Western Mass in July

Jet-lagged and irritable, I played an experimental show at Burrito Rojo on July 2nd, 2010, with Dave Dersham and Steve Nelson. As I remarked at the time, I felt like I was playing with the big kids . . . they're both v. accomplished songwriters, and I just wouldn’t refer to myself that way (maybe they wouldn’t either. Humility is a virtue).

Hmm, what next? Sam's Pizzeria, Northampton, on the 7th. Some people special to me turned out for that one, which was nice. Good to feel loved. And I got free pizza. Promoters, if you're listening, please don't take advantage of me come contract time. You know and I know that if you dangle free food before my eyes I will probably sign away everything. Sad but true.

July 11th. A private party (I awkwardly don't know how secret it was supposed to be. Probably not at all. But I'm still in the third-grade mind-set . . . if there's a party you NEVER talk about it, just in case the lame kid who didn't get invited is within earshot.) Yeah, this party was top secret. So, who's cool now? Take that Jenny! I don't need to go to your stupid Chuck E. Cheese party anyway.

Erm . . . July 17th, People's Pint in Greenfield. This was a wildcard show, to the extent that the Green River Music Festival was going on concurrently. There were actually a number of people there. So many that because my PA system doesn't have monitors the din made it surprisingly hard to hear ourselves (Lillian sang with me for a bunch of songs). And to think I called the Beatles wimps for whining about the noise at Shea Stadium. I mean, now I've been there. Also, someone actually requested my song “Pictureframe” at this show. Someone not in my immediate family or friend circle. I'm basically Lynyrd Skynyrd. (Speaking of which, if I had a dollar for every time someone requested Freebird . . . I'd have like $9 dollars.)

Those were gigs 13, 14, 15, and 16.

Oh, and 17: benefit for the Brick House at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls--(http://www.brickhousecommunity.org). Good cause, lots of talented Valley-area musicians. And, selfishly, good promotion for my upcoming show on the 29th at the Rendezvous, opening for Peter Siegel and Friends. Feel free to contact me for details, or check out the full calendar at www.myspace.com/franciejones. Oh, and who’s an awesome tween now: www.facebook.com/franciejonesmusic. I hate Facebook—and for using it I hate myself.

[[Photos are from the Glasgow Art Bar, Scotland, June 2010]]

Scotland Tour II Is History.

I'm back from Scotland! Wait, that was almost two weeks ago. Oh dear, no one is ever going to follow this blog if I don't actually see fit to update it regularly. This will have to be a partial update--no one likes a stupidly long post.

Gig 11: On Sunday, June 13, 2010, I was the featured performer at the Listening Room open mic in Edinburgh, at the Blue Blazer. The room where the open mic is kind of reminds me of Henry Higgins's study--a fireplace, books, stories of how you can look out the window into people's hotel rooms and how once a Listening Room performer got distracted by a nudist. . . . Wait, that last part had nothing to do with My Fair Lady. This is an unplugged open mic, which is great, except when you're competing with loud people who have just been watching the World Cup/are drowning their sorrows or celebrating. This is basically just what I get for planning a mini-tour to coincide with the World Cup (and by "planning" I mean "dear heavens, I had no idea"). Here's a video from the Listening Room--I actually like how the song sounds, but you'll see what I mean about competing with loud people:


Gig 12: On June 14th, 2010 I played at the Glasgow Art Bar. It was a quiet(ish) night, but the other acts were good and the sound system was stellar (thanks Crawford!). I would have more to say about this show except the thing that *really* stands out is the fact that I rented a car and drove on the left side of the road for the first time! I like to think that guitar playing has contributed to the ambidexterity that enabled me to operate gears with my left hand. It was great until I, um, almost drove down the steepest hill ever (OK, who knew that Glasgow had hills? Seriously. It was San Francisco steep.) and panicked, leading me to, erm, reverse up the hill and onto a side street. Let's just say it's a good thing there's not clutch-burn-o-meter because methinks Enterprise would have kept their deposit at that point. I hope they're not reading this.

More on my June shows in Western Mass to come . . . that's all for now, friends.