12 September 2006

Show with MIke Dominguez and Benjamin Blake at the Commodore, Nashville, TN, 9.8.06

I had not had a chance to play with Mike for a couple of months, so this was a real treat. After all the times we have done shows together, I have a real comfort singing backup for him and adding elements like shaker and such. He played a relatively new song halfway through the set, which I hung back on. But it was really great to see both he and Jen in the same place at the same time (Jen just had a little baby, so such dual sightings are rare these days).

I had only heard Benjamin once before - a few weeks ago at Christopher Pizza when he was doing one of the Wednesday Music Society nights. He utterly blew me away then, and I was anxious to hear him at the show. He didn't disappoint. A very delicate, intricate style with a lot of good taste in his arrangements, plus a voice that mixes equal parts Michael Franks and Nick Drake. I was really pleased to have him on the bill. Watch for him - he's going places, and soon.

As for me - I have to say the sound at the Commodore, at least for me on stage, is always really good. I felt really comfortable up there, and I had the added benefit of having just gotten my guitar back from the shop (it had gotten its thousand-mile oil change). The one glitch was forgetting a line in the first song I played, which I chalk up to just being rusty. We had a great crowd (except for a few loud guys in the back of the room yelling for Freebird) and I would say the show was a thorough success. We even got to play an extra pass because of the crowd response, which was a nice vote of confidence from Lee, the guy that runs the rounds.

My set: 1) Wasting Time with You, 2) N Judah, 3) The Man Who Lost the Sea, 4) Telegraph

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