January 15 2006: Drew Hickum, Erik Alan, Kristen Gass, Adam Sweeney, other people - The Basement, Northampton MA

So Adam said he's playing banjo with a country band on a monday night and I figured I'd give things a listen. Which was a good idea. The country band, aka this dude Drew Hickum with Adam and someone else backing him up, sounded like maybe how Damien Jurado sounded when he was young and skinny. I was tapping my feet for sure.

But Adam neglected to tell me that this was an open mic, and not in fact a "gig," as I believe he put it. But that was OK too, because I got to see Kristen Gass play some tunes for the first time in probably six months, and Erik Alan and Adam both played solo, and the few other folks whom I saw managed to play without hurting and/or offending my ears, so I guess the open mic thing worked out alright in the end. And a Sierra Nevada is kind of nice when you're supposed to be studying.

January 12 2007: Tracy Grammer - Shutesbury Elementary School Gymnasium, Shutesbury MA

I called Adam while waiting for the bus after school to see if he wanted to drink beers, seeing as how it was friday night, but he and Sairi were going to see Tracy Grammer so I postponed the beers and went to the show with them.

The show was in this tiny little gymnasium/cafeteria in Shutesbury, which is, as I understand things, where both Tracy and Jim Henry reside at present. And there was a guy on bass, also from town, who was pretty much Tony Crepps in thirty years. It was a benefit for the school's library, and it looked like 90% of those in attendance were parents of kids who go to the school, with the kids themselves in tow. Brownies and ginger cookies and coffee, everything at fifty cents per, were sold in the back. The set was pretty much exactly the set I saw them play a few months ago, right down to the stupid folk-singing banter, but I had a lot of fun despite.

And then beers were consumed post-show and it seems I called Tony at 3am. I do not recall this personally. It was that kind of night.