to Gettysburg, which is documented at:
I finally got a chance to perform the songs I had planned for Independence Day. This set features a few never-before-performed originals: Penniless Adventure, Freedom Is In, American Dream; and, I couldn’t resist putting a bow on things with Chinese Buffet. I’ve realized I enjoy performing on guitar more than piano, but I’ll definitely dive back into pounding the 88s from time to time, especially if I can back a blues act.
The peculiarity and variety of peoples’ perspective on America interests me. This song represents one of a few different snapshots of my own impressions, originally penned in the 1990s. It plays with the idea of what one does with the responsibility of carrying a message about your nation. I delicately tweaked two lyrical lines to more closely resemble my current thoughts. I recorded this song several times until arriving back to the basics of folk rock instrumentation (including the two chords I know on the mandolin!). There is a Phil Lesh-inspired emphasis on bass guitar celebrating the awesome Ampeg rig I recently acquired.
After attending a Phillies game, I found myself muscling through these songs. Nevertheless, I debuted the piano version of Redneck Vacation; delivered my best vocal performance of Fred Jones Pt. 2; and finished with Robots and Cloth Mother. I’m going to celebrate July 4 on guitar.
My buddy and loyal open mic companion Geoff suspects that I am the first songwriter to incorporate the “uncanny valley” in my lyrics. I don’t know whether that’s true, but I did quite enjoy publicly debuting the song Robots at the Thirsty Soul last Thursday. Also featuring Cloth Mother (first song about experiment on monkeys?) and Humiliation Compost Heap (the boogie woogie).
