acoustic night

it was a beautiful saturday afternoon, the rain had broken and the oppressive heat of the preceding days lifted--perfect weather for chilling outside and listening to the acoustic boys (no lady musicians tonight) on the porch--now i struggled with whether to tell the story of how Matt Ward saved me from burning the neighborhood down--but in the spirit of moving along (plus this story makes me seem like a complete idiot) i will just say that i missed Joe Magnum because i was busy in the backyard--hard to give up the back to the skeeters but yes i surrender--Pocket Full of Rain sounded especially good, the front porch is fine, songs of trying not to be bitter, sometimes sadness is ok and i for one really felt Pocket's tales of love and loss--1 song about the shows themselves, self depreciating 3 chords, and whats that song--wagon wheel by old crow medicine show--very nice--and Joe Harbison who I can't help but compare to a young Jack White, who tore through his set, nailing all those high notes but still sounding tough, most memorably a brilliant song set on death row where our doomed protagonist takes a pregnant pause to appreciate the church that sent him a fruit cake--this shit is deep--Records Night, named after nights of record sharing with pop and sis, really fun and disarming, sad songs funny songs, 1 a love song set in 1986, they used to call him fat willie, you know--all to set up Doc Dailey--authentic honkey tonk ballads, complete with Alabamian flags--stranger, stranger, i don't know you but i want to love you--or the story of the woman who's husband didn't pick her up from the airport, she takes a cab back home, catches her man with another lady in his pickup truck, so she tells the cabbie to take her straight to the bar where she has a divorce party--my favorite line--i'm just a pinball in this pool hall fueled by honkey tonk and alcohol--by the end of the show, we had the porch lights up, very rock and roll against the coming night--very peaceful, very satisfying--and isn't that how an acoustic night should make you feel--until tomorrow night--keep on rocking