The Blue Note + The Cradle + Chirba Chirba + Music on Shuffle

Ok, I admit it … I’ve been a bit distracted.  It’s not you; it’s me.  Really.

Let me count the ways. Numerous visits to the Blue Note Grill, a night at the Cradle (just last Saturday), a trip to Memphis (2 weeks ago), discovering some new music while in Memphis (more about that later), the holidays, etc…
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The Blue Note Grill

The Blue Note.  I could live here maybe. I hear they have a sofa in the Boom Boom Room.  And I guess before I go spending any nights in there, I need to find out why it’s called the Boom Boom Room.

I tend to get in trouble here.  The really fun part is that they let me and kinda watch out for me while I’m doing it.   It’s my goal to introduce TBNG to all the uninitiated. If you are one of them and would like to change that, let me know and go with me next time … which is likely going to be for the standing Tuesday night blues jam with Butch Haas. Expect the usual suspects, plus some, including … get this …. two kids, one around eight, the other around twelve and you won’t believe the chops on these guys.  Tell Bill I sent you and see what that gets you other than a knowing smile.
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New Year’s Eve 2012 – Memphis

New Year’s Eve, Memphis, TN.  Waved bye to Memphis in 1992. Now I go back once or twice a year. One of those is New Year’s. It’s like I never left.  It’s even predictable.  The only variables are the number of people around the table and how close we make it to midnight – the near or the far side. In the chaos and unsurety of life today, that’s a big warm and fuzzy.

The piano is the centerpiece. There are guitars. There are instruments of percussion (I know ’cause that’s what I play :).  There are songs that always get sung. Bob’s new songs. Andy’s new songs. Carol’s new songs. Geo’s new songs.

Then come the tried-and-trues like this song written by Andy, Carol, Wayne & Rick a couple of years ago …  06 LookWho’sComingHomeForChristmas.  Listen to it now. It should be a holiday standard AND it should be recorded by someone well-known and famous. We need to get this song to Scotty McCreery or Alabama or some other country artist … can anybody help me with that? All my rowdy friends are settled in the ground.

Multiple bottles of bubbly and God-knows-how-much-fun later, we weave off to bed. Some mornings we count the bottles … mostly we just squint at them wishing the bottle top would stop gaping at us all judge and jury like while eating toast, drinking coffee, and reminding each other who did what to who and why.  It’s once a year, fercrhissakes.  
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Cat’s Cradle.  A chilly mid-January Saturday just seems to scream for finding warmth by rubbing shoulders with, hmmmm, 600 of your closet neighbors, most of whom you hope you never cross paths with again by the end of the night.  

Out of the teeming, loud, obnoxious and disrespectful masses in the sold-out crowd, my friend Liz and I may very well have been the only ones who were there to actually see and hear Jim Avett. It was clear that no one else cared that he was singing and playing his heart out to an audience there to see the MIPSO Trio.  The good news is that he’s performing in Chapel Hill again on Feb. 3 at Local 506 with Dark Water Rising.  I’ll be there. Respectfully appreciative and expectant.  And you … if you are reading this … you know exactly what I mean by expectant.
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Chirba Chirba Dumplings

Chirba Chirba!  Eat eat!  Hoo hoo!

Congratulations, my little dumpling makers and food truckers.    You’re really going somewhere ( I only wish that somewhere included Chapel Hill, who still won’t support food trucks). 

Chirba Chirba Dumpling was featured in an episode of My Family Recipe Rocks, a new show on The Living Well Channel (HD channel 1112 on TWC if you live in Chapel Hill). 

Click here to watch!   Just try to pretend that former boy bander Joey Fatone is someone else. Anyone else.  If you haven’t tried Chirba Chirba’s Sweet Sausage, a sweet and savory Hong Kong style sausage … you need to get on that right now. 

AND … click here to listen to my recent SideDish interview with Chirba Chirba’s Chela Yu.  This show taught me about something other than dumplings.  I started every single sentence with the word “so” … made me cringe outloud.  So … working on that.
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Music to make up for going too long between posts
Let This Heartbreak Begin (Carter, Doster, Sexton Band)
Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn)
Pennies on the Floor (The Little Willies)
Moonlight Kiss (Bap Kennedy)
Love – Renaissance, Part 1 – Marc Almond
Lime on the Rim – Bob Cheevers

Introduction to Carter, Doster, Sexton Band from Austin came by way of my good friend, Bob Cheevers, over the holidays.  I’ve got them on permanenet shuffle for the time being ’cause I just can’t stop with these guys.  Only been to Austin twice … both times back in ’79 first with Eddie Rabbitt and then a few months later when I was working with The Cars. We stayed at The Driskell. It was the advent of the Car Wash, an after show ritual that involved getting wet in the dressing room … I’ll say no more 🙂  Use your imagination, people. 

But thank you, thank you, B for this.  And as the last shuffle … that’s Bob singing one of my favorites of his.