“Thirty-six songs in two hours”. That’s how my pal Christian Raphael has been billing our bi-weekly gigs at the Bayview Hotel all summer. Technically, it’s an “in the round”, although with only me, Christian, and John Cirillo, it’s more of a “line” than a “round”.
Still, it’s a group of songwriters taking turns playing songs. For a player, it’s an easy gig (and loads of fun). And for the audience, they get three performers with completely different styles in rotation. Last time out, John couldn’t make it, so it was just Christian and me. We had a lot of time to fill, so we did a “songbook clearance” and played and played the entire set with no break.
At the end of the evening, our wives (because they’re always right) insisted that we play something together. Christian writes love songs. I tend to write story songs. We found common ground in Woody Guthrie and pulled off this impromptu take on This Land Is Your Land. Listen closely. You can hear us getting the hang of each other’s rhythm and timbre as the song progresses.
Geek stuff: I posted the audio here as a streaming file. If you have trouble getting it to work, the song is also available on my MySpace page.
We play out in the garden patio of the Bayview every other Sunday or so, and we’ll probably keep doing this until the Fall fog starts rolling in. (If anyone has a nice, warm, indoor venue that’s just screaming for a trio of singer-songwriters, feel free to let me know.)
In the meantime. Thirty-six songs in two hours. On your mark, get set…