Hal Ketchum

Thanks to brother number one Liz and I were able to get tickets to his concert at the Egg last night, sort of as an early birthday present for her from me. It was a great concert; we had a terrific time....but it was a little weird in a way. Most of the audience, there is no doubt in my mind, take the same multi-vitamin that I do...you know, the kind that are sort of grey only they call them silver. Add to that the fact that the Egg is a very genteel venue. There were ushers and rules and all that stuff. However, then you had to factor in that Hal and his band play very powerful rock and roll, blues-type country music. Everyone sat very quietly through each song as if at a performance of a nice Beethoven sonata.

Then as soon as each song ended the crowd erupted in whistles and screams and barrages of clapping. After the last song there was at least a five minute standing ovation (which achieved the desired result of us getting to hear Small Town Saturday Night, without which the evening would have been somehow lacking.) My favorite song was Past the Point of Rescue, which has always been one that I really liked even before I knew who Hal was. We also really like a new (to us) song, Yesterday's Gone.

It was a great night, worth the insanity of hitting exit 24 at rush hour (remind me to tell you about the loonies in 2 little cars that squirted through between us and four solid lines of flying traffic. . It was like a billion-dollar thrill ride in some macabre theme park. (Thank God for Lizzie's youthful reaction times.) I felt exactly like those folks you see in advertisements for the world's biggest roller coaster, white-knuckled-clingingto-the-door and all. I had my eyes shut most of the way. Liz wanted to close hers too.....however it seemed as if one of us should keep them open...and she was the one driving.)

Even the time we spent waiting for the show to begin was entertaining, thanks to some folks sitting behind us...we now know more than we could ever ask about how comfortable men's undies can be for women and several other topics that extended my cultural outlook immeasurably..

Guitar player Kenny Grimes

Bassist Keith Carper

***Pictures were taken with the little camera. An email to the Egg said some folks allow cameras, some don't. I figured the little one was more discrete in case Hal was a don't kind of guy. Of course he wasn't. Wish I had taken the big one...as you can imagine from the quality of the photos.

Here is a review
The reviewer kind of whined about Hal's story telling, but Liz and I loved it. He was so very funny. Little things like the wonders of modern technology in the studio and liquid song enhancement, along with tales of his youth here in upstate NY

Video from some other year at the Egg

Another shot, also showing drummer Nico Leophonte

****My humble apologies to anyone who read this while I was milking this morning. I got up at four to check a cow that calved last night and I simply wasn't in any way capable of coherent editing...not that I am now really, but at least I can see.