Meow Cafe - Aug 09 2012

Polly Johnson, Ty Butterfield, Myself, Matt Reading

Meow Cafe - 09 August 2012

Relationship Blues

Merry Go Round

Jimmy Jones

Poison Tree

Stones In My Passway

Do It Right

Together, Forever

Let Me Count The Ways (I Love You)

The night kicked off pretty good for me with one of my oldest friends surprising me by dropping in . He was down from Hamilton for work & saw my FB status update so called in. Shot bro! Unfortunately didn't catch a lot of Ruby James' set, but she seemed to be an earnest singer/songwriter (aren't we all!?). Nice voice. Mark & Carls played a good set, unfortuantely it took the sound guy about three tracks before he got them sorted, which I could tell was throwing the guys a little. Once they got going though they settles into their work. Once again Carly mesmerised when she was getting stuck into her tracks, particularly during a nice cover of Duffy's 'Warwick Avenue'. 

My set went well, it started a bit iffy, again with 'Relationship Blues' I blanked on the new lyrics. I finally wrote a third verse the night before so it was always going to be tough remembering the odd structure of the song and all the lyrics, but it was worth the risk as it could've been a nice opening track. Nevermind, it went ok but not spectacular. 'Merry Go Around' didn't really take off either but I wasn't losing the crowd so it was still there to be taken. I got Carly up next to do 'Jimmy' and our lack of practice showed a little. She kept signalling me to slow down & I think I kept speeding up, but we got through ok. Again, gotta be prepared for these things! The set really took off from here with 'Poison Tree' really hooking people in then 'Stones in my passway', which I dedicated to my buddy, keeping things going. It was the best I've played the song so far, it just flowed straight through me, no mistakes & really flew. It was a joy to play. It still amazes me everytime I hear or play a Robert Johnson song, the level of his talent. From there Matt got up & we ran through 'Do it right' which was also the best I/we have played this song, it felt like this is the first time the song has actually come through and been heard. Lastly, another a couple of friends got up, Polly & Ty & we played 'Together, Forever' & 'Let me count the ways' as a Uke four-tet. This was a lot of fun & got the crowd going & was a good way to finish. Overall I give the set a 7/10. Could've been higher if I didn't have the dodgy opening couple of songs but a good set I was happy with & the night really was succesful due to my old mate being there to experience it.

Next up, back at Mojo on the 31st.