Seeing JD Souther two days after the Eagles was a huge contrast - huge production and huge audiences to a one-man show in an intimate venue. Both shows were great!

It was an intimate venue indeed - basically, the back room of a small Irish pub. I'm not sure what the capacity was, but unfortunately, very few people were there. The set up was several small tables around a balcony, some tables and booths on the floor, and about ten rows of folding chairs, ten across. I would estimate it was about a third full. JD asked if it was the cold keeping everyone away - and it was DANG cold. It even got down to 14 degrees with wind chill before the night was through!

When my friend and I got there, the front row only had three people in it, and none of them were in the center (a lot of them were at tables eating)! We plopped down right there, of course! We noted with surprise that we were the only ones there under 40. Odd to feel young at my age.

Still, JD enjoyed himself and said we were a great crowd - he called us the "elite group." lol His show was VERY laid back and casual. He played songs as they occurred to him, saying that he couldn't really remember the set list order. He also forgot the words to one of his newer songs, and asked for someone to bring the lyrics sheet up (I did wonder if that was a ploy to draw attention to his new album, though!)

He had no backing band - just three guitars and a piano. He tuned the guitars himself sometimes before - and in one case DURING a song (not missing a beat while doing it; just kept on trucking). His voice is amazing - just like on the records. He said he prided himself on not having to lower keys like a lot of his colleagues.

The Eagles came up in the context of "How Long," "New Kid in Town," and "Best of My Love," all of which he played. He also played an impromptu segment of "Doolin-Dalton," but not the whole song after teasing us to guess the Eagles song he was going to play next and taking everyone off-guard with the rarity! Regarding "How Long," he said that when Irving Azoff called to tell him that the Eagles were covering it, he replied, "Well, I guess I'll add it back to my setlist then." After "New Kid in Town," he said, "It took a long time to write that song. When we started it, we were writing about ourselves. By the time we finished it, we were writing about our replacements."

He did play "Last in Love," to my delight, saying that he was a romantic as well as a political type - that most of his songs were either about sex or death, lol.

Another rarity was that he did Talking to the Moon! He just sat down at the piano and played it - a stripped down, gorgeous version.

He did several songs from his new album, which fit seamlessly into his set as they have that same kind of classic Souther sound. Also, he started one of them - "Journey Down the Nile" - while in the Hillman, Souther, Furay band in 1973, but "they weren't ready for it." I liked it. I wound up buying his new CD, which he signed for me.

He also mentioned Jackson Browne while tuning, Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon before "You're Only Lonely," and several other folks from around that time.

When he was tuning and apologized for boring us while he did so, someone yelled out "You can tell us a story about the Eagles while you do it!" He just shook his head and said "You can read about that anyplace." Someone yelled out "How about Warren Zevon?" And he said "I miss him," then told a story about how he did a great version of "Simple Man, Simple Dream."

The only sour moment for me was when he started rhapsodizing about Castro. Apparently he started several of the new songs while visiting Cuba with other songwriters such as Bert Bacharach and Bonnie Raitt. Even Woody Harrelson came (did you know that he was a songwriter too?) His words were, "Yeah, he probably did what they say he did - jailed and executed dissenters - but I guess that's what you have to do if you want to stay in power for 50 years." He continued, "He was really charming to us, gave us cigars, took us to a baseball game. We had a great time... he stood a head taller than everyone else, a very distinctive presence..." I was thinking, "How can you, as someone who has sung songs about social protest, be so blithe about protester's deaths, so enamored of their prosecuter?" Luckily he got off of that after about five minutes.

On the positive side, he congratulated Illinois on the election of Barack Obama and also complimented McCain's concession speech. He added that just because the Democrats were in charge now didn't mean we could all relax and assume everything would be fine - they still need to be pushed. He urged us to write our congresspeople when we were unhappy so they knew that if they didn't shape up, they wouldn't be able to "go back to Washington and get expensive haircuts and fancy dinners."

He's quite a talker; very conversational. That's cool though; I like it when they do more than sing and leave. He also had some "audience participation" - he encouraged us to sing "oooh, sweet darlin', you get the best of my love" while he sang over it, harmonizing and improving. Nice!

The songs he performed (out of order - may have forgotten some):
Jesus in 3/4 Time
How Long
Faithless Love
Simple Man, Simple Dream
Silver Blue
Lullaby
Little Victories
You're Only Lonely
If You Don't Want My Love
The Last in Love
White Rhythm and Blues
Trouble in Paradise
I'll Take Care of You
All I Want
I'll Be Here at Closing Time
Journey Down the Nile
In My Arms Tonight
Rain
A Chorus of Your Own
The Border Guard
The Secret Handshake of Fate
New Kid in Town
Best of My Love
Talking to the Moon
Doolin-Dalton (snippet)

As you can see, the show was quite long, and it didn't start until 9:30 (he had an opening act, April Smith, who was quite good). We left there at 12:00, which was brutal for me because I had three hours to drive and a time change to deal with as well. I wound up pulling into a gas station after two hours and sleeping for a half hour because I was so tired. Then, back to work at 9:30!

So, as you guys know, I was really hoping to get my Longbranch Pennywhistle album signed. Well, it happened! He was signing stuff afterwards and I handed it to him. He did a double take when he saw Glenn's signature and paused. "Well, I'll guess I'll sign it by me" (Glenn had signed by his picture on the album). His handwriting is little more than a scrawl, but I think he wrote "Best Wishes, JD Souther." lol He signed his new CD for me, too, and personalized it "To Nancy." I love that!

I also handed him a copy of the How Long video that I uploaded to YouTube - the one that Glenn's kids saw. He was delighted by that because he said he'd never seen it! We chatted a bit about Glenn and Taylor as well because apparently she is doing some kind of school project that involved JD or during which she hung out with JD (I was kind of unclear about that but didn't want to be nosy). I was just thrilled and left very happy! My friend who came with me took a photo of JD and me with her cell phone, and if it comes out I'll post it.

Well worth that excruciating drive!

JD says he'll be back in the summer with a full band. I'll be there!