Phil Returns To the Cap, 2021 part 3

 Slightly better sleep at the Days Inn on Tuesday night, but still not optimal, especially with the light through the windows and the other guests packing up and leaving at 5AM.  Oh well, at least we had soap now!  The coffee was as above average as ever and we tapped some of our cache of PB&B sandwiches instead of the cheap chocolate breakfast.  The WiFi was working as well as ever though, and we downloaded an aud from last night, had a few coffees, and thought about what we'd do that day.

We didn't want an adventurous hike like the one we'd done Tuesday, since we didn't want to get all tired out before a third concert in a row (rock concerts are hard!).  And we were kind of fascinated by the glimpses of the Hudson River and the Tappan Zee bridge we'd seen the day before.  Looking on the map I saw that there was a walkable-but-still-incomplete riverwalk in Tarrytown: the Westchester Riverwalk is planned to extend for 50 miles North from Yonkers but is very incomplete at this point except for stretches in Tarrytown and Croton-on-Hudson.  We weren't sure if it went under the bridge, but decided to check it out and at some point detour into town for lunch.

The Tappan Zee is a section of the Hudson River which abuts Tarrytown on the East and is the widest part of the river, extending up to 3 miles across.  "Tappan Zee" is a weird mashup of American Indian and Dutch words (as are many place names around there) that basically means, "sea where the Tappan tribe lives."  A bridge was built across it in the mid-50s and then replaced in 2017, and this bridge carries a *lot* of traffic.  I've been over it more times than I want to remember, usually through thick traffic.  The bridges have been named after various politicians, but this changes.  Why did they build a bridge across the widest part of the river??  I have no idea.

Anyway, we saddled up and drove the few miles over to Tarrytown, where we wound through downtown and around the train station and parked in Pierson Park, with some helpful advice from a resident about what lots to avoid so we didn't get a ticket.  This was a wonderful place on another beautiful but breezy Fall day.  The temperature was unseasonably warm that day and the timing for seeing the riverside park was fabulous.

We started South first and followed the riverwalk around the yacht clubs and the city recreation building and past Losee Park.  The sun was brilliant in a blue sky, the river was whipped up into whitecaps, and the visibility over to the West side and both North and South were incredible.  After a mile or so we were almost under the bridge but the trail petered out ... it would have had to cross back over the busy railroad tracks to continue to the next section, which they'll figure out someday.  But right there was the large but almost deserted Washington Irving Boat Club, and they had signs out saying that their patio was open for lunch, stop in and have a beer!  So we did.

Another great Tarrytown lunch, this time on a patio at the edge of the river, and with a view that couldn't be beat.  We could see the skyline of Manhattan 30 miles to the South, the cliffs along the Hudson on the other side, and the majestic new bridge towering over us all.  The patio just had a few other parties at the scattered tables (must be mobbed in mid-summer), and the sun and temperature were great, kept bearable by the constant breeze.

After lunch we headed North past Pierson Park and up another mile or so to the Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse in Edge-on-Hudson.  Armies of gardeners were planting flowers, bushes, and grasses along the riverwalk through that section, and this will probably be a fantastic place to visit when they're done, though now it's a bit of a construction site.  There are fancy condos all along there and we fantasized about how nice it would be to live on a beautiful riverwalk  with such great views, in walking distance from the train station that gets you to NYC in an hour.  But then we realized that the constant hum from the traffic on the bridge would drive us crazy and the best condos were going for $2MM.

At one point a bug hopped out of a bush and we saw it was a praying mantis.  We paused to look at it and a woman walking her little white dog stopped too.  We said to her, "Look, it's a praying mantis!"  She gave a shrug and said, "Just watch out for the rats along here!"  Then she walked away and tossed back over her shoulder, "I'm serious!"  She should probably move back to the city.

OK, time to get going and head back to the hotel, where I tried to take another afternoon nap, to no avail.  Soon we were getting ready to go and then we were off, back to Port Chester and the Kiosko.

This time they were slightly less surprised to see us again, but our usual table was taken.  Another FOD joined us for dinner, and it was another great one, though this time I couldn't finish my quesadillas de la casa.  Down to the Cap for the last time on this visit and again, inside and up to our seats with no problem.  We were again in the exact same seat numbers, but two rows farther from the stage.

This night they had the ceiling lit up with some shifting psychedelic patterns and the ambience was as good as ever.  Still not sold out, but perhaps a little more crowded as we got closer to the weekend.  Amy Helm was back in place of Elliott, and the stage setup was the same as always.  The guys soon came out and started up the first set:

• Jack Straw
• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• Ship of Fools
• Peggy-O
• Tennessee Jed
• Touch of Grey

We were sure that they would play some real Phil stuff this evening, perhaps Dark Star or TOO or Caution/Lovelight, or at least Unbroken Chain or Mountains Of the Moon, and so were ready for the best concert of the set, though things didn't work out as we expected.  They started with the classic intro to Jack Straw, which was done very well, with verses traded between all vocalists.  Amy was back as good as ever.

Next up was one of Amy's best vocals of the set, a "The Band" version of Masterpiece that allowed her to emote better than Bobby ever has on this song.  Johnson sang Ship Of Fools and again turned in a decent vocal.  Then they did a great Peggy-O with Amy again dominating.  Next they covered Tennessee Jed in the arrangement that Amy's father had recorded it in (on his Emmy-winning record), with Grahame turning in perhaps *his* best vocal of the set.  The best part of this though was Kaufman just going nuts on the guitar lead, getting weirder and weirder before he threw it back to Grahame.  Last song of the set was a well-done Touch, with Johnson on vocals.

So there we were, a little disappointed that they hadn't played any real extended jams yet, though they had stretched out all these songs.  The setlists may look short, but the sets themselves were all pretty hefty.  We were sure they'd do a Dark Star or a St. Stephen/The Eleven jam in the second set, but here's what we got:

• Truckin'
• So Many Roads
• Caledonia Mission
• Bird Song
• Let It Grow
• Stella Blue
• Rag Mama Rag
• Not Fade Away
• Morning Dew

Can't complain about Truckin', especially when it's followed by a juicy jam, and especially when sung with the enthusiasm Grahame and Amy brought to it.  At the end of Truckin' we thought the jam could go anywhere and we were hoping for TOO.  But instead it was followed by a very good So Many Roads, with Eric Johnson at his best.  Next up was another "The Band" song sung by Amy and Grahame in tight harmony (though they're no Rick and Levon), and another song I thought I'd never hear live: Caledonia Mission.  I've loved this song for years, a nice treat!

Bird Song (sung by Phil) and Let It Grow (Grahame) were well done, but we were beginning to realize that our highly-anticipated seamless second set jam was not going to make an appearance.  However, these were followed by another tour de force from Amy, crooning Stella Blue with exquisite accompaniment.  But then why did they do another The Band song sung by Johnson?  He didn't sing Rag Mama Rag with any of the funkiness this song needs, and we were left wondering what he really contributed to this band, except for some nice harmonies.

The set was winding down and we thought we might get away without NFA, but that was next.  This is a great song and some seminal rock 'n' roll, but to my ear the "audience participation" at the end of it is tired and boring.  And one funny thing about this set was that Phil was a little testy.  He had done some glaring at his son and at Joe earlier in the set, like they weren't doing their job of holding the band together, when it was his fucking band!  He later got annoyed when Grahame wanted to go back into the verse in Bird Song before he did, and ended up almost stopping the song and trying to conduct.  And then in NFA he wanted the crowd to sing louder and then wanted them to stop on a dime when he told them to stop.  Crabby old man, but we love him!

And then after NFA we were treated to another great peak of the whole stand: Amy and Grahame duetting on Morning Dew.  We'd seen the two of them do this before with Allison Russell, but this was a pure call and response between them in which Amy repeatedly asked plaintively why she couldn't go out in the morning dew, and Grahame would tell her gently to forget about it.  And the best part was Grahame capping his excellent guitar work with a crescendo worthy of a Garcia, and then a final vocal coda.

Woohoo, that was just the best!  Old Phil came out and did yet another donor rap that couldn't be beat, and then the band came back out and popped off one of the perfect Attics Of My Life that Grahame and Amy can do.  Eric Johnson was the other part of the trio and he again showed what a great voice he can add to the right situation.  Hard not to think of the first time we saw Amy do this, in the *hot* sun at Gathering Of the Vibes 2011, while pregnant fit to bust, with Larry and Teresa and also Bob Weir.

OMG, Phil was still puttering around with his equipment but it was time for us to say fare thee well and get back to reality.  One of our Philcations down to the Cap can be so much fun, with its share of ups and downs but mostly the best ups.  Back to the car and the hotel and perhaps this time a good night's sleep at the Days Inn?  Dream on!

Phil Returns To the Cap, 2021 part 2

 As I say, the one(?) good thing about the Days Inn in Elmsford was it had acceptable free coffee in the lobby.  And there was a very nice morning desk clerk!  Dave brought back coffee while I was in the shower and the cups had a Wyndham Hotel tagline (Days Inn is owned by Wyndham) on them: "You deserve this!"  It cracked us up.  We had all had miserable night's sleep, the bagged breakfast they gave us contained an industrial chocolate chip muffin, a chocolate chip granola bar, a plastic cup of diced peaches, and a water bottle.  And there was still no soap or chairs.

Whatever, we showered with shampoo, had "breakfast," Dave downloaded an aud of last night's concert, and the sun was shining on another beautiful Fall day.  After hanging around for a bit, we started to wonder about an excursion, and Dave noticed Tarrytown Lakes Park was nearby.

This was a great excursion!  They have about 4 miles of trails and we covered most of them.  The day was wonderful as I say, there was some up and down, and there were very few people.  The woods there were fascinating, holding an incredible variety of trees from huge old white oaks to tiny cedars we'd never seen before.  Most of the area was also covered with vines, and we had no idea if these were invasive or not.  There were at least three different varieties of these that we didn't recognize.

The trail started as a wide bike path up on a berm, but there were several different networks of smaller trails that wound and wound through the relatively small park downhill toward the lakes, that used to be the reservoirs for Tarrytown but were retired in 1993.  We saw chipmunks and squirrels, many types of birds, a couple of snakes, and a small deer who thought he had found a cozy hiding place until we walked on an overgrown trail near him.  There were several mysterious stone structures scattered throughout the overgrown woods, and we ended up in a deserted soccer field back close to where we started.

Wonderful couple-of-hours walk, and the next task was to find a CVS!  We were sick of having no soap and the tap water at the Days Inn was not potable (we had finished the water we brought).  A quick internet search led us to detour into downtown Tarrytown, headed for the CVS and also in search of a good place to get lunch.  Loaded with soap and water, we parked and cruised a few restaurants, and then settled on Sweet Grass Grill.  The outdoor tables were full but the inside room was not crowded at all (though it subsequently almost filled up with a late-afternoon lunch crowd) and we got a table near the window, where we had an excellent meal and I had a great local Abbey beer.  We'd already decided we liked Tarrytown a lot, especially since one of the places we passed downtown was the Tarrytown Music Hall, which advertised some excellent acts.

OK, time to go back to the hotel (we deserved it!) and get ready for the concert.  Left at about the same time as we had the day before and went through the same routine: park behind Kiosko and go in for another Mexican dinner that couldn't be beat.  They were surprised to see us back and we got the same table and the same waitress who didn't speak English, though we got by.

Tuesday night was exactly the same band and stage setup as it had been Monday, except Elliott Peck subbed for Amy Helm.  No entry delays again, and we were soon settled back in our balcony seats (exactly a row behind where we'd been Monday) with a beer and one of Dave's Twitter friends.  Great seats and great timing again and the band soon came out for the first set:

• Uncle John's Band
• He's Gone
• It Must Have Been the Roses
• Brown-Eyed Women
• Cassidy
• New Speedway Boogie

Debatable whether this should be Jam > UJB, but it was a great start anyway!  I love the sound of Peck's voice and as much as Helm had done a great job the night before, Peck shone on Tuesday.  Her backup vocals on He's Gone and then her lead vocal on It Must Have Been the Roses were surreal.  This was followed by another great Brown-Eyed Women that unfortunately stayed a little grounded because of Eric Johnson's lead vocal.

Oh well, then Elliott took over again (with Johnson trying to hang on) for a spectacular Cassidy.  And this was followed by a tribal-beat New Speedway on which the rhythm section of Joe and Phil excelled.  Elliott has a great low range and sang this with the dread and power it requires.  One oddity was that Johnson got out his harmonica on the first verse and played a bar or two, then put it away!?!  The mixing problems from Monday were not apparent and Kaufman had apparently been given some more leash and used it to whip up some spacey guitar leads, at times trading off with Grahame.  A great first set in which they really played to their strengths!

Halftime again and this really *was* halftime in our three-concert set.  I'd hoped they'd be showing the baseball game on the TVs at the bar, as they had when the Mets were in the World Series, but they didn't and I had to rely on phone updates to get the Red Sox score.  They'd whipped the Houston Astros in the ALCS on Monday at Fenway Park, but this night the score was closer, Red Sox leading 2-1 (they eventually lost and dropped the series).

Time for the second set, in which we hoped to get some more Phil space like Dark Star and Caution.  Didn't get those but this was perhaps the best set of the stand:

• Help On the Way
• Slipknot!
• China Doll
• Franklin's Tower
• Estimated Prophet
• Eyes Of the World
• Scarlet Begonias
• The Music Never Stopped

Again a nice introduction by Grahame and Stuart to a great song in Help (sung by Grahame), and then a powerful, Russo-led romp into Slipknot! ... fantastic stuff and we were dancing in the balcony.  And after that, a twist: they calmed down and the spotlight landed on Benmont.  He'd done a spectacular China Doll when we'd last seen him with Phil, and this one was almost as good.  The previous one had been basically a duet between him and Phil, but this time the whole band backed him up and he sparkled on piano and the bluesy vocal tones.  They followed that up by sliding into Franklin's Tower (sung by Phil) to close the set-piece.  As mentioned, this was not a turn-on-a-dime band, but Joe did the best he could to glue the songs together and Grahame did the best he could at herding cats.

Another mellow and spooky intro to Phil dropping out the bottom into Estimated, with great backup by Elliott.  This then slid into the expected Eyes, and this one was knocked out of the park.  Bogie was playing great sax and Tench was swirling around on the organ; Grahame was doing his best Bobby impression and Kaufman was off the leash, running through the forest.  Johnson turned in one of his best vocals, and of course Elliott and Grahame supplied excellent choruses.

Next a fantastic Scarlet, with a long intro until Joe convinced them to stop wandering around.  And again this featured some great ensemble singing, between Grahame, Johnson, and Elliott.  Then a full stop, and perhaps the song of the night.  We'd seen P&F featuring Elliott do Music in Bangor a few years ago, and this was just as exciting!  She nails those Donna parts, and Bogie's sax and clarinet gave this the swinging vibe this song deserves.

Yikes, that was a great set!  Time to collapse into our seats again and realize how much our feet were hurting from dancing until daylight se we could greet the morning air with song.  The crowd had actually thinned out a little, as this *was* a work night for some people and there were trains that couldn't be missed.  But soon the old guy came out for another donor rap and we all paid rapt attention.  Who knew how long he'd be doing this?

He announced they had another song, and this was one of my favorites, Cold Rain and Snow.  Phil took the lead vocals again and his voice was still in great shape.  And of course Elliott and Grahame just knocked us dead with their backup.  Yay, a great concert and we still had another left.

Hung out at the seats again for a few minutes until the crowd died down, but this is one of the great things about the Cap, even when it's sold out there isn't much of a problem getting in and out of it.  Back up to Kiosko and then an unimpeded drive up the Expressway to Elmsford.  Again, in bed just before 1:00 after a fun night.

Phil Returns To the Cap, 2021 part 1

 As some of you know, we've been having a pandemic and that's put the kibosh on a lot of shows.  We'd hoped to see Phil Lesh and Friends at the Cap in Port Chester for his 80th birthday back in March 2020.  But that and then any hope of his doing a Halloween run there vanished.  Again in March 2021, the pandemic was still raging (though vaccines were becoming available) and there was no show.  At last he announced, back in the later Spring when an end to the pandemic seemed possible, that he'd be playing three sets of three shows each over two weeks in October!

We strategized and settled on going down there for the middle set of three, for which there was the usual mad ticket rush, but for which we snagged center balcony seats.  They eventually announced who'd be with him for the three sets and we mentally high-fived our decision.  The first set would be "The Q," whom we'd seen with him and liked but weren't our ideal band.  The second set would be his son Grahame, Benmont Tench, Amy Helm/Eliot Peck alternating, Joe F. Russo(!), Stuart Bogie on woodwinds, and the pair of Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman, whom we'd seen with Bonnie Light Horseman at the Green River Festival.  The third set is going to be basically Dawes, Nicki Bluhm, and Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams ... a mixed bag because Dawes (Taylor Goldsmith et al.) doesn't seem entirely to click with him from what we've heard, but we'd love to see the latter three again.

Anyway, excitement built and the pandemic kept hanging on because of stupidity and misinformation, as well as epidemiology.  Not my role to explain the 21st century here, thank dog, but we might have cancelled out except for the fact that they announced proof of vaccination would be required at the Cap.  We decided to take the risk, though I had what might have been the virus in the week before it, thankfully in time to get a negative test.  Dreamflower was going to join us but had to cancel out because of a virus scare in her family, but we were lucky enough to find Twitter friends of Dave's for the Tuesday and Wednesday tickets.

Another twist was that the hotel we've settled on for Port Chester excursions, the La Quinta in Armonk NY, has apparently closed!?!  We looked around and found relatively good prices at a Days Inn in Elmsford NY, though that proved to be a bad decision.

OK, enough background?  Dave drove up on Sunday and we packed up and headed Southwest around 1PM on a beautiful Fall Monday, October 18th.  Dave was driving and I was napping until we got to Connecticut.  Traffic was manic but quick, until we got to Waterville, where it backed up due to major construction.  We took route 8 South at that point and switched over to the Merritt Parkway, the Hutchinson River Parkway in NY, and then the Cross-Westchester Expressway to Elmsford, which slowed to a crawl as we approached the Tappan Zee bridge.

Friendly people with masks at the Days Inn when we got there, and they had decent coffee in the lobby.  But there was not much else good about it.  They seemed to be in the business of housing people doing construction on the roads around there, and they all got up and went to work (noisily) early.  And there was no soap in the bathroom!?!  We asked at the desk and were told that it was a supply chain problem, they had more on order.  WTF??  Why didn't they take the responsibility of going to the local store and spending some petty cash to get bar soap for their guests?  There were also no chairs in the room!?!  Sarah eventually asked why there weren't any and was told that there was at least a desk chair.  She said no there wasn't.  So they brought one up.  The curtains wouldn't close unless we rigged up a hanger to pinch them shut.  Oh well, at least there was a working mini-fridge and we were able to convince the heater to pump up the temperature a bit.

So we arranged our stuff for a three-night stay and hung out a bit.  Then jumped in the car and boogied down 287 to Port Chester, where we parked behind our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Kiosko, and went in to eat.  We were about the only ones there when we arrived and they were kind of surprised at having to deal with people who didn't speak Spanish.  Smiles all around however and we got another great meal that couldn't be beat, and then trundled down Westchester Ave. to the Cap about a half hour before showtime.

No lines for vaxx proof and admittance, and we were back!  The merch table had a couple of great shirts (and a lot of so-so ones) but they didn't have any in the right sizes, except for one Sarah got.  Supply chain problems I suppose.  Went up to our seats in the balcony, got a beer, and settled down while the crowd streamed in.  None of the three shows we saw were totally sold out, though the balcony was about three quarters full and I'm sure the floor was packed.

Then Phil F. Lesh and the guys came out, tuned up, and got at it.  From left to right they were Tench, Grahame, Johnson, Amy Helm (who was not out for the first song), Joe in the back on a small kit, Phil, Kaufman, and then Bogie way over on the right with a pile of woodwinds.  Besides Bogie there wasn't much switching of instruments.  Grahame stuck to his big Rickenbacker for the whole set and Phil to his Modulus of course.  Amy only played the mandolin on Atlantic City and besides that stuck to vocals.  Here's the first set:

• Althea
• Alice D. Millionaire
• Crazy Fingers
• Greatest Story Ever Told
• Atlantic City
• Deal
• Brokedown Palace

We were delighted!  The most significant person on stage was the old man, and I'm pleased to report that Phil was playing as well as ever, with the depth, power, delicacy, nimbleness, and variety of tone I've been listening to for years.  There were some problems with the sound to my ear, which were partly fixed by the end of first set.  The sounded a little muddy but became crisper as the set went along.  Unfortunately, we still had a hard time hearing Tench when he played the piano (as opposed to the organ) and to Bogie when we was on the sax, though his clarinet and flute were mixed well.

From the beginning, Grahame Lesh was a monster.  It's so great to hear him come out of the shadow of his legacy.  And this time he not only took the role of bandleader/cat herder most of the time (except when his father scowled), as he had when we'd seen him before, but he also showed some serious chops on guitar, ripping off some long, excellent leads and filling in with some fantastic "Bobby" stuff when it was needed.

Amy was singing as well as ever and had no problem meshing with Grahame and Phil like she'd been playing with them for years (in fact, she has).  And Joe Russo is never *not* in the running for best musician on whatever stage he's on, though his trap set was limited and he barely sang at all.

The guys from Bonny Light Horseman were not a great addition however.  Eric D. Johnson definitely has a good harmony voice and there were some periods of magic with Grahame, Amy, and him.  But they had him do too many vocal leads, most of which he did not excel on, and he contributed next to nothing on guitar.  Kaufman definitely had his moments.  He brought the space and played some extraordinary leads, including some great pairings with Grahame.  But he was a bit confused by some of the arrangements and was not always a solid contributor.  Bogie also had some great moments, but had to pick his spots ... and the right instrument.  In all, these guys were not tight and perhaps showed the perils of Phil's "Friends" approach.  A very different approach than Dead & Company or JRAD, to name a couple of well-rehearsed bands.

But anyway, as I say, we were delighted!  LSD Millionaire was such a treat, and Amy killed it, as she did to Atlantic City.  Crazy Fingers was a great Grahame vocal, and Brokedown featured some of that great harmony I mentioned.

Wow, the first of the six Phil sets we had waited to see for months was over, but we'd seen and heard enough already to make us forget the hassles and expense of going down there.  Time to hit the funky old Capitol Theatre bathrooms and to get another beer for the second set.  They had some nice patterns on the walls as always, but we were a little disappointed that they weren't playing one of the old-time film reels they have, varying the wallpaper, or light-painting the ceiling.  Oh well, it was a mellow environment as it often is at the Cap, and soon it was time for the second set:

• China Cat Sunflower
• I Know You Rider
• The Wheel
• New Potato Caboose
• The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)
• Wharf Rat
• Box of Rain
• Sugar Magnolia

OMG, this was more like it, and more!  Grahame started us off with a great intro to China Cat and followed up with a great Rider (though this wasn't as good as the one we saw DeadCo do this summer).  The Wheel was good, but Johnson was starting to grate a bit.  But then they started up the next song and Dave grabbed me.  He's never heard New Potato live and had been complaining that he'd miss it again since Phil had done it with the Q a few nights before.  But here it was in all its glory, with Phil dropping the bombs and Grahame singing the psychedelic lyrics like a folk song.

And then it was my turn to grab him.  I couldn't believe what they were playing at first, and then realized that I was about to hear the song I thought I'd never hear a Dead band play live, Two Souls In Communion.  Back in the day, this was only available on scratchy bootlegs, but I and all my friends who heard it were enthralled by the soul, funk, and humanity Pigpen brought to it.  Amy sang it, and boy, did she get it right.  She's got the perfect voice for it, and the Cap stood still while she shouted at the top of her lungs, "I'm a woman, I'm a woman, I'm not made out of stone!"

This was followed by what could have been a great Wharf Rat if the band had played together for another ten years or so.  But then Phil sang Box Of Rain and Grahame sang Sugar Magnolia and everything was right with the world.  Two of the best songs from American Beauty done perfectly and back to back!

Wow, time to slump back into the seat and try to recap what we'd just seen.  Phil came out soon (he had his own route through the amps marked with tape, don't want the old man to stumble) and gave us the donor rap.  He ended this one (as he also did the next two nights) by saying, "I'm glad everyone in the house is vaccinated, and if you know anyone who isn't, tell them to get the fucking vaccine!!!"  And he had more music left.

This was a great encore.  They did "The Band" arrangements for some of their songs because of Amy's presence, and they did a great rollicking Ophelia like her Dad used to do it.  And they followed this up with another beauty from Beauty, a crackerjack, rock 'n' roll version of Ripple.  None of this slow dreamy stuff ... "There is a road, no simple highway," and we were cruising down it.

Woohoo!  First of three nights in the books and it had been a good one.  Not a long walk back to the parking lot (which has apparently been adopted by a lot of concert goers), and then not much traffic back to Elmsford, where we still didn't have any soap.  Oh well, Dave had brought some luckily, and there was shampoo.  Got to bed a bit before 1:00.

Rodney Crowell On a Sunday Afternoon

We haven't seen Rodney Crowell anywhere near as often as we would have liked to, so we snapped up tickets to see him at the City Winery in Boston on October 10th as soon as they were available.  Apparently so did a lot of other people, as most of the room was packed, though they had some open tables in the back.

Set time was 4:00, so we headed into Boston at about 3:15, thinking it would be a mellow afternoon with the Garden dark.  BUT ... it was a nice Fall weekend with the Marathon scheduled for the next day and the area was packed with tourists, and they had shut down Congress Street at Haymarket for construction.  We were finally able to get to a parking garage and then dashed over to City Winery, where we were slowed by them checking for vaccination, which we approved of heartily.

So we aren't sure if we missed a song, they were playing Earthbound as we were ushered to our great seats about 20 feet from the stage, center.  And Rodney had a fantastic band with him: Zachariah Hickman on bass and harmonica, Catherine Marx on keyboards, Eamon McLoughlin on mandolin and bouzouki, and Glen Caruba on percussion.  They all sang except for Glen and the arrangements of some of Rodney's best songs were fantastic, including great leads by Marx and McLoughlin.  Rodney mentioned that Zach had done some of the arranging, and he also took the Johnny Cash parts on I Walk the Line (Revisited), which requires some cojones.

Another great thing about the concert was that the sound was unusually good for City Winery.  For once they had it turned up loud enough and the fidelity and balance (we *were* in great seats for this) were fantastic.  Here's what I remember of the setlist, again, perhaps missing a first song:

• Earthbound
• Still Learning How to Fly
• The Weight of the World
• Ashes by Now
• Frankie Please
• Reckless
• East Houston Blues
• It Ain't Over Yet
• I Walk The Line (Revisited)
• Don’t Leave Me Now
• Something Has to Change
• This Body Isn’t All There Is to Who I Am
• I Ain't Livin' Long Like This
• 'Til I Gain Control Again

Because this was an early show he told us up front that he had to be off the stage by 5:30, and so he cut short his setlist.  But he said that we probably wanted to get home and watch the baseball game anyway.  I could have watched him and that great band for hours, he's written so many amazing songs.  He only did two from his new record, but that's fine with me.

Back to the car and got right on 93, leaving the tourist ferment behind.  And the Red Sox beat Tampa Bay in extra innings in the ALDS!