My blogs are obviously spurred by the songwriters and this is no exception.  Last night we had Van Duren, a Memphis legend play at South Main Sounds.  I and my friends basically sat in awe as the room filled up with Van fans, some of which have been following him since the 70's. It truly was a “Memphis Moment” that is a special thing that occurs here and you just know it when it hits you.

This morning on my over to the venue, Steve Earle was on Outlaw Country with Max Gomez, who is making waves at the moment.  If my memory served correctly, I saw Max play Railgarten a few years ago under the tutelage of none other than Keith Sykes.  Right then Max started telling the story about the next song he was going to play which was written with Keith.  Steve basically interrupted the story(it's his show after all) to tell about how Keith was in New York on the coffee house circuit and living in the same building as Jerry Jeff Walker and other notables.  Keith being 19 at the time, was dubbed “Baby Keith” by Jerry Jeff and for Earle, the name stuck even though Sykes is seven years his senior.  Apparently he jabbed back at the hard core troubadour with “Why do you call me Baby Keith?” I love it when the songwriters lives are intertwined like this and even more so when they are guys I have met.  

We take a bit of a break from shows until 12/5 when we have Amber Rae Dunn, Sydney Carty, Zach Borenstein and Ashtyn Miller kick off my birthday weekend.  I'll keep the blog posts coming though, even if just for me since it gives me an outlet for my senseless musings!

3C&TT,

-Mark