wiredfool

So yesterday a coworker says, ‘I’m going to see Jason Webley tonight – You interested? ‘

So 45 minutes later I’m done listening to an album (Against the night) that I can only describe as solo guitar / accordion and an occasional drummer singing songs about the darkness, drinking, vegetables, and drinking. In a voice that resembles gargling with gravel. Or Tom Waits. There’s some blues influences, some rhythms that seem like Squirrel Nut Zippers, and a general feeling that we’re not in Kansas anymore.

Of the album, my favorite track is probably ‘Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder’ (listen). After you’ve been dealing with all the songs of devils, death, and drink, this is a tender song of lost love.

So I wind up at a Dive of a bar (Blue Mooon, former haunt of the beat poets, always some Harleys out front now), to listen to a guy with gravel for a voice sing drinking songs. And it’s incredible. The audience is singing along, and drinking to drive away the night, the fears, or just the rest of the week. And he was singing from 10pm until closing time, at 2am.

And singing and singing over and over his favorite drinking songs.

	When the glass is full,
	Drink up! Drink up!
	This may be the last time,
	We see this cup.
	If god wanted us sober,
	He'd knock the glass over,
	So while it is full,
	We drink up!

Oddly enough, during the night, his beer was spilled twice during this song.

Overall, a highly recommended way to spend a night forgetting about the rest of the week.