{continued from the previous entry}

Brett went home, and I retrieved my dad from the bar. He said, “It’s Saturday night, and I have money!” He held up a wad of bills. “Let’s do something!”

I remembered that Misty had called before the show to tell me to break a leg and also to say she was working the door at The Backroads for Steve’s band that night. So I took my dear ol’ dad over to The Backroads, and we stayed there until last call.

I sang two songs with The Jefferson County Green Band. The first one was the same one I always do whenever they ask me to sit in, a VERY SLOW twelve-bar blues in G starting with a walk-down from the five: Rock Me Baby. I was totally warmed up from the previous gig and nailed that fucker to the wall, if I do say so myself.

When I walked away from the band, no fewer than four people tried to buy me drinks. I let the bartender buy me one, since she had ahold of my arm at the time. She told me I’d given her goosebumps and that, “Only one other singer has ever done that to me, and that was twenty-two years ago!” She did not like the fact that I wasn’t attached to a band and that she couldn’t come see me play. She told me I could sing in her bar (she was the owner) any goddamned time I wanted to, end of discussion. She also made me a hellaciously (sp?) stout Scarlet O’Hara.

I spent most of the evening dancing, nursing my two drinks, and socializing. My dad danced his ass off. Travis Buch slipped on a peanut shell and hit the deck, shattering a cocktail glass. Janna was there. LeRoy was there and kissed me about twelve times. I worked the door for Misty at one point, and sold a JCGB t-shirt to LeRoy’s woman for him. I yelled at the band’s new sax player, “I’ve been playing in bands in this town on and off for fifteen years, and I just wanna know: WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!?!” and scared him off. I explained to another guy that the band DID NOT KNOW Summertime, and that was why I would not be getting up there to sing it with them any time soon. I explained to a drunk woman on the dance floor that her cuddlybunny was in the bathroom and would probably be right back, and then handed her off to someone else.

The second song I sang was Stormy Monday. Sort of. They didn’t quite have the changes right, which made it pretty fun and interesting. The sax player wailed over the form during his solo as if the song had been written like that, but personally I hit a few sour notes because expecting the chord to be different. Snort!

All in all, it was a really fun time, there at The Backroads. It was so fucking loud in there, and I danced so hard that I managed to forget about the never-ending panic attack from hell for a few hours, and was free of it until the next day. Yay!