small frustrations and big mercies
This evening before the Jeffrey Foucault show, renenet and I decided that two makes a pattern as far as h.l and crazy straight girls goes. The upshot of this conversation was: no more getting hung up on crazy straight girls. We're going to try to ease me out of both the crazy and the straight at once, but at this point I'd settle for one out of two.
Then there was stuff about motorcycles, which boils down to: I would be a danger to myself and others on a motorcycle, so renenet won't buy one for me, and I can't afford one anyway, but I still want one. Dammit.
Then there was the show itself, which was spectacular, with Sterling Waters opening (unfortunately, the best song he did isn't out on CD yet) and Jeff tearing it up for two sets. The first set alone would have made up for a much worse week than I've had. I love all the songs he did in that first set, but especially "Moonshiner," which is possibly my favorite track off Redbird (though admittedly I have a lot of favorites on that disc), and two songs off the forthcoming CD that pretty much stop my heart every time:
there's no more room for angels
to dance or even stand
upon this pin entangled
bleeding sugar from our hands
bleeding ashes from our feet
won't you help me count my sheep
tonight
...from "Stripping Cane," which Jeff once referred to in concert as "the euphemism song" and which makes me want to do a mix CD called Doomed Sex.
and we fought all night
and then we danced in your kitchen
and you were as much in my hands
as water, or darkness,
or nothing that can ever be held
...from "Northbound 35," which may be the single most beautiful and heartbreaking song he's ever written, and which I love inside-out. When he played it tonight I heard in my head the harmony line that doesn't go with it but should.
And other stuff too: "One Trick Pony"; a fantastic new version of "Crossing Mississippi" that beats the album version hollow; a faster-tempo take on "I'm Alright"; a couple of fine covers; stories involving rental cars, neices, new underwear, and being an opening act (though not all at once); and, you know, all the stuff that makes it a Jeff show, including some truly killer slide guitar on a scorching rendition of "The Four-and-Twenty Blues."
Man, I can't believe the new CD's not coming out until August. I may not make it.
Then there was stuff about motorcycles, which boils down to: I would be a danger to myself and others on a motorcycle, so renenet won't buy one for me, and I can't afford one anyway, but I still want one. Dammit.
Then there was the show itself, which was spectacular, with Sterling Waters opening (unfortunately, the best song he did isn't out on CD yet) and Jeff tearing it up for two sets. The first set alone would have made up for a much worse week than I've had. I love all the songs he did in that first set, but especially "Moonshiner," which is possibly my favorite track off Redbird (though admittedly I have a lot of favorites on that disc), and two songs off the forthcoming CD that pretty much stop my heart every time:
there's no more room for angels
to dance or even stand
upon this pin entangled
bleeding sugar from our hands
bleeding ashes from our feet
won't you help me count my sheep
tonight
...from "Stripping Cane," which Jeff once referred to in concert as "the euphemism song" and which makes me want to do a mix CD called Doomed Sex.
and we fought all night
and then we danced in your kitchen
and you were as much in my hands
as water, or darkness,
or nothing that can ever be held
...from "Northbound 35," which may be the single most beautiful and heartbreaking song he's ever written, and which I love inside-out. When he played it tonight I heard in my head the harmony line that doesn't go with it but should.
And other stuff too: "One Trick Pony"; a fantastic new version of "Crossing Mississippi" that beats the album version hollow; a faster-tempo take on "I'm Alright"; a couple of fine covers; stories involving rental cars, neices, new underwear, and being an opening act (though not all at once); and, you know, all the stuff that makes it a Jeff show, including some truly killer slide guitar on a scorching rendition of "The Four-and-Twenty Blues."
Man, I can't believe the new CD's not coming out until August. I may not make it.