Hanging out this evening with one of my favorite songwriters Freedy Johnston at a house concert thrown by Dirk and Sally Sutro.
Freedy and I met in 1994 when he was touring for his hit album This Perfect World. Paul and I were big fans, then my band the Garage Orchestra did a bunch of shows with his. Playing at the Whiskey-a-GoGo, Great American in SF and the old Bottom Line in New York, stuff like that.
Tonight was a ton of fun. Freedy played some of his tunes then had me come up and we did a cover of The Cures Lovesong and Nick Lowe's Cruel To Be Kind. Took a break than I came up and did a few of my new tunes: Somebody's Angel which elaborated on a theme Freedy had brought up earlier, about a soldier coming back from war not quite the same. Mine about a spouse of a soldier having to carry on her life and reluctantly finding a new life without her war injured partner.
Severo Jornacion from the Smithereens joined us on the second set, playing bass and singing a third harmony. We were up there (without mic's you might notice) winging it on cover songs, some that the crowd would shout out. Some of the songs: Summer Breeze, Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, the Beach Boy's Don't Worry Baby, Rhiannon, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Cheap Trick's I Want You To Want Me, Stephen Still's It Doesn't Matter, I Wanna Be Sedated...
I met Severo in 1994 as well, at that point he was a fan of The Smithereens and was coming out to a bunch of the shows I played with them. Hanging backstage alot
Here we are looking like Up With People. Paula Luber joined us on drum sticks and chair for a few of the songs
This is the money shot.. or, messed up losers from the trailer park.
It was excellent in so many ways!
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