Two great things tonight - One, being back in this amazingly warm and intimate space with my friends from last year, owner, Brett and soundman Jason and Paul and Andy … and other helpers whose names I don’t recall.
The second great thing tonight is the fact that Goran Grini, the brilliant keyboardist from Norway, and my great friend, is joining my other great friend, John Platania and I for the first time. So, from now on, on this tour, we are a trio. And anyone who was there last night will tell you how magic John and Göran were. For me, being in the middle of those beautiful sounds coming from my right and left was just amazing and sent chills up my spine from start to finish. We had great “kitchen” food after a simple and wonderful sound check and hit the stage a little after eight We played two sets for a total playing time of well over two hours… And it seemed like we could’ve played for six hours more for this amazing audience. There were far too many highlights to mention … certainly the hits sounded good ... Anyway That You Want Me, Wild Thing, Angel of the Morning, etc.. But the real special ones for me were the silent ones like “He’s a Good Guy” and “I Love You Today” and all the little songs that I wrote for my wife Joan which had such special meaning tonight and were allowed to be the simple magic that they were in this special environment. Our album from 2000, “Black and Blue America” is just now streaming and we honored that release by playing a couple from the album including “Theme for an American Hero” and “What a Smile You Had”... both sent total chills down my spine.. We ended the show with a crazy good version of “Wild Thing “ with the audience totally singing along and having fun with us and then came maybe the highlight of the night as it is most nights, my song for the prisoners that has now gone viral several times, “Fuck all the Perfect People” with this wonderful audience singing along with us like we were in church. And that is the truth, this was like a church tonight... a beautiful church with special things floating around that meant something. I paid special tribute to our good friend Tony Pankhurst, our tour guide for this entire trip - driving us, getting us comfortably from place to place all because he just wants to do it. He’s just a great guy. So for tonight’s special tribute to him, we played his favorite song from our album This Side of the Big River” from 1975 - “John Tucker’s on the Wagon Again“.. it was great to see the fans loving this song as much as Tony was. Big thanks for your camaraderie over the years Tony. We ended the show with the song are used to end with back in the 70s from my Last Chance album called "I Wasn’t Born in Tennessee“ - there was lots of cheering and smiling after this one ..and saying hello after that. Hello to: Hi Bernard so nice talking to you… Thank you for the kind words and please send our best wishes and love to GILL. Simon and Tracy and Arthur and Graham and Philip and Adam from Leek… See you soon. Hi Brian… Those were the sweetest words you said.. about “closing your eyes and drifting away“ as we played the song beautiful place... I guess sort of that’s what I was doing on stage is John and Göran we are working their magic.. see you soon Brian. There were several I spoke to whose names I didn’t get… Thank you very much for coming it was just a beautiful life for those of us on stage and the rest .. let’s do it again. Another great thing for me on stage tonight what’s the look out into the audience and see the smiling and warm faces and looked a little bit to the left and see my wife, Joan, there... and her beautiful smile of hers. This was a very special night it was one of total camaraderie and a spirit that is hard to beat .. thanks for sharing this night with us. Hope to see you soon. PS .. thanks Brett and Jason and Paul and Andy ..see you all soon.
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