My John Prine Fix

Ithaca. Its a long tobacco road to get to Ithaca from Sherburne. The winter roads were sticky, slimy and frost heaved every where.  But once your there. Its great! If only for one night.

Bill and I arrived about 2 pm and stayed in the La Tourelle on the mountain past Ithaca college. My friend Mitchel Drosin reserved us a lovely room with a lovely, wintery gray and white view. The whole place was clay tiled with persian rugs that reminded me of a miniature Hotel California. The ice machines were old antique trunks with plastic coolers of ice in them. Nice touch! We unpacked and headed back down the hill to shop the commons. I shopped the Shalimar House and splurged on two funky  jackets made in Nepal! Really cool stuff. We then had dinner at the Mahogany Grill. Getting there before the rush got us a cozy table in the front window. Great dinners and reasonable priced.

It's been 5 years or more since I've seen a John Prine show. No matter how many times I see him perform. It  brings me the simplest of  happiness. John's music is as essential as a kitchen sink, little gems of American Life whether sad or funny, serious or just plain unadulterated happy! I had the pleasure of working for John several years back when he was promoting his Lost Dogs Mixed Blessings album. That was when John was touring big! He had a tour bus and many musicians, props and sound technicians along. It was really exciting! Bill and I also picked John and his band up from the Syracuse airport several times and got him to his show at the Landmark. Bill and I transported John in a blizzard from Syracuse to Buffalo. I was also a food runner and helped with setting up small banquet tables after the shows. Because of Mitchel I've also met Chip Taylor the dude who wrote, Wild Thing and "Angel Of The Morning and B. B. King. I have many, many fond John Prine memories. My fondest is when I took Dad to see him. Dad really enjoyed John's music. I'm just so happy I got to see a John Prine show with my dad. We were on the same page musically. Another great gift my dad left me was playing his country music every Sunday. Sunday mornings and afternoons (I don't remember being much of a church goer) but anyway Dad would play Peter, Paul and Mary, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and many many more country artists. I guess thats where it all started for me. Oh and the subscription to National Georgraphic. Thanks to Uncle Milty. So anyway AGAIN! Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek played with John last night. Her voice and violin complimented John's music perfectly! She one very talented girl! It was an awesome sold out show! Tho the Ithaca bar crowd was obnoxious, loud and rowdy due to the bar being inside the performance area. Not a good idea.  They settled down after a while. Several people were ushered out and it was beginning to remind me of the show at the end of Oh Brother Where Art Thou! John signed autographs till 1:30 in the morning and me with my back stage pass, passed it up and went to bed...Its ok tho...been there, done it many times. It was a delight to just get away. And I've got two gigs myself to get ready for. Anniversary gig at Michaels and Georgetown Inn. What we musician's don't do...