Happy Easter and April Fools’ Day combined. I did learn from my Dad this morning that any April Fools’ jokes have to be executed before noon – so you’re safe now in this post.
Diana and I took a jaunt to downtown McKinney on Monday for coffee and a crossword at Filtered (local coffee shop) and then wandered around the corner to a new store McD had noticed that sold records. The Groovy Coop is a fun store with several racks of records (both LPs and 45s) and a lot of vintage curiosities. I stopped myself from browsing after the first two bins (new arrivals and the letter A) and had already selected two records. Dave Alvin’s Romeo’s Escape was from the “A” bin and features the great song “Every Night About this Time”. Interestingly, Dave Alvin was the first show we saw at the Kessler theater and we’ve been back many times since. I’ll always remember Diana leaning over to me as the show started and saying, “You know this is country music, right?”. Kind of a country infused Americana sound – but the first song was quite country.
The second record was Ray Charles’ “Genius Sings the Blues” which I have been enjoying on the Linn while typing this. I haven’t bought new records in a little while and will have to be careful to limit my visits to the Groovy Coop as I’m currently out of record storage space.
Penelope had one of her fits on Tuesday morning as I was starting my commute to work. As I accelerated hard to join the highway, the check engine light came on accompanied by the message “Visit workshop soon” (silly Germans) and a hard wobble of the engine. P had a service a couple of weeks ago where they replaced the spark plugs and this was the fist time I’d given her a good workout since. I found out on Wednesday morning when she was delivered to the “workshop” that one of the ignition coils had come loose and so the spark plug wasn’t firing. One might think it hadn’t been installed correctly after the plugs were changed. To add insult, it poured with rain all day Tuesday and Wednesday and the left windshield wiper wasn’t working properly – also something that was supposed to be repaired during the service. Glenda’s (featuring again later in this post) ex-husband (Penelope’s Porsche mechanic) was a bit sheepish about both issues. I’m happy to report P is back in full working order and has a full tank of gas for McD this week when I’m in New York.
Friday brought the much anticipated Nils Lofgren concert at the Kessler. This show had been cancelled twice – once due to the Force Majeure clause in Nils contract that allows him to cancel if Bruce Springsteen has a sudden desire to tour (The River tour) and once due to surgery. Jens and Glenda joined us for the show and pre-show burgers and tots across the street from the Kessler.
I was introduced to Nils by Andy Bull (who learned about him from his older brother) in University and he and I enjoyed his shows at the Glasgow Apollo and Usher Hall in Edinburgh (35 and 33 years ago). Lofgren has had a long and interesting career – starting with the band Grin, several excellent solo albums, playing on “Tonight’s the Night” and several other Neil Young albums, and the last 20 plus years as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band.
One of Lofgren’s best known songs is an ode to Keith Richards, “Keith Don’t Go”. He did an excellent acoustic version at the Kessler – here’s some of the song and then his trademark finger picked harmonics in the solo.
In addition to his excellent guitar, Nils is also an accomplished pianist. Here he is with his poignant tune “Believe” from one of the early Grin albums.
The show concluded with “No Mercy”, a song I first heard on a Radio Clyde mid-morning show hosted by Dougie Donnelly, best known for his football commentary.
After the show, Nils was very gracious with his time to meet his fans and sign any albums and artifacts they had brought. It was fun to see so many people with very old albums under their arms. I got my copy of “Night After Night” and “Flip” signed along with a photograph of Nils and Bruce Springsteen at the jazzfest in New Orleans.
Lofgren is only 5′ 3″ tall and so it was fortuitous that he was a step up from me for this picture. Diana told him that I had attended the show at the Glasgow Apollo that features on the “Night after Night” album and he said that had been his favourite tour – it was certainly at the height of his popularity.
Diana found out on Saturday morning that Friday had been a tough day for Lofgren with his guitars being stolen overnight from a van parked outside the Holiday Inn where he was staying. He had spent Friday morning rounding up loaner guitars and gear. You certainly wouldn’t have known it form his attitude or the excellent guitar sounds.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2018/03/30/guitars-harp-stolen-e-street-bands-nils-lofgren-dallas/475079002/
Saturday was an on and off sunny day and I was able to sit outside and finish my long running book “Notes on a Foreign Country” by Suzy Hansen. The book chronicles Hansen’s changing views on American foreign policy as she lives in Turkey and visits Greece, Afghanistan, and Iran. One of the hardest hitting passages is when Hansen returns to New York and is admitted to a Brooklyn hospital for what is ultimately diagnosed as pneumonia. She tells of her American friends saying she was so lucky to be home when it happened. However, her story of misdiagnosis and the conditions in the Brooklyn hospital as compared to the Turkish hospitals she had visited is pretty scary. The book is fairly dense and intellectual but worth reading for a differing view on America’s role on the world stage.
If you haven’t heard enough about music already, I’ve been enjoying the new album from the jam band The Heavy Pets this week.