Things started out slow tonight, but a few friends came in during the first set, so it didn't seem so bad. By 11 p.m., there was a small but enthusiastic crowd of about 20. Jesse was in excellent form, although he did tell me he'd been doing mostly songwriting lately and hadn't played a gig in over two weeks. He was drinking Pepsi and extolling the virtues of playing straight, having just come out of a debilitating bout with substances. It was good to see him so happy and alert. He had to get up in the morning to catch a flight to L.A. where he's doing a short series of shows with Terry Evans, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner at Borders Books & Music. Apparently down there, Borders has a full concert venue incorporated into the store.

Jesse brought along a recent acquaintance, Toby, on bass from Apple Music downtown, who had never played Jesse's stuff before. He managed well enough, and we rocked. I have played nearly 20 gigs with Jesse and knew most of the material, although it had been about five months since my last gig with him.

I brought along an ancient Peavy PA amp--the kind with all high-impedance mike inputs from the 70's. It was having to drive the two 8-ohm EV house mains and was having to work at it. We discovered midway through the second set that one of the mains wasn't working, which explained the extra load on the old amp. That fixed, the sound was way better and much more controllable. I'm considering hiring someone to do sound, although it'd have to be on some sort of trade basis, since I'm pretty much cash free for this gig.

High points for me included Jesse's great rendition of the old gospel tune, "People Get Ready", and a lovely version of Hendrix's "Little Wing". We had a great time with the Creedance arrangement of "Midnight Special" and got everyone up shuffling for "Tore Down". Local soul crooner and blues shouter, Rico Lopez, sat in with us for a smooth version of B.B.'s "The Thrill Is Gone", and a generic shuffle in C, to great response from the attentive crowd. Rico was scouting around for a bass player and drummer for his weekend gig. Both of us were busy, so wished him luck. Other standouts were Jesse's original songs off his last CD, "Play Watcha Feel", which Toby had practiced with, so they were pretty tight. We ended the night with the James Gang's "Funk 49", and I went into concert drumming mode and upped the energy a quantum bit --I do love the James Gang.

The bartender said it was a good night overall. Hopper's has a later crowd, and was at its peak at about 11:45 p.m. Although I did manage to get the gig in all the papers and on the radio, only two people came in because they'd seen it advertised, and the rest was word of mouth, or they were regulars. I think next week, I'm going to get on the phones and create some word of mouth. Also, I think I'll start recording the proceedings. Jesse was being very forthcoming as an MC, giving a personal history of his relationships with most of the songs he played which was very interesting. It lent a "Storytellers" sort of atmosphere to the gig, and I liked that. I think I'll encourage the following acts to do the same, resulting in some unique recordings, no doubt.

Hope to see you down at Hopper's next Tuesday night!

Boyd