I did a pretty poor job of managing the flow of the show last night. A fair number of performers came out, but a few only did 2 songs and I don’t think anyone dragged out their set. Somehow we managed to fit 12 performers in about 2 hours. We had some new people this week which is always nice.
1. Jarrod – I never know whether I should spell his name with one “r” or two. He did what he could remember of Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue,” and I am in full favor of him writing a song called “Stop Talking to me about the Subway Guy.”
2. Ben Garvey – I played a bunch of songs including, “Why Now Satan,” “The Genius of it All,” “99%,” Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Big River,” Beck’s “Asshole” and a half-assed cover “Heartland Feeling,” also by Beck. I probably did more, but they’re all running together.
3. Kris Noyes – I think you have to be a musician if your last name is pronounced “Noise.” I think I was the only one who voted for him to play a Violent Femmes song at the end. I thought the Femmes would dominate the other choices, the Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen, but I was sadly mistaken.
4. Judy Rusk – She has a nice voice and I liked the Jewel cover.
5. Cynthia – She said she flipped three coins before coming over. Two said “Go to the Tree House,” but only one said, “Go to Manayunk,” so we got to hear the song about her blood “boiling like beer in a barrel.”
6. The Forest Greens – Eric’s guitar mocked me at every chance until I pulled the plug and miked him. Things sounded 10 times better after that. At first I thought it was his guitar, but now I think it might have been the cord. The Tree House always seems to have an ample supply of damaged cords.
7. Sarah Allen – She totally showed off this week by standing and playing. I’m only jealous because half my songs sound like crap when I stand and that’s not including the half that already sounded like crap. I don’t think I ever mentioned this, but Sarah’s webaddress/alter ego, “taxisirensymphony,” is a fantastic word. I don’t know if she made it up or took it from somewhere, but it’s great.
8. Willie Tapps – Sorry Willie, your secret identity is no longer a secret to me. He brought his portable guitar and rocked out on it anyway.
9. Roz King – It felt like a while since I last heard him perform. He filled in for me 2 weeks ago, so I missed him then. He did a few good covers and gave Jarod a lesson in alternatic christian guitar tunings.
10. Will Sankofa of Transitions – Thise vocalist from the poetry group, Transitions, belted out some notes with his killer voice.
11. AJ & Mark & Electric Guitar Guy – I give their Wilco cover two thumbs up. The guitar player’s guitar had a strange tone to it and I couldn’t tell if it was intentional or not. I thought it sounded great though. I didn’t catch the name of their electric guitar player.
12. Tony Desanto – Tony did some good songs, especially his awesome, “You Don’t Have to Grow up to be President.” That song could be famous if the right people heard it. He should send it to MoveOn.org.