It’s a brand new year. Congratulations to everyone who managed to stay a toe’s length from the edge of that bridge for another damn year. It wasn’t a great year and I don’t want to go on and on about it, but that ‘focusing on the positive’ wasn’t working for me, either, so I turned on Sirius and listened to the Drive By Truckers ringing in the new in New York City. They were dirty, nasty, dark and put a grin on my face from the git-go, with Patterson sending you all a big, fat “Happy New Year, Motherfuckers!”. They opened with the Gregory Dean Smalley story, reminding us all right away that we can’t die now ‘cause we’ve got another show to do. The Big To-Do was represented, but, mostly, it reminded me of shows of old, with Decoration Day, Gravity’s Gone, Ronnie and Neil, Dead, Drunk and Naked, bunch old stuff, and Ghost to Most! They ended with Shut Your Mouth and Get Your Ass on the Plane and Angels and Fuselage. Oh, yeah, Shonna Tucker broke out her new one. (will be on Go-Go Boots, which they’ll kick out in February)
My year had a few smiles. Ronnie Fauss put on quite a show at our place. He’s a treasure both musically and personally. He has great EPs, too. Check out Naomi’s review of Mulligan and if you haven’t heard him before, you’re missing out.