A long hard look down a darkened frozen street turns up a dirty neon sign LIV SIC flickering sporadically above an overgrown patch of door. The faint sound of ragtime piano drifts out through a broken window—almost in time with an ancient exhaust fan ticking across the way.
The crew moves on, kicking up a small wake in the crumpled shreds of bills, old love letters, and liquor store receipts that litter the sidewalk. A tall woman dressed in khaki shorts and a boy scout necktie steps out into the pale orange glow of the neon. She spits on a wilting ailanthus which grows out of a large crack in the concrete, looks up and sees the group approaching.
“Hey,” she says, “you with the guitar case—the piano player is running out of notes and the place is full. Can you sing? Do you know any Thelen songs?
“Yeah, but I don’t do covers,” says the old guy with the soul patch and the garnet ring.
They enter and move slowly through the hazy crush of tuxedoes, tie dyed tees, and day-glo tattoos.
“Jesus,” the guitar player says under his breath, “they still smoke in the 23rd century?”
The maitre’d shows them to a table near the stage and casually slips a tiny package into his pocket as the new arrivals sit down to listen.
I write songs and pound nails in the Portland Oregon area. I much prefer the music stuff but oh, well. . .
I’m a multi bar band survivor with a whole lot of filled notebooks and a few half-filled dreams. I was a boy scout to Fats and Patsy and Elvis, and grew up with the Kingsmen, Dylan, and the Beatles. My big inspiration came on an air base in 1969: figure out why people do what they do and write a book that explains it all. I’m not there yet, but maybe when all the songs are written, some light will have been thrown onto one or two pieces of the puzzle. . . If nothing else, I’ll keep my toe tapping along the way.
Glad you stopped by my page. I'm working on a few ideas--look for another tune one of these days.
cheers, G
p.s. Check out my cd:
Enough Thunder (2007)
p.p.s. Check out my band's MySpace page--
The Responsible Adults
|
