12-17-2005, 01:21 PM
Yes brethren, on the outside I am the pseudo-intellectual, prog-art-rock obsessed keyboard fanatic, but deep down in the bowels of my heart, or the heart of my bowels (take your pick) I am a closet folk-rocker.
Whether it be the dulcet tones of John Stewart or the socially-conscious riffs of T-Bone Burnett, all you have to do is show me a guitar and gleaming finger-pick and I go all weak at the knees.
Al Stewart is my deepest, darkest fan-boy secret. His sublime albums "Year of the Cat", "Time Passages" and "The End of the Century" are on permanent rotation of my MP3 collection. The fact that Alan Parsons produced 2 of these albums doesn't hurt.
Anyway - For those acoustically-challenged, Freight and Salvage is a small, 200-seat coffee house in Berkeley. I had purchased the tickets 2 months in advance. We arrived 30 minutes early and were still 40th in line.
Settling down with a cup of hot cider (no alcohol is served) we were treated to 2 hours of songs about the russian front, biplane pilots, growing old and loyalists to King George during the American revolution.
The guitar playing was transcendent. Al's speed-picking accompianist looked and jammed like Jack Black, grimacing and playing his box 6-string behind his head. Al, looking frighteningly like Eric Idle, stuck to playing rhythm and singing.
True to folk tradition each song was preceded by an amusing story. Al's stories were very pop-oriented. At one point he told of Don Henley meeting Brian Wilson. Don asked for an autograph. Brian signed, "Thanks Don for some great..." then faded out. When he snapped back to reality he crossed out great and wrote "very-good music". The audience died laughing.
I bought his latest CD and a DVD of a live show at Grace Cathedral in SF.
Maybe, if you're very, very lucky, I will show it at the next DOOM event.
Until then, I'll be looking for you "On the Border"
El Dingo
Whether it be the dulcet tones of John Stewart or the socially-conscious riffs of T-Bone Burnett, all you have to do is show me a guitar and gleaming finger-pick and I go all weak at the knees.
Al Stewart is my deepest, darkest fan-boy secret. His sublime albums "Year of the Cat", "Time Passages" and "The End of the Century" are on permanent rotation of my MP3 collection. The fact that Alan Parsons produced 2 of these albums doesn't hurt.
Anyway - For those acoustically-challenged, Freight and Salvage is a small, 200-seat coffee house in Berkeley. I had purchased the tickets 2 months in advance. We arrived 30 minutes early and were still 40th in line.
Settling down with a cup of hot cider (no alcohol is served) we were treated to 2 hours of songs about the russian front, biplane pilots, growing old and loyalists to King George during the American revolution.
The guitar playing was transcendent. Al's speed-picking accompianist looked and jammed like Jack Black, grimacing and playing his box 6-string behind his head. Al, looking frighteningly like Eric Idle, stuck to playing rhythm and singing.
True to folk tradition each song was preceded by an amusing story. Al's stories were very pop-oriented. At one point he told of Don Henley meeting Brian Wilson. Don asked for an autograph. Brian signed, "Thanks Don for some great..." then faded out. When he snapped back to reality he crossed out great and wrote "very-good music". The audience died laughing.
I bought his latest CD and a DVD of a live show at Grace Cathedral in SF.
Maybe, if you're very, very lucky, I will show it at the next DOOM event.
Until then, I'll be looking for you "On the Border"
El Dingo
