Greg Brown -- December 27, 1996

• Commentary
• Song List

Commentary:

Hi folks...it's the morning after...a magical evening of music with Greg Brown and special guest Bo Ramsey. (Yes, Harvey...I feel like rhapsodizing, and, Shirley, I'll try not to gloat, but, if I should...er...backslide...just remember, you'll get to see him on Tuesday.) :-)

The Edgewater is a club overlooking the Mississippi River, in the town of Bellevue, IA, about twenty miles Southeast of Dubuque. The place was packed with Eastern Iowa faces, who look forward to making this annual concert one of the highlights of their Holiday season. Perhaps, grateful just to have made it through the foggy, icy weather, the room had a good, warm feeling, and everyone seemed especially happy to be there.

Well, my "Same Damn Hat" T-shirt came in the mail today, but, last night Greg wasn't wearing the same damn hat. Instead, it was a white cowboy hat topping off cowboy boots, blue jeans and sleeveless black tee--"...my favorite color scheme." (Good grief, how did I ever communicate before I learned Greg-speak?)

Greg (and Bo) stood just a couple of feet before the crowd, in rare form--the music seemingly coursing through his body. Lest I offend anyone who believes such comments to be silly, sexist or dehumanizing, the following is NOT hyperbole, and, is offered merely as a simple, _totally_ objective, statement of fact, as evidenced by the rapt expressions on the female faces in the audience, and, (so my friend Julie told me) by my own besotted grin. Anyway, contrary to his line from _Billy From The Hills_, "...me, I'm a hick and I dance like one..."--uh uh, no way--his moves were, "...SENSUAL AS ALL GET OUT..." :-D

At the end of the evening, after having been swept away by the man, the music and the mood, it was difficult to get up and leave. I think someone may have had to drag me out, after several announcements over the intercom saying, "Greg Brown has left the building" failed to move me from my seat--but, I really don't remember.

Regina

Song List:

1. One Wrong Turn
2. Ballingall Hotel - after this song he told how this song was about an old hotel in Ottumwa where he'd always planned to retire. However, he said, since that place had closed down, he'd have to find a new place to retire--in _Dubuque_. The crowd loved that. (Ha, Shirley, told ya he wanted to be near me. Yo, ho, ho...how I do entertain myself.)
3. The Poet Game
4. Dusty Woods Outside Town (?) - song about Robert Johnson, from whom he once had a mystical visitation
5. Think About You
6. Come On Into My Kitchen - Robert Johnson - wonderful
7. Good Morning Coffee
8. Canned Goods - sweet as ever
9. Slow Food - which inspired me this afternoon to cook a sloooooow jasmine rice pudding to take to a dinner party this evening--it's been cooking for over two and a half hours now and it's not done yet...mmmmmmmmm.

   [Break]

10. If I Had Known
11. Boomtown
12. You Can Watch Me
13. Poor Backslider - making reference to the fact that over seventy percent of the Dubuque population is Catholic, he pointed out how backsliding and being saved over and over again by Baptism in the river, is kind of like Catholicism's periodic visits to the confessional for absolution of sin. (Well, it was funny when _He_ said it.)
14. Mose Allison Played Here
15. Two Little Feet
16. Mississippi Moon - since we were at a club overlooking the Mississippi
17. Out In The Country - dedicated to Tom Goodman
18. If You Don't Get It At Home
19. Just By Myself
20. Hacklebarney Tune

    Encore:

21. Fever - a killer version