September 15 2007: Adam Sweeney, Drew Hickum Band, Whiskey Ina - The Basement, Northampton MA

Walked to the show with Marie and Mariah and Marie's boy John. We enjoyed beers en route. This was to be predictive of the evening as a whole.

Hickum played second, with Adam back in the lineup on banjo, and it was murder. They opened with "1872" and followed it up with "Lonesomeville." "The Letterbox" sounded better than I think it ever has, and "Way Way" was just unbelievable - the mandolin with the banjo underneath it and Drew's voice over the whole thing. Wow. And then they closed the set with "Sarah Flynne."

And then Sweeney played, with actual musicians on the instruments, and it was the best I've ever seen him. Ben was on drums, half of Rusty Belle were playing accordion and singing, and there were guys on fiddle and bass. Sarai and I agreed that we'd never seen Adam with a better band. And the place was packed. Everyone was drinking beers and whiskeys and the afore-mentioned John bought me a beer. It was mostly new songs, with "Albuquerque" and "Linden" and "Wedding" thrown in, and "Doomsday Sunday Sermon" and "St. Peter" were particularly enjoyable. It was a great night all around.

........And then we all got trashed and stayed up till 4am! Woo!