It was 20 years ago today...I just came across this recording in my archives (read carboard box buried in the closet) and had a good memory of a great night at my favorite listening room, Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem PA, back in aught 3, making music with my new friend Jimmy on Dobro, my old friend Karl on the keys, and my fiancée Maggie on harmonies... I recall my buddy Christian, with whom I wrote some of the best of these tunes, watching from the sound booth behind the late, great Otto Bost who was on the soundboard that night and captured the fun on digital and took a few photos and very kindly put them together on a CD for me so I could find it 20 years later and have a listen to a snapshot in time and remember the night, and Otto, fondly.. Well, I just took a listen, and I didn't hurl...In fact, it sounds like a few joyful musicians having a really good time on a bunch originals and some groovy covers. There were moments where some magic happened and I'm damn glad he was recording & mixing that night. As usual, I tuned a lot, and probably talked too much while doing so, but that's folk music, and the stories between the songs are part of the show, even the long-winded ones... Anyhow, I just ripped this ol' CDR to my hard drive while it still plays right (and computers still have CD drives), scanned Otto's cool cover art, and decided I'd throw it up on bandcamp for whomever might want to take a listen (the site allows 3 free streams before you have to pay anything*) to some live music from 27FEB2003... If nothing else, have a listen to these cats trading off solos on Jethro Tull's Locomotive Breath...Hope you enjoy hearing these as much as I loved playing them that night...

And now for a streaming soap box rant:
*Music distribution has changed drastically in the past 20 years. For the better for effectiveness and speed of reach (when I hit the Publish button as soon as I'm done typing, this recording with be available worldwide) but mostly all for the worse for the artists (for instance, it currently requires a song to be streamed 420 times on Spotify before we're paid $1 for our music...that's $.0024, less than a quarter of a penny per play). I struggle to wrap my head around the raw deal that artists, who CREATE the music being played, are forced to accept in order to be part of the latest paradigm of streaming distribution...Believe me, I'm not in it for the money but how fair does that seem? Now bandcamp however gives the artist roughly 82% of digital download sales (bandcamp.com/about) - the catch being not too many people download music anymore with it so readily available to stream for free, why would they? That said, I don't expect to sell many downloads of this show, so I priced it at an even $20 to commemorate the 20 year anniversary of the gig. However, whatever payment does end up in my inbox, I'll give half to savethechildren.org's fund for children in Ukraine. Gratefully stepping down off my soap box now...

Thank you for listening and for supporting live music,
GC

"Music is healing. Write that down first." - Prince, to his autobiography co-writer

“In the end I think of music as the saving grace for all humanity.” - Henry Miller