The Cougar Has Landed!

What a great show! Absolutely fantastic, kids! Johnny came knockin' with his fiddler AND the acordian player. So immediately Gertrude and I were all "Oh, it's on! The only entourage regret I have (and he should be feelin' this) is that his sassy POP SING-AAAAH backup gals weren't there.



He started off with Pink Houses which got everyone to their feet. Cheater.

It was more of an "Everyone get up and enjoy this show" than a shove my new album down your throat show. He played 4 songs from the new album by my count, including the powerful "Jena".

Our boy ripped the roof off the dump several times, but when he kicked the everlovin' shit out of "Crumblin' Down" , I swear, if you were dead a week, you still would have had to get up and sing along.

My favorite was "Rain on the Scarecrow" which he and the band blasted out (4 guitars plus bass) completely electric. Goosebumps and welled up eyes on that one, folks. Always one of my favorites and, for me, his most personal and painful narrative. (I'll save the story of my great-grandfather, the peanut farmer from Eastern Oklahoma, for later)

Gert and I were both extremely disappointed that "Rumbleseat" and "Ain't Even Done With the Night" were left off the set list. There were plenty others I would have loved to have heard ("When Jesus Left Birmingham", "Pop Singer" , "What if I Came Knockin'" but, in all honesty, if he played MY setlist, he wouldn't be finished until Sunday afternoon.

Gertrude was screaming for "Cherry Bomb" when we were riding the escalator up to our seats, and, Bless Her Heart, he didn't deliver that one, either.

Overall, just fantastic! Love that I got to watch him with Gert, he's always been 'one of our guys'; Love that Gertrude scored us the tickets months ago, way before time together was as scarce as it's become. Just a wonderful night.

Thank You, Gertrude.

Here are a couple that I found that I couldn't resist linking: Johnny with The Man in Black hisself, and one with Paul Simon (I actually remember seeing this on NBC waaay back when, Dan Ayckroyd and John Candy hosted some otherwise silly thing-this obviously was great, LOVE their version of The Boxer)

I'm exhausted. From the show and from linking all those damn videos. Main reason I didn't mention any more song titles...I'm spent.