OK, tonight was one of those nights that happen now and then, and could only happen because of today's Internet.
At supper, my wife mentioned that a couple of our friends are taking a repositioning cruise from Miami to Dublin. It's all her fault.
Because the "Dublin" part was gnawing at me, telling me that I just had to listen to Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues", which IMO is one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
So, off to Spotify -- but my old ipad and Spotify weren't talking to each other for some weird reason, so grab the living room laptop and head to Youtube. And an hour of Guy Clark, "The Guitar", "LA Freeway", "Desperados", "Instant Coffee Blues", "My Favorite Picture of You" (
), many more -- with divergences to Townes van Zandt, Prine, Walker, until we hit my absolute Guy Clark favorite, "The Cape". When you get up there in age, that song resonates like nothing else.
And of course, "The Cape" led to Eric Bibb's version -- IMO, the best ever done -- which led to an hour of Eric Bibb, which culminated in "Eric Bibb - an afternoon in Paris[sic]" (
), set in a fabulous guitar store just off the Champs-Elysees, with him just twaddling away on a 1930's Gibson with astounding tone. His version of "Going Down Slow" (
) is superb. (What a pairing he would be on a tour with Keb Mo -- much better than Taj Mahal.)
Then from the sidebar, how could you not watch again Mark Knopfler -- certainly one of the top three, and my choice as number one guitarist alive -- "Mark Knopfler on Guitars" (
)? Hey, it's only a little over 14 minutes long.
So now, four hours later, the Web has remorselessly chewed up another evening...ain't it great?
I'd give my left nut to see Eric Bibb live. His music is appallingly religious for the most part, but he does a lot of classical blues as well. An amazing guy - grew up in NYC in the folk music of the early 60's, with a musician father and an uncle who was the keyboardist of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Paul Robeson as his godfather, etc.. Then he went to Paris (Buffet, anyone?), mainstreamed jazz guitar, married a Finnish girl, and stayed in Finland and Sweden. He rarely tours in the US -- might have to go to Europe to catch him live, while it's still possible.
I wonder if any of our Finnish friends have seen him perform live? If so, I'm extremely envious...
And with the Cameron Hughes Oregon Pinot Noir done, time to rack out. G'night, y"all...
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