February 2023 - 28 Covers in 28 Days
It’s the dead of winter here in Connecticut and GR84RED is tucked away in its shelter from the cold. I need a goal for the month and some content on the website. So, I decided to do a follow up on my “50 for 50” of April/May 2020, during Covid lockdown. For the next 28 days I’ll record a cover song from my repertoire. I will not repeat any 2020 covers, and these songs will all have a connection of some sort to me, Terri and SkyDog. They will be drawn from about 50 years of musical influence. Some old, some new, some in between. Familiar artists and songs, coupled with some obscurities. Mostly outlaw country, folk, traditional, Americana, and maybe some blues.
I haven’t decided on a complete list but the first one on the list has to be John Prine’s “Dear Abby”. You see, Dear Abby is the first song I ever performed in public, and the following is a true story.
It was the summer of ‘77 and my best friend, Greg Thwing, had just been honorably discharged from the Army. He and I got this wild Idea to spend the summer in his Dad’s Volkswagan Bus touring the northwest, British Columbia, and Alberta, with his wife Becky and my girlfriend Terri… and our two dogs (both puppies). In late June we headed out on a ferry from Lopez Island to Vancouver Island. Maybe I’ll tell the whole story in another blog. For now I’ll focus on Calgary and the Stampede.
The Calgary Stampede was a focal point of our trip. But, when you’re poor California hippies with two puppies, there’s not much of the Stampede that you can take part in. Besides, at that point we really weren’t big rodeo fans. We had a few dollars to spend, so what better way to spend them than at the Bowness Hotel bar for pizza and Labatt Blue.
There was a guy on solo acoustic guitar who stopped in the middle of his set and asked for a volunteer to come up, take the mic, and play a song. After a couple of Blues, I was more than happy to raise my hand. So there I am, having never played on a stage before, in Calgary, Alberta, in front of a bunch of Canadians I don’t know. I break into John Prine’s Dear Abby.
Those of you who were around in the mid 70’s may remember a game show called “The Gong Show”. Well, half way into the song, some guy comes up to the front of the stage with an empty beer glass and a pizza tray… and Gongs me. There was nothing I could do but stop, hand the guy his guitar, and shuffle back to our table in embarrassment. It’s been 48 years since I’ve played that song for anybody but myself.
Leave your Gongs in the comments.
