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Henning says: Last night at Bishop's Lounge was nice.

One writer over at Masslive.com put it best by saying this: "sparkling night at Beautiful's...Candlelit bishops tuning a filled room as streetflakes and snow dappled the ice below."

The night was pretty much as I hoped it would be. Full of friends coming in out of the snow.

We supplied a basket full of hot cocoa mixes for folks to take home with them. That was our way of thanking the audience, which, though somewhat small, was of excellent caliber.

Tony, as usual, put on an excellent show and left the folks in the room laughing and feeling a little bewildered. Lesa had the toughest slot, when the folks at the bar were the noisiest, but she stood strong and played a great set. I was a little luckier in that some of the noisier folks left before I played, leaving me a room that was more or less attentive. Which was good because I was playing a bunch of stuff that I normally don't and I needed that extra bit of concentration. My new songs went over well.

Tony says: When Matt Hebert of Ware River Club set about filling slots for the Singer/Songwriter Series at Bishop's Lounge, somehow he thought of inviting me to participate. And I had such high hopes for my set after having witnessed the first week's lineup of Figment Thane, Fancy Dave and M.H. himself. I hadn't played a solo set since the Northampton Music Festival of 2002 and that was at 4 pm on a Saturday afternoon- I played to maybe 10 people (one of whom was the aforementioned Thane). I also played the previous year's fest to another small group, but this was at The Baystate Hotel and the group was small but made up of all pals (Hen, Ken, Zen...) who sang along at times. Anyway, what this all means is that I haven't played many solo sets in the last five years and those few that occurred were sparsely attended. So I had big plans for this one.

I was initially planning to play a cycle of songs from the "Mallhalla!" suite (Record Store Grrrl, Whatever Happened To The Orange Julius?, Slow Day At The Shoe Store, Nuthin' Hapnin', etc.), a selection of new songs (Cover Band, Entering Easthampton, How 'Bout That?, the aforementioned Nuthin' Hapnin', Amanda's Ready For Spring), a troika of dear old faves that sit well with my pipes (1982, I Wouldn't Know, maybe dust off Chara and/or Winona) and a dash of the funny songs. No covers.

However, last week while suffering from a virus in my lungs, I engaged in a violent coughing fit that resulted in a pulled muscle inside my right ribcage. Singing became painful for a few days leading up to the show. And even while practicing at Henning's earlier in the evening, I could barely get through the first verse of Record Store Grrrl without feeling spasms of coughs emerging in my chest. I decided I just would have to limit my set to songs that didn't require strenuous singing because I just couldn't trust my chest to support any long notes.

The set I eventually ended up playing relied on talky, jokey songs but it all worked out okay. Except for Henning, most of the people in attendance (including eight of my student teacher cohorts and their assorted roommates and boyfriends) have not already heard the funny songs so they were fresh and well-received and when I played them, it seemed like the entire bar was silent and focused on every word (which is something I'm becoming more and more used to and it's scary if I'm too conscious of this while it's occurring). Anyway, what I played was:

--Northampton Chamber Of Commerce (based on the sleazy Elvis movie song "Fort Lauderdale Chamber Of Commerce" but with new words about 5-College girls and East Heaven Hot Tubs and you get the idea...)
--I Wouldn't Know (the one tune in the set with some extended notes but it came out okay- Henning did a wonderful job on getting a lush acoustic guitar sound in the room)
--Homebody (this Vais/Westcott number has lotsa words and I rattle 'em off briskly- might be one of my top fun songs to play)
--I Got The Boot (not one I play often- it's kind of a dumb countryish song but the hook is in the guitar figure)
--Slow Day At The Shoe Store (I tried it and it was rough in spots but it's a song that I think is one of my best. Not for everyone as it's jazzy and unpredictable and an odd lyrical subject and probably takes a few listens before its charms settle in, if they ever do, but when I stack it up against other songs I admire by famous pop composers, it feels worthy)
--Free Time (A tune sung in a low register, a pretty breakup song, one that some listeners admire as a fave, I've played it with Sam singing it in The Parents for so long, I'd almost forgotten I sing it well too. That said, I didn't quite sing it too well last night)
--Glum-Go-Round (time to start making everyone feel uncomfortable. I absolutely revel in performing this insane piece and love the confused response it elicits from a room.)
--Hell Of A Guy (like a chainsaw through butter with this deathless oldie)
--Rainy Day Grocery Shopping (awww, I hafta do it)
--Total Bastard (the scaryfunny songs taking over by now)
--How 'Bout That? (I've never sung this in front of anyone besides my daughter and wife before. But when I started grabbing at straws to fill up my set as songs got crossed off the list for being temporarily unsingable, I decided why not include this? If I could manage to foist "Glum-Go-Round" on 'em, certainly I could prop a Cabbage Patch Doll on my lap and croon this rhythmic cutesiness to a room full of adults sipping alcoholic beverages. The more time I spend in my classrooms, the less I fear looking like a fool. It's just gonna happen, no matter what, may as well just do what I feel like doing.)
--I Like 'Em Dead (yeah, you know. If you don't, you probably don't want to).

Alright, enough of this tiresome self-scrutiny. I should write some about Lesa's and Henning's sets as well as maybe comment on my participation in the duo and trio setups later on in the night but what I really really should do is get to my work for tomorrow's schoolday...

Brian says: At 8:15 on Tuesday night I said to A (on the phone)--"gotta go. I need a quick nap if I'm to make it to see Tony, Henning and Lesa". I woke up at 9:55, remembered my committment, and had a dreamy walk to Bishop's Lounge. Missed Tony, but saw the others. El Bezo seemed the most confident I'd seen her in a solo situation. During Ning's set, I hear the unfamiliar songs and selfishly think, "would this be good in a band arangement?", looking out for the next "Disgrutled Lover" to snatch from its home as a solo Ning song.
GeoLenk bought me a birthday drink, a month after the fact. I took home two mint hot cocoa packets. I gave Tony a CD of the first two Jake Holmes albums.
Who in the world is Jake Holmes?

no photos, sorry