Paddy Reilly Bluegrass Jam 2/18/07

Last Sunday I went to the bluegrass jam at Paddy Reilly's. There were more people than ever, including Scott (guitar virtuoso often in Wash Sq Pk), Pete, Dave (dobro), AJ (a singer with a good strong voice), Steve, Tony, Jen, Arthur, Tom and many more. A lot of mandolin players, a couple of banjo players, stand-up bass, accordian.

Steve told me that he will be out next week because he is getting treatment for a slipped disc--I hope it goes well for him.

Some of the songs that others did were:

• Little Birdie
• Angel Wings
• All the World is Lonely Now
• Sing Me Back Home
• Working on a Building (one of Tom's regular songs)
• All the Good Times Are Past and Gone

Pete did "Act Naturally". Pete is learning to play slide guitar (i.e. dobro), which is probably a good move for this group as bluegrass pickers and strummers are a dime a dozen here.

Jen did a version of "Worried Man Blues" ("Carter family version") where the opening line of each verse is repeated twice instead of 3 times. As she says, "It keeps people on their toes".

As for me, I laid low today and tried to work on my timing. I was thinking of attempting Jimmy Martin's "You Don't Know My Mind", but one of the mandolin players beat me to it. There's always next week.