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.