The big highlight this week was a trip to the Kessler in Oak Cliff for a concert by Eric Lindell on Thursday (my sister Elspeth’s birthday). Brent accompanied us while poor Patty missed due to work travel.
We started with dinner at Bolsa (the first restaurant we tried in Oak Cliff a few years ago and still one of our favourites). We started with smoked trout rillettes (a new term for me – an appetizer that is diced, seasoned, cooked and then pounded to the consistency of a spread) and beef tartare. Then Diana had mussels and I had risotto with several kinds of mushrooms and other delicious vegetables. Left overs were a great lunch on Friday as well.
Bobby Patterson opened the show and we got there just in time to catch his complete set. We were glad we did as he put on a very enjoyable show – you could tell he was very happy to be back on stage and performing to a full house. Patterson is 72 years old and has written songs recorded by Albert King and several others. He was also a record producer and executive for many years. He told a story about recording the song that was to have been the follow up to Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves a Woman”. Percy was too drunk to show up for the session and so they had Bobby record it instead.
Eric Lindell played a great follow up set with Anson Funderburgh on lead guitar. Funderburgh was born in Plano, Texas and has a great guitar sound and style – very reminiscent of Jimmie Vaughan. Here’s a clip from the opening song, “Here I am in Dallas”, where Lindell sings about being stuck in Dallas and missing New Orleans.
I thoroughly enjoyed the guitar interplay between Eric and Anson and our seats close to the stage allowed me to watch exactly what they were doing on their guitars. Brent really enjoyed the keyboard player who was playing bass with his left hand on one keyboard and piano accompaniment with his right hand as well as singing backup vocals
One of our favorite Lindell songs is “Lay Back Down”. Here’s a short clip from that song. I don’t think there’s anywhere better to see a show like this than at the Kessler theater with it’s amazing sound, great seating, and welcoming attitude from everyone who works there.
Other activities this week included meeting up with an old AIG colleague, Allen Livingston, who left about a year ago, and with Kevin Johnston, and old EDS/HP colleague that I hadn’t seen for over a year.