Greg Brown Review

Greg Brown, September 28, 2008, Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, CA

I have played Greg Brown and my folk music too much in the car. The wife and kids no longer accompany me to concerts. I get to enjoy the music all by myself, which is nice. But I do not get to Share my enjoyment with anyone. That is the shame of it.
On Sunday Night's concert, Greg Brown was accompanied by his good friend and fellow guitar player, Bo Ramsey. Bo Ramsey came out at 8 PM to warm up the crowd. The opening act, Bo Ramsey, a skinny old guy with a guitar, started with a folksy, bluesy "Tell Me Now". Made me want to get the CD to check it out further.
"Fragile", "What's going down."
Ramsey also did a rather repetitive, yet good beat, song called "From Buffalo to Jericho" with the great line of "a long, long time the message of love was what I was sending/
But it was just me pretending/ A long, long time."
Right around this time, about 8:30 pm, Bo Ramsey left the stage only to come back a few minutes later with Greg Brown.
Greg started with a song called "backslider". A song that I was unfamiliar with but the rest of the crowd knew it well.
Greg said that he wanted to be like Jesus because he liked the idea of being dead only three days, because he has a problem with eternity.
But then he went right into three of my favorites, "The Worrisome Years", "Laughing River" and "Whippoorwill" ("the whippoorwill is not a lonesome bird, he is just nuts", Greg Brown in his introduction). Greg wrote this song after his uncle Roscoe and his lady came to the farm for a visit.
"China", a song which inspired me to write a little poem of my own.
"If I Had Known", a song that I consider my favorite Greg Brown tune. What a beautiful tale of life and how great it is to have a short memory so we keep doing the same things over and over looking for that real moment of greatness.
Greg introduced his tribute to America, the beautiful, wonderful, rambling tale of restful America, "Eugene", with the warning to all thinking Americans "I am afraid of my Television". "Eugene" is a great tribute to us all. He says he has "a lot of books he needs to read." I have a stack of books I need to read. Another part of the song he states that "we think we got some shit figured out, then we get tired and go to bed." Greg had friends that he would visit and drink and eat with in the evening. But the gist of the song is that we must "go and look for your life."
Eugene is a stream of consciousness song about a slice of life, a tale of America.
"Slant 6 Mind"
"Think About You"
"Small Dark Movie" How are things going?
/
"Get me religion. I want to be a Baptist preacher, so I don't have to work."
Around about 10PM, a train went by behind the building. It was noticeable but not distracting or annoying.

Greg and Bo came back for an encore. He came out and sang another one of my favorites, "No Place Away", with the great line "words like notes, long slow seduction".
"Waiting on You"
Greg finished the evening with a Johnny Cash cover, "Folsom Prison". I thought this was an odd choice but then I thought it a nice tribute to Johnny Cash.