An even more disinterested crowd than usual. I guess it's essentially random -- sometimes there are people who think we sound pretty good, and sometimes there ain't -- but I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth setting up the stuff there.
I guess it wasn't *that* bad -- there was a guy down front who (somewhat reluctantly) picked out a few songs, and a period near the end when a pretty girl in the back (friend of the guitar-playing coffee-guy?) was asking for songs, and actually listening to them when played. But most of the time we were just playing into a black hole.
On the other hand, it may have been just as well that nobody was listening, 'cuz I was playing pretty badly. Or was I playing badly 'cuz nobody was listening...? I set up some video cameras, but didn't bother to start them up until the sun had set behind us, because the video's unwatchable until the glare behind us goes away. (Hmmm. I wonder if that's part of why we can't get any connection going -- nobody can bear to look at us.)
Anyway, I don't think I managed to play a single song all the way through without a huge mistake for that last hour when the cameras were running. But that's OK -- it'll save me a lot of time this week, not having to edit movies together...
Towards the end, a 50-something lady came and was listening, sort of. When I announced that we were almost out of time, she got up and came over to show me a CD she was carrying around, to ask me if I knew any of the songs on it. The artist's name was in a fancy font, and, apparently confused by the lady's outrageous eastern European accent, at first I thought it said "Grace Jones". That seemed pretty crazy, but then I realized that it actually said "George Jones", which was slightly, but not much, more reasonable. She wanted to know if I knew "Picture of Me Without You", which I've never heard of, but figured "Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground" might be a reasonable substitute (plus, it gives Warren a chance to play harmonica). But apparently she'd never heard that one. I guess she's just a George Jones loyalist -- no Willie allowed.
It occurred to me afterwards that I should have attempted to remember and play "Bartender's Blues", which James Taylor deliberately wrote to sound like George Jones, and which George subsequently obligingly recorded. She'd'a probably known that one.
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