Summertime is definitely over in Paris, as the Tennessee Bar open mic seemed to have as many people attending last night as through the entire month of August. I enjoyed a brief visit to the Galway as well. But there were so many musicians at the Tennessee that despite arriving fairly early, I decided I probably would not get a spot until too late for the Galway. So I left the Tennessee, went to the Galway, played several songs there, and then returned to the Tennessee, where kindly, James Iansiti allowed me to go up and do one song, since I had been there earlier and would have gone up by then. But I was lucky. I chose “Runaway Train,” which was basically the only song I really wanted to do anyway.
I wanted to do that with the nice crisp sound of the system there, and a little reverb, and it worked out well. But what was more interesting were the other musicians I saw there, especially a young new duo that live within around 20 minutes walk from where I live, and who have excellent musicianship, stage presence and a sense of performance and humor. They call themselves “Peanut,” and I’m probably going to put up three of the videos I did of them, so cool were they.
There was some cool duo consisting of a piano player with an interesting voice and a lead guitarist, were also rather cool. And then there were the three young women with sunglasses and classic songs from the Beatles and elsewhere.
Altogether a good evening, as I prepare to go to the musical wasteland of Milan later in the week. (Sorry, lots of opera in Milan, just can’t find the open mics and jams – so if anyone has any idea, let me know please….)