My luck just sux...

I have had the most active social life I have had in years lately, and the DAY I go on vacation?! It dries up...oh, it's only a for a short while, but it doesn't seem right to spend this time wondering what the heck to do with myself......

I spent last night with Del Castillo and Monte Montgomery,and it was wonderful and fun and memorable, and I was supposed to go to Navasota...until I found out tickets were $100 a piece. Ouch.(In all fairness, it is a fund raiser for a hospital.) I love the guys, but not quite that much. There's Waco in a couple of weeks anyway. And Alice's restaurant in Neiderwald for brunch with Jelly Jar tomorrow. and billy next week. and Sexto sol tonight at the Brew Haus.

Okay, I don't know what I am complaining about! I just didn't get to be with my Boys tonight and I am a little disappointed. But they sound like they are tired, and need a few down days, which ain't happening til closer to Thanksgiving. Busy busy band.....

Yesterday's performances were just the stuff of history. The Boys came out and did a really good set, then Monte came out an did a blistering set too! THEN, the coup de grace, the encore- Rev and Mike joined Monte's group for a tune. Then the brothers came on, and played a round of guitar wars (absolutely blazing solos out of all three!) and finally with the addition of Bert on bass and Alex on lead vocals, "While My guitar Gently Weeps" was given a ride it will not soon forget.
They pulled out the stops with another tune that took all of us in the audience to musical heights that might be considered obscene. Shivers up the body, no voice left from the screaming, adreneline so high as to be off the scale..... The hell with coffee! Give me jam sessions like that one- to go!

Whew! I was worn down. Monte ended the night with this lovely tune I am afraid I do not know the name, of about being alone in the spotlight. He really has a great voice and just innovative knowledge of his guitar. Most amazing guitar players, and I rarely write about any who aren't, feel the guitar to be an extension of themselves, ...I may have that wrong, really. A great number of the famous ones act as if it is a part of them, a piece of who they are, a mate, a lover,..... a true friend who has never betrayed them. I think it comes down to poetry. I will have to try. My point here was that for some reason, in Monte, I perceive a different relationship. That well-worn, pretty plain acoustic, in his hands, becomes something else. It is more than merely an extension of him; it is as if it is not an outside extension, but something inside, like he absorbed the guitar into his system.

Every now and then, a guitarist I am watching will get to that point: where the guitar and he/she are no longer seperate creatures, but so in tune with each other, player and instrument, that they are a single "something new."
I suspect the players may get that description before some listeners do. I am something of a musician, but I know the feeling from my art and writing. Sometimes you just get somewhere different, and you know it is special. I am sure Monte has bad days like anyone, but both times I have seen him now, I have gotten a similar feeling.
Ah well.

I must get on with the little things in life, like laundry, and club hopping. I miss my boys even more right now, and will have to be satisfied with listening to the Kennedy Center performances again. and wait for Waco with baited breath. finding the plaster to fill in the cracks is the hard part.