​What a way to end a tour!!
Standing room only in this wonderful music venue.. as you walk, in the bar is on the left .. on the right is where the seats are and the stage at the very end.
What a great group of folks attending…. this is as good as an audience can be! Most are long time friends of my music and also duets of Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez. many are fans of Brooke and Brittany Henderson so they’re all ready when that part of the show comes up.
We sound checked an hour before the show and soundman Evan has us perfectly ready in no time.. Big thanks Evan ..you did a great job!

Set one
Right from the beginning it was like playing for a bunch of friends at some special party.
John Platania was so magic tonight!
We started with “The Real Thing” and then we went into the title song of my new album, “Whiskey Salesman”… I told the audience that it been acccepted to the New Media Film Festival and placed in their SRC or “socially responsible content“ section.. I love telling that story tonight!! …we all some fun with that.

Then we continued with a few other Whiskey Salesman songs… inspired by my wife, Joan. The connection with these were so strong you could hear a pin drop… Just beautiful!
We ended the first set with a song about the town I grew up in, Yonkers New York . John’s solo in toward the end of the song was just amazing!

Set two
Started this one off with a tribute to some fans, Lori and Ron, who got married about two weeks ago and used as the theme song for their wedding, the Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez song, “We Come Up Shining”  I hadn’t played that song a while but somehow it came so easy and felt so special… so glad you guys spent the evening with us ..congratulations!

Somewhere in there someone called out for “Must be the Whiskey”… so I took a chance and played a little bit of that and it really was fun!

We then went back to “Whiskey Salesman” songs with some of my favorites like “I like Ridin’” , “Some Hearts“ – – this was so special tonight …again. I got chills and tears came close.
I had the same feeling when we played “ Naples” .. that talks about a special visit my wife and I in made there .. lots of the chill factor stuff depends on the inspiration but much of this great stuff comes from the communication with the audience and it was just there tonight.. it was just a beautiful connection.

Another one of the favorites tonight was the final song from the Whiskey Salesman album, “In the Stillness of the Night“ with the audience singing along with us… That was pretty magic.
Then we went to the Meyer Lansky section (The early hits section)… playing the Hollies big hit “I Can’t Let Go” which I wrote with my friend Al Gorgoni…then shifted back to talk a little bit about the amazing accomplishments of Brooke and Brittany Henderson..  I would say that “I’ll Carry For You“ has been a favorite of these audiences since we’ve hit the road and it was no difference in tonight .. I just love singing that song.

We ended the set with a beautiful version of the “Angel of the Morning “… again with the audience singing gently along.. then a rocking version of “Wild Thing”.. with a special tribute to Reg Presley and the boys (the Troggs) for the amazing record they made of the song which inspired the Jimi Hendrix version.

Then came the tribute to the prisoners with my current streaming hit “Fuck all the Perfect People“ .. with the audience singing this course loud and clear, like we were in church.  We ended up with a huge audience sing-along with another of my current Spotify hits, “I’ll Only Be Me Once“

This was a special as it gets… Thanks to all who were there.

Said hi to many, including:
Ian and Sue … Who made a special trip from London to see the show… Great to see you guys I will see you in London on September 2nd… again big hello and congratulations to Lori and Ron…wonderful to see you guys!

Good to see my old friend Richard Flohil and his lovely daughter Jill… so glad you were able to come!

Hey Melissa so glad you came for a double dose .. it’s always great to see you… Much love.. and Dave and Darlene… Was that you? So glad you came to the show again!
Hi Arthur and Lalitha …so nice talking with you both…thanks for all the compliments.. see you next time.. hi Scott nice talking to you about the early days and 1650 Broadway… The Brill building was OK and had some great writers but the real heart and soul of rock ‘n’ roll was 1650.
Hi Judy… So nice talking with you thanks for singing all those pretty harmonies… Good luck with all your folks singing… Sounds like good times

Hi Diane and Malcolm… Very good to see you ..thanks for the nice words
Hi Robert thanks for coming in so good to see your son… was it “Andy”… it’s hard for me to read my writing… But one where another glad you came .. very nice talking with you Robert… thanks for buying all those CDs.. much appreciated.

Actually, thanks to so many for supporting us in that way
Hi Brad …thanks for your support with that very nice article… Yeah I think you should stay in Tarrytown when you come to New York… there are a few nice hotels not too far from the train station

Thanks to the very nice mom and daughter who came in at the very start of the show ..I’m not exactly sure what the names were but I think the daughters name is Joan … how can I forget that! So good to see you both!!!
Good to see Gary, Joyce and Al at the beginning… hi Mark and Anita… Good to see you and thanks for the good words
Great to see all my friends through my connection with my great friend Neil MacGonigill… Okie. Ray, Sheldon, Wayne, Cris,

So great of you all to support me and John!! Much appreciated!!!
Also, special hello to my friend Bob Roper..sorry I missed saying hello.. thanks so much for coming!
Hey Del!! So glad you stopped by great to meet your girlfriend Esther .. and special to see your other friend Christina…. hope to see you soon!
And to all the others whose names I might’ve missed… Thanks so much for being here tonight.. it was a very special night for John and I hope to see you soon again

​Neil thanks for putting this whole thing together and for coming to be with us …it’s about as good as it gets!!

​​This venue is one of my favorite to play … has been for a couple years.
It’s a soulful bar/music venue, run by Dwayne, Ken, Dwayne‘s son Jason and Mark and others.. in the last couple years they built an overhang so folks can watch the show from the ledge above the stage… it has a very ample stage overlooking the main floor with the overhang a little above eye-level. All in all, it’s a very comfortable setting for an artist to perform.

​It was a totally reverent audience tonight.. most seem to know me from not just the hits but from my albums over a period of time. And the fact that John Platania and I have been playing since 1972 was pretty apparent shortly after we started this set… John was just amazing all night.. and we could interact so easily together because of the brilliant sound thanks to the soundman Jacob… The magic vibe on stage lit up the entire show.
We divided the show into two sections

Set 1
We started out with my theme song, “The Real Thing“ and quickly went into songs from my soon to be released album, “Whiskey Salesman” . You could hear a pin drop …it was just a total silent reverence… I love telling the story of Whiskey Salesman and the love songs for Joan, “Hold Her” and I Love You Today.” It was a wonderful feeling to feel it and see it.
 
We then played a very cool version of “A Sip or two of Good Scotch” with references to John Prine and his latest album “Tree of Forgiveness”.. and then a song I hadn’t played in a while the title song from “Yonkers New York“. It was only a 40 minute set but it was a very rich one!

Set 2
We came back to the stage and I talked about traveling with Joan to Naples Florida and the joy we have doing that together. That led to the first song, our new single, “I like Ridin’”
Then we turned into a glimpse of New York in the song “Some Hearts“ which seem to have some to the point of tears.. there was another big sing-along tonight with the final Whiskey Salesman track, “In the Stillness of the Night“… Just love doing all of this.

We shifted to the Meyer Lansky part of the show and started playing the hits. The hit that Al Gorgoni and I wrote for the Hollies and Linda Ronstadt, “I Can’t Let Go“… Which totally rocked.
We shifted back to the Brooke and Brittany Henderson story… And played “I’ll Carry For You“… the audience absolutely loved this and again somewhere close to tears.

We went back to the hits with a beautiful version of “ Angel of the Morning“ .. Very cool “Wild Thing” …then came a very reverent version of my song for the prisoners, “Fuck all the Perfect People“…. with the audience singing the title song like we were in a church choir… so beautiful!
We close the show with I think my favorite ever version of “I’ll Only be Me Once“ with the audience singing loud and clear along with us by song’s end.

What a night!
​
Said hello to several including:
Jason and Paul and Katy and Susan and Dennis and Bobby and Lynn… So great to talk to you Bobby… Wonderful to see Denise… Wishing all the best for your sister Joan.. Dave great to see you thanks for talking about the Steve Earle show I loved doing that.
Great to see Elmer and Steve again… Steve .. wish Nick could have come wish him all the best on his third album .. look forward to hearing it.. very good wishes to Ron and Liz… So good to see you guys there!
And great to see you Mark… Mark is the son of one of the greatest trotting drivers of all time, Buddy Gilmore … Who I remember very well from the late 50s and early 60s where he raced at Yonkers Raceway. Mark continues Buddy‘s legacy as a behind the scenes guy for the state authorities in the racing commission.. Great talking with you Mark.
Mike from Rochester… My cohort in rooting for the amazing Canadian golfer, Brooke Henderson and her sister Brittany who gave up her own playing to caddy for little sis. Just two days ago Brooke won the championship in Hawaii and is now tied for the most wins for any Canadian golfer.
Sorry to miss Ken… Dwayne, Jason it was great seeing you guys tell Ken I missed him
Huge thanks to all of this great place!
 

Due to an amazing article in the newspaper by Frank De Blase on the hard work of Danny Deutsch .. it was wall-to-wall people fitting into Vibey/cool bar venue.
This was one of the most unique and beautiful shows I ever remember playing.
The master John Platania and I took the stage at approximately 8:45 and played for almost 2 hours.. many unexpected things jumped into the spotlight and I will tell you about them.. but you start with let me say that John Platania was amazing from start to finish tonight!
We started out with a great version of my sort of theme song from last chance, “ The Real Thing”
Then we started playing songs from my soon to be released album, “Whiskey Salesman”.. with its alternate title, “love songs for Joan“.. we let the audience know that the video of the title song, had recently been accepted to the New Media Film Festival as a film, not a video and it was placed in their SRC section which means “socially responsible content”… so the song that I was about to play them …about whiskey and horses and my local bar and Joan and my friends … was considered socially responsible content .. nice!
I explained to the audience that the one thing that separates this album from others, was that there were little videos attached to each song.
As we played each song I found myself describing little parts of the video and it seem like a charming way to get the audience closer to the song.
After the title song we played “Hold Her”, then “I Love You Today”.. which this audience absolutely was in total communion with… what a beautiful response!
Then we played “A Sip or Two of Good Scotch“ which talks about the perils of drinking too much (suggested by my wife Joan) and brings in hints of my friend John Prine‘s new album.. where he talks about being in heaven and having such a great time with the new band and drinking vodka and ginger and smoking long cigarettes. The audience clapped along with this one and cheered at the end.
Then it was a tribute to my hometown of New York City and the lovely human kindness showed in its streets by so many, represented here by the song “Some Hearts“.. folks seem to be very touched by this one as well.
Then came the story of Joan and I visiting Naples two years in a row to watch the women’s golf tournament and part of the journey in the airplanes and terminals kind of resulting and being the inspiration for our new single, “I Like Ridin’” which, by songs end, the audience was singing along with us.
Then came further introduction to the golfers we went to see there in Naples… Brooke and Brittany Henderson.. and Brooke’s courageous entree into the LPGA and her meteoric rise to be one of the best of the best.
At that point I asked the audience if they would like to know how she was doing at this very minute…. as she was playing in Hawaii and she was approximately on the 10th hole in the final round of the prestigious Lotte championship.
The audience was having fun with this and cheered to know where she stood… In the audience was a very good friend of Joan’s and mine ..Mike from Rochester who is a friend of Brooke and Brittany and the family …so he was cheering louder than anybody else.
So I reached over and picked up my iPhone that was already tuned in to the live leaderboard of the tournament.
I came back to the microphone and said there’s good news here …Brooke is leading the tournament by three shots on the 11th hole!!
The place erupted in applause and Mike screamed louder than anybody else!
So then we played Naples .. The song that finds Joan and I sort of “vacationing“ for the first time in many years in Naples and eating at an outdoor patio and walking on the beach surrounded by a beautiful sandcastle and some sand birds…
The audience fell in love with this song and the whole story attached to it… This was certainly one of their favorites of the night… And now they had the Brooke Henderson story running right in tandem with it.
All along, every five or 10 minutes we checked the golf score and at each checkpoint Brooke was leading by at least two …most the times three … and the audience kept cheering!!
Then I sang about a bad night at my local bar Parnell’s.. with the song, “It’s midnight… Turn the Clock Back Again“ and the audience got into the chorus by the end, singing along with us .. and it sounded serious but very emotionally connected.
We ended the Whiskey Salesman section, with the final song on the album, “In the Stillness of the Night“.. and throughout the last courses the audience sang along with us it was a magical replay of the album and this audience was the perfect one to play it for.
By the way, when I played Whiskey Salesman to start the show, I spoke about being in my writing space at 1650 Broadway where, aside from writing songs, I was making bets with my bookie Meyer Lansky… Meyer’s runner George would collect and pay every Monday (mostly pay)… The audience loved this part of the story then and love the continuation of it .. when at this point I said
“We are now going to the “Meyer Lansky” section of the show… here come some hits”
We started this section with a great version of a song my friend Al Gorgoni and I wrote for the Hollies and Linda Ronstadt called “I Can’t Let Go” , along with the charming story of how that song that written.
Folks clapped along with the beat of the song and cheered at the end.
then I went back to check to see how Brooke was doing… Now she was on the 14th hole and two up
So at that point I broke away from the Meyer Lansky section and sang the song I wrote for Brooke and Britney Henderson, “I’ll Carry For You”.
The audience absolutely loved this!
Then it was back to the Meyer Lansky section and we played a beautiful version of “Angel of the Morning “ where the audience joined in for about three straight choruses with us at the end… then it was a totally rockin “Wild Thing” with the audience clapping and joining in and having as much loose fun as you can have.
Next came my current hit on the streaming sites, that I wrote for the prisoners, “Fuck all the Perfect People“ .. and this was magic, total magic with everybody dead serious singing along with it with their fists in the air.
We ended the show with another song that talks about the prisoners, “I’ll only be me Once“… Again with the entire audience singing with us in the choruses… What a chill feeling this was.
Before getting off the stage I went back to the iPhone again and quickly told the audience that Brooke was now up three with two holes to play!!! They erupted in cheers… lots of new Brooke and Brittney fans out there tonight including owner Danny who was so into it and sat with us at a small table watching on my iPhone as Brooke raised the trophy!!
So… This will go down in memory is one of my favorite shows..thanks Danny for having us ,,,thanks to all that packed the place and made it such a special night!
Said hi to a few including:
Frank De Blase (Who wrote the amazing article in the paper) and his lovely wife Debra… wish we could’ve spent more time talking thanks so so much for coming.
Oh by the way thanks so much to Greg for the great sound tonight !
.. much appreciated Greg hope to see you soon.
Special hello to my friend Mike from Rochester who is the huge Brooke and Brittney fan who met Joan and me in Naples two years running and hopefully many times to come… It was so special to be here and see the show unfold as it did with Mike in the audience and very warm hello to Mike’s friend Dana… Dana please send big love to your daughter Bridgette.. hope to see her next time
Hi Eric and Bob… The “Last Chance” fan.. so good to see you… and hi Don and Donna.., and a big hello to Gerard, Who got turned onto my latest recordings by listening to Sirius radio and hearing the outlaw channel playing “Ukrainian Girls”
Nice stuff Gerard ..I appreciate it.. and hi to your friend Jim… Look forward to seeing you guys next time
And a very very big hello to Joe… Who is celebrating his birthday tonight… I didn’t quite get it this year 69th or 70th?… But whatever it was it was a good one and I am so glad you were here! See you next time
And at the bar good to see my old friend, Tracy and lovely Kelly… thanks so much you guys
Thanks so much Danny… I hope things go well… Count me in  – I love it here.

It was just John Platania and me tonight.. I guess the good thing about that is that so much focus can be put on John who deserves all the credit for so many amazing years of magical playing.

​What a great venue to play… Played here years ago when it was called the Towne Crier… such a comfortable place .. with an extremely good sound system and wonderful people hosting and doing the sound… big thanks to Peter and Alex for that!
Again we focused on Whiskey Salesman tonight. After opening with a song, “The Real Thing“ from my 1974 album Last Chance.. we played 10 songs in a row from Whiskey Salesman.
There were so many highlights tonight but I’ll name a few from WS .. first of all, I had such fun when we performed the title song, Whiskey Salesman. There seem to be such a connection with the audience and lots of good natured smiles floating around the room.
“I Love You Today“… this is one of the many songs from Whiskey Salesman seem to totally connect. I had chills when we performed it.. it’s nice when it’s like that, where you can enjoy the connection as much is the audience ..that song can take me good places.. and it certainly did tonight.
I loved “A Sip or Two of Good Scotch” tonight… which talks about my friend John Prine‘s last album and ends with great solos from John Platania!
The simple little song, “Some Hearts“ always seems to connect on a huge level… With me and the audience… It is certainly did tonight… I probably would say the same for “I Like Ridin’” .. which is the new single… Which also means the video is available to be seen as well!! I think you will all like it. As simple as it is I think it’s special.
Probably the three songs mentioned most after the shows were “I Love You Today“, “I Like Ridin'” and the song I wrote about Joan and me visiting Naples Florida called, “Naples“… lots of talk about this one after the show and the previous show.
Another highlight for me was singing the song that I wrote for the golfing sisters Brooke and Brittany Henderson. “ I’ll Carry For You”.
By the way, as I am writing this Brooke is tied for the lead in the LPGA Lotte Golf Championship from Hawaii.
I am writing this from Rochester and last night we had a day off. “We” means John Platania, my great friend from Alberta Canada, Neil McGonigal and me. Neil flew in to help tour manage this excursion to upper New York State into and out of Canada.
So last night, with the day off we relaxed with the Golf Channel and rooted for Brooke and her sister caddy Brittany.. it was a good night!
Back to the show Daryl’s House:
Love the version of the Angel of the Morning tonight – beautiful to hear the audience singing along with this just like they did at the Loft in New York… Wild Thing was spirited and sexy and fun tonight and the song for the prisoners, “Fuck All the Perfect People “ was certainly a highlight …maybe the biggest one of all .. Don’t we all love to sing the chorus!
Tonight we encored with another song from “ The Little Prayers Trilogy“…. “ I’ll Only be me Once”
…with the audience singing along by the end ..and how beautiful that chorus sounded!
Thanks to all for a great night the brilliant John Platania and I enjoyed every minute of it
Said hi to several
Wow!! So great to see son-in-law Frank’s lovely cousin Jean and husband Carlton.. The nicest people …along with their friends Chris and Vicky. Joan and I just loved seeing you guys.. thanks so much for making the long trip!
So great to see my old pre high school great friend Bill Kraft And brother…… Bill ..great that we’ve stayed in touch over the years I always love seeing you… I should’ve played “Yonkers New York“ for us tonight … shame on me!
It was great to see my old friend Eddie Solan and his wife Rory.. just at the end of sound check sorry I missed you at the end it said that hope all is well and thanks so much for coming! What a great surprise!!
Great to see my old friend Zeek… One of my son’s neighborhood friends from the early days, who I spent some time coaching… Loved to see you , Michael and mom Alice… Just great that you could be here!
A big hello to Joe from Yonkers and Carolyn a relative .. grandmother on my father side was your grandmother’s sister… did I get that right Carolyn? .. anyway it was good to see you again hope I’m getting these names right..
small world!
Hi Mark I think it was Mark. Music teacher from Yonkers? It was nice talking to you and hope we get a chance to do something together to support the cause. you figure something out talk to Chuck, thanks
Good to see you Jacque (A very good and kind radio host) and friend Elisa…
Hi to Gene .. and Norma and Glenn and Jim and John and Frankie .. hi Ernie and Barbara
Hi Craig… good to see you at the end of the night over at the bar area and as you were heading out the door …not many people know JP as long as we do!
and Howard… I thought you’d be missing in action again… Great to see you! Actually it is always great to see you and I appreciate your support over the years!
Thanks to all for a special night… Hope to see you soon.