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bye Nougat

Listening to:	October Road by JT
Reading:	still Speaker
Weather:	37, overcast

I packed up Nougat in a cat carrier yesterday and sent to live at Larry's amongst the many kitties and other critters. She and Kit Kat never got along, and Kit Kat is my main feline. Nougat is destined to remain an outdoor kitty, and feeding her outside attracts too many other creatures on my porch here. She'll have a happy hunting life out at Larry's, with plenty of delicious rodents to play with and eat, I think. A natural life with litters of kittens, too. Bla bla bla, I miss her already. :(

Nice weekend so far, and continued likelihood of niceness for what's left of it. Archie's with Dan, Linde, and Gail on Friday was cool. It's a bit smokey and loud there, though, maybe we'll try another spot next month. We ran in to Bus there, and he's having a little birthday shindig and hootenanny at 3 Ways in Kingwood on the 20th. I think Mike Morningstar is playing that night at the Black Bear. Dilemma. Or bar hop.

Last night Andrew McKnight played the coffeehouse at Monroe's, very good show. He is in the studio working on his 4th album now, and he played several of those tunes, as well as his older stuff. I thought several of the newbies were good songs, and enjoyable to listen to. Some demonstrated a nice evolution in his guitarplaying, which has tended in the past to fall into a somewhat limited number of strum patterns in a limited number of keys (varied by capo placement). One notable tune was fingerpicked and had a few augmented and diminished chords, and a decidedly straight-up American jazz blues feel to it. His excellent vocals were strong and pleasant, and he does that cute little Elvis guitar neck-bend at the end of some tunes, by which Olivia was thoroughly entertained (especially when he followed it up with the obligatory "thank you, thank you very much"). Nice mix of new and old tunes, upbeat and ballad, good dynamic control. I also got a seat right up front, so I got the added bonus of hearing plenty of the ambient sound.

The title cut of the new CD, however, did not favorably impress me. Perhaps it was because the lengthy explanation he gave before the tune which led me to believe it would have some exotic African elements that I did not hear. The chorus melody could have just as easily been Celtic-based Appalachian as the East African he said he was going for (the last tetrachord of a descending major scale with upper neighboring tone ornaments on each note). Think Blackberry Blossom straight rather than swing. Anyway, that part of the show reinforced my belief in letting the song speak for itself, don't give too much talking intro. I think the folk-Nazi signature of playing the opening riff continuously while talking in that sing-songy voice (which is hard to avoid while trying to simultaneously play) is not only cheesy, but can lead the listener to unsatisfied expectation. End of lecture.

High wind advisory today, gusts up to 50mph. Larry and Spring and Olivia and I are going to the Haymond Community Center roast beef dinner this afternoon. I'm putting up another bluebird house on the fence post out my living room and computer room windows. I've seen a pair of bluebirds around here lately, hopefully looking for a place to nest, and I'd be happy to close that real estate transaction.

permalink posted by cat 8:36 AM

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