Feeling Groovy
with GBS in NYC
After Lukey, Alan took a gander at Sean, complimenting him on his outfit. "You're looking good," said Alan.

"Well, if you're in the best city of the world, you wanna look good for them." replied Sean, pointing at the audience, "They're New Yorkers!"

Alan looked him over once again and said, "You're looking very Harry Connick-ish."

Sean glanced at him, puzzled. "I have no idea who you are talking about!"

"You and A-Rod could go out together!" Alan was on a roll.

"Who is A-rod?" Sean asked. "I have no idea who you're talking about."

"He's a major league baseball player," Alan answered. "He was here earlier. We could have chatted on the bus, but I wanted to include you," he explained, giggling. "In fact he's here tonight!" At which point, some people looked around. "Well he might be!" exclaimed Alan, known for not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. "Was he really poking Madonna?" he asked the crowd.  Then he realized there were children in the front row and said something about them. I was too busy laughing to remember.

"Talk about an inappropriate introduction to a song!" said Sean, and introduced a song he wrote in North Carolina while missing his wife -  England. Beautifully done. It seemed to me almost everyone was listening in rapt attention. Some people around me were singing along. There was only a small grouop across the aisle to my right who seemed to be drunk and not able to speak below a yell. That was a bit annoying. I don't think they even realized someone was singing! After the song, Alan let the audience know that Kris was playing Hammond organ on the song, and introduced him. He also introduced Murray. "He's not just another pretty face, he's the band choreographer as well as our therapist!"

Then Alan mentioned the next song came from Fogo Island, at which point everyone cheered. He laughed and said that he always got a kick out of people cheering for obscure Newfoundland towns they've never heard of. "How many people in the audience are from Fogo?" No one answered. "But you still cheer," observed Alan. And we did when he re-introduced the song. LOL! Bob was having a good time - he danced up to the mic to sing! Vic loves Gideon Brown. He says he likes any song that uses the word "stalwart."


Then it was Sean's turn again, and he mentioned that the next song was about "trying to resist temptation."

"How's that working out for ya?" Alan asked mischievously.

"It's hard to do!" said Sean and proceeded to list things that were temptations and therefore hard to resist - "like chocolate, coffee and tequilla."

"And Triathalons," added Alan. I have to resist them. It's very hard," he explained as he flexed his muscles.

I thought Sean was going to choke laughing. " Well, this song is not biographical," he explained with a pregnant pause, "it's all about Bob. It's called Hard Case." Bob spent the first few bars tossing the shakers up abnd down with his hand while waiting for the right time to come in. He looked more at ease with them tonight. The last time I had seen him play them for this song, it looked like he had to really concentrate on what he was doing. Tonight it seemed second nature.

After Hard Case ended, Alan began to explain about songs in the Newfoundland canon. "There are many songs about murderous pirates, a lot about dead horses, but this one's a love song. There are not many Newfoundland love songs," he said. And they lauched into a great version of River Driver. It wasn't the best I've heard, but the voices were nice and clear and it showed off theuir harmonies well on the chorus.

Everyone in the audience seemed to enjoy River Driver, excpt for the drunks across the aisle. They were calling for the waitress to get them some beers. *sigh*

Here and Now came after River Driver. A good choice, I think. This one seems to be going better for them too. But I thought the version they sang at the Philly Folk Festival was better. Although I still can't hear the harmonica that Bob is playing in it.

At the end of Hard Case, everyone walked off the stage except for Sean. I thought this was going to be a Widow in the Window moment, but no! "They're gone. Let's talk about Alan," he said, nervously looking around. "This is the time when we take turns in the spotlight." He went on about how he spent his afternoon trying to think about what song he was going to play in this slot. And he decided that it should be a New York song. So he thought about songs by people from New York, like the Talking Heads and sang the first verse of Psycho Killers. Then he said, "But I decided against that" and launched into the Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated, again offering, "But I decided against that" He had some worries about whether the b'ys would approve of the songs he was doing here and whether it would count, but he went on.

Then he said he realized Simon and Garfunkel were from New York and in Grade Three he learned this song and he felt grownup, he felt "groooovy." When he said this he got a gleeful look and spent a few minutes commenting on how to feel groovy. LOL! "Oh my God! I feel so groovy! I feel all wram, even in my new pants!" he chortled. And while he was saying this, I heard the chords to 59th Street Bridge Song coming from his guitar. I got real excited because that was the first song I ever playing on the guitar. It was the reason I took up guitar in the first place. What a treat! That would have made my night right there, but then he began tio sing the first verse, allowed us top sing the chorus and went back and did the second verse! We again sang the chorus and he just continued the song! When he got to the part where Simon and Garfunkel go off on alternate harmonies and rhythms at the end, Sean encouraged us to do the same, to scat our way thru it and he claimed it would sound good because this was New York after all. There were enough of us old heads in the audience to do it justice and I was floating at that point. Surreal - my favorite band singing one of my favorite songs from my teenage years in the 60's! So I learned it only about 8 years before he did. It was hard for me to imagine it being in a Music curriculum anywhere, but I'll go along with that! Maybe that should be our second song my class learns this year. Or maybe not...

The band came back out when Sean was through and Alan did a rollicking version of Company of Fools. He had the audience sing along nicely and many people were dancing. The band energy was palpable, I thought.

Then they went right into Run Runaway which seemed to have even more energy that Company of Fools. It was nice to see Sean playing the whistle again and Bob got a few extra measures in during his solo at Alan's insistance. It was over all too soon and they left the stage for a well-deserved break.

I tried to fix my camera during the intermission, but no dice. Well, I was enjoying only taking notes. And it was an interesting view that I don't usually have. There are some advantages to being back by the sound board and being able to enjoy the band interaction that I might not catch in the front row. Sometimes it looked like a well-planned choreography. Maybe Murray really is the band choreographer!

I guess the intermission extended 20 minutes. It might have been a half hour, but I was talking to Jack and Sally who were definitely enjoying the show. When the lights went down, I was not ready for the first tune in the 2nd set.
Alan and Bob's surprise