Rockin

Played a gig at Bin 612 in the Cotten District with a new friend I have made here in town. Last Friday we jammed in a yurt with a fire pit a few doors down. Buddy is good on lead and can play harp. He has a number of clever tunes in the tradition of Billy Sugarfix or Magnetic Fields, but like those bands I have a great deal of trouble evaluating such tunes in my field of reference. They hold no content for me. Pal O' Mine is more in the tradition of early Dylan and The Grateful Dead. In Chapel Hill, covers were forbidden. In Starkville, anytime anyone stands up and starts strumming a guitar a vacant-eyed frat boy with hippie hair will ask, you know any John Prine? You know any James Taylor? Anyways, we stuck to our original material, more or less. Played some gospel in the E.C. and Orna Ball vein. We have a regular Monday night gig now. Bin 612 is a very nice bar, with patio seating right on the street, nice interior, and they serve food. We don't get paid, but we can drink free. We have a twenty-five dollar limit on the bar tab. This is a good thing. The bars close at midnight here, which surprised me. That is a very good thing as well. I am going to have to learn some covers to keep this crowd engaged. It is an entirely student crowd, unlike Chapel Hill. There is no slacker subculture here feeding off the fat of the land. And most of these students are molecular biology or aeronautical engineering students. Please suggest some covers that are not too obvious and haven't been beat to death by evey busker from Tokyo to Innsbruck to Cambridge and Aspen. I'm thinkin to placate the Dylan fans "Meet Me In The Morning." from "Blood on The Tracks," if they ask for Neil Young I'm going with "Out of My Mind," by Buffalo Springfield. Absolutely no Taylor, Buffet or Dead will come from this troubadour. I am feeling nauseous just thinking about it. Please nobody tell Kevin or Crow or Shawn that I am even considering this. How about "Sitting in Limbo?" could I pull that off? I heard a friend play "Redemption Song" once and thought that it was very pretty. But the idea of drunk college kids grooving to that just about makes me keel over. Am I just arrogant? Do I need to just get over it? I could have some fun with "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," or "Your Gonna Miss Me," or maybe "Primitive," but this crowd won't even recognize that shit. Is there a Skynard song I could do and not throw up? I have always liked "Gimme Back My Bullets," and you don't hear that one that often. My set list last night:
War
Omaha
Data
Bird
Golden Green
Schoenste Tag (this is a cover of a Tocotronic song, but doesn't count due to extreme obscurity.)
Hundred Ways to Roll (none of yu'uns have heard this'n}

With the T-man I did:
Trials, Troubles, Tribulations (An E. C. and Orna Ball Tune)
Full Throttle
Radical
2nd Coming
One Day (E.C. and Orna again)

Somebody at one of the tables said there was a band there recently called the "Waco Dead." In the confusion I thought he said "Grateful Dead," and I tried to explain that, while I had a lot of respect for the Dead, I couldn't really listen to them or play that kind of music or any kind of jam music for that matter. No no, he said, this was a band called the Waco Dead, he siad. The Waco Dead? I replied. Now perhaps I would listen to that.

I suppose in the end I will have to work this out for myself, just like everything else. But I would appreciate some suggestions. If anyone wants to check us out this Monday we will be at Bin 612 in the Cotten District in Starkville Mississippi. Come on down. Ask to hear some Hank. Ask for Phish. I'm used to it. The question is, do I give in? And to what degree?