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One of those Nights
Yesterdays thanksgiving dinner was warm and fuzzy with the whole band enjoying a great day on the road. Winter is here, fall is definitely gone. The ride to Pittsburgh is cold and windy. The bus feels the gusts as it cuts its way through the high winds. The blackbirds fly in tight formation changing direction with each updraft. Not a leaf on the trees. The 2 hour plus ride is short and sweet. We are headed for home and are feelin good, but there still is some unfinished business out here to attend to. Four more shows in this run.
Hunter sang Promontory Rider-Territory Ranger tonight. One of my favorites. He is getting better and better every night. His confidence is growing. He does a sweet Friend of the Devil and ends with an a cappella version of Boys in the Bar Room. The last line is,"May the good Lord deliver our kind," and the arena goes nuts.
Bill and I are playing so well together these days. We have never played like this on a nightly basis. Very consistant and inspired. It reminds me of a quote from the great John Blacking, scholar of the anthropogy of music. He said once that,"Music is not an escape from reality; it is an adventure into reality, the reality of the world of the spirit. It is an experience of becoming, in which the individual consciousness of the community becomes the source of richer cultural forms. For example, if two drummers play exactly the same surface rhythm, but maintain an individual inner difference of tempo or beat, they produce something more than their individual efforts." Blacking could have been talking about us when he said this many years ago.
We play "I'm a hog for you Baby" after taking a detour for drums w/Susan, sandwiched between these songs. She is starting to become integrated into the vocal arsenal of this band. Tonight it is Sally(Jeff), Rob, Bill, me and Bobby at the helm of a first set Drums.We want to break out of some of our old habits like Drums in second set every night. It works well as Susan spits out the supralingua with no bass and lead guitar in this configuration.
The Eleven stands alone without its tether to St. Stephen. Another break in tradition.A beautiful instrumental Stella Blue just stops me cold. Candace, Queen of Lights, had this circular movement to the lights which were moving in perfect order on my timbale head. It looked like the head of the drum was moving round by itself. I stared for a while and drifted into its trance. I was transported back to Winterland in San Francisco, circa 1978. It is funny how a song can take you back to a time and sense of place. Tonight was one of those nights.
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