Matt and Jeannie and Joey

We were very, very delighted to attend Matt and Jeannie's wedding this past weekend and had a super, marvelous, really really nice time!

But that's not what this blog's about of course.  While we were in the mid-Hudson area we followed the wedding itinerary and showed up at Keegan Ales in Kingston on Saturday night.  Kingston is a funky old town with lots of houses made from the local metamorphic shale, many (to my further delight) featuring real wood shutters that could be closed over the windows to shut off the cold blasts coming over the Shawungunk Mountains.

We had a few beers and then Joey Eppard took the stage.  He knocked us all dead with an opening acoustic number that rocked the bejeesus out of us.  This was pyrotechnic acoustic guitar, featuring an incredible array of right-hand strumming positions, a lot of volume, and some fine vocal wailing.

Then his band came on and and they impressed too, though they were not really ready for prime time.  Hey, you can't expect a Saturday night band in a bar in a small town to be ready for prime time ... more like ready for free beer, and they were way beyond that ... they deserved every ounce of applause they got.  I didn't catch any names but the super-cool woman on bass was very talented (but could have stepped up more), the keyboard player had some great riffs (but when he ran out of them he kind of sat there), the rhythm guitarist was perfect for backing up Joey (would have liked to hear him play more than one lead), and the drummer could have used a little variety.

The star of the show was Joey, who has some great guitar chops and a really good rock voice.  He needed to bring his band into the tunes more and could have kept some things simpler to great advantage.  Enough with the criticism, we loved it and would like to go see Joey Eppard again ... hopefully closer than Kingston.  And hopefully the next time we go back to Keegan Ales they'll have their best stuff on.