Dallas, TX
September 20, 2002
~ Gregg
September 20, 2002 could not arrive fast enough for me. In addition to being my 33rd birthday, the evening marked the return of the guys to the stage here in Texas. Although I wish it were in my honor that they chose to mark the return from their annual Pacific Northwest excursion, I knew it was really just dumb luck.
I arrived extra early at Sons of Hermann Hall (SOHH) to make sure I didn’t miss a thing. I wanted to make sure
Intending to kill the extra time in the downstairs bar, I was more than pleasantly surprised to find Willy & Jay engaged in a heated shuffleboard match against David and Jimmy. Seeing that there weren’t a whole crowd of people in the bar, I decided to take advantage of the quiet time to get my questions out of the way and then enjoy the show … little did I know what was in store.
Since members of the band are so easily approachable, it never feels awkward when you want to take a minute of their time. I ordered a Shiner and wandered toward the end of the bar near the shuffleboard table. Trying not to interrupt the game, I chatted with Willy about a couple of insignificant things and was then fully prepared to wander off and let them finish in peace. Instead, Willy asked if I played shuffleboard … I said yes, albeit poorly, and he told me to stick around and we’d play. Who was I to argue?
What happened next was like being at party for some friends where the band was going to play. Willy and I ended up sitting at the end of the bar drinking beer and talking. There was talk about everything from this site (Thanks for the very kind words and encouragement guys!!) to the fun (& trouble) you can find in New Orleans, to record deals, to pretty girls, to the murder rate in Washington D.C. We even briefly touched on what I do for a living but since I knew that I’d put Willy and everyone else in the bar into a coma if I went into too much detail, I quickly diverted the conversation to a more stimulating topic. I don’t know how long we sat there but it was both an eternity and a blink of the eye all at once.
Willy had to go change and get ready for the show but not before getting a new Steve Earle t-shirt
After Mary left the stage, I took up in my preferred location immediately to the left of the stairs leading to the stage and in front of Cody’s monitor. The crowd seemed reluctant to join me at the stage but I paid them no mind as I was on a mission. There was no Sopranos opening but “Baby’s Gone Blues” kicked off the show and I let the music flow over me washing away everything but the here and now. Occupying what now seems to be its preferred spot in the set, “Desolation Angels” again floored me and cemented my opinion of its greatness. There was another first (for me anyway) to this show as “Alice White” entered the set … a welcome addition in my opinion, as well as David on the lap steel guitar.
The encore showed off a new arrangement of “Wicked Twisted Road”
I took a crazy number of pictures (118 to be exact) and it was over all way too soon. I took a minute to thank Cody for a great show on my birthday and made my way back home. I knew that no matter how much I wanted to stay and make the night last forever, the sun was indeed going to rise the next day and I had even bigger plans for Saturday ...
that I got a chance to ask Willy a couple of questions before they took the stage. For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to attend a show at SOHH, it’s like journeying back in time to a meeting at the local Elks lodge. The ballroom is upstairs while a small bar occupies part of the first floor. Complete with bowling pin shaped beer bottles above the mirror behind the bar, a shuffleboard table, a jukebox and pool table, it’s a magical time machine that takes you back to 1959 or so.
In the meantime, Cody strolls in and he and I begin to talk. I asked him how he thought the trip back home and around the Pacific Northwest went ... he replied that since there weren’t any arrests, van break-downs and they made all of their gigs, it was a success in his mind. He also mentioned that the trip to Nashville to play at the Americana Music Association’s conference was particularly exciting since they got to play a few songs with The Flatlanders during the encore.
from one of the aforementioned pretty girls which he promised to wear on stage. I headed upstairs and as I entered the ballroom, I noticed that the SOHH people had put a RK promo poster on the glass. It was an older poster from the Stubb’s CD but it had “Friday September 20 with Mary Cutrufello” written by hand on it so I knew I wanted it. I explained how it was my birthday and all to the girl working the door and she smiled and said she’d “look the other way for a minute.” I thanked her profusely, snatched the poster promoting a show on my actual birthday and went inside.
I got to catch the later portion of Mary Cutrufello’s show and the next time I get a chance, I’ll be sure to see the whole show. The songs I saw were pure emotion. She sings from heart in a way that few others can, with emotion oozing from the PA system.
As I mentioned, while the crowd seemed to be enjoying itself, they seemed a bit reluctant to totally let themselves take what the boys were offering. In fact, Willy even jokingly admonished them with a “Come a little closer, this isn’t a church social.” This is a shame … whatever the crowd offers up in energy, the band returns tenfold. I’m making it my personal mission to work on the Dallas contingent’s energy level.
with Cody and David joining Willy in telling a vivid picture of young love that everyone can relate to in one way or another. Instead of wrapping it up with “Hurricane” as the set list showed, the band brought Mary Cutrufello up to join them on “The Rain Came Down” and “You Ain’t Going Nowhere”. I did get to meet a couple of other diehard fans named Rowdy and Lori that I’ve seen at almost every Dallas show. They’re friends of Jimmy’s and we made plans to see each other at the Trees show in October.