Mike Cooley Show Was One Week Ago Tonight...

... at Tractor Tavern in Ballard, and after a lovely stop just down the avenue at the bar at Hattie's Hat, Danielle and I were first in line at the door.  We sat in the front row, basically dead center, about ten feet from Mike.  He played for an hour and forty-five minutes, just him and his guitar.  And, of course, last week in these very pages I promoted four or five (six?) of his songs so, if you'd care to get a sense of what it's like to see him solo...

The show was fantastic and I think I only teared up twice, though it could have been three - just incredible to hear these stripped down versions of his Drive-By Truckers songs.  Danielle, who is not as familiar with the DBT catalogue as I, turned to me at one point and said, "He's a fine lyricist."  So, if you don't believe me...

Also, it was a pleasure to briefly meet him afterward.  He is very quiet, almost shy, though he agreed to a picture.  Then, immediately, Danielle asked if his wife could join us in the snap and his face lit up.  "Honey get on over here," he said.

Finally, cheers to Bill Woten (a gentleman unknown to me until that evening) for taking this picture on his much better camera, and sending it to me the next day.

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"The Angriest Saviour in the World"

Original IBL art - ink, colored pencil and lipstick on paper, 11 x 8.5 inches, 2/24/13.

Infection By Light - Working Hard For YOU

All from last night, detail to follow.

"Birthday Boy", Mike Cooley

On 3/21/12, right around the time I saw the Drive-By Truckers at the Showbox here in Seattle, I posted their song Birthday Boy, a Cooley composition, in these very pages (I also included the lyrics).  If this isn't my favorite DBT song, then it certainly has a fixed spot in my top 5.  In any event, I ran across this acoustic version and present it now for comparative purposes; and, also, because I think it has a lyrical passage as good as any I've heard in any song before - a description of the young women who might just wind up taking off a significant portion of their clothes for the birthday boy and his pals...

The pretty girls from the smallest towns
Get remembered like storms and droughts
The old men talk about for years to come
I guess that's why they give us names
So a few old men can say they saw us rain when we were young

Birthday Boy - music at 1:10; good sound, crappy video...

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"Gravity's Gone", Mike Cooley

Yep, it's a lot of Mike Cooley to have on your blog, I get that.  Likely there will be more, too...

Gravity's Gone...


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"Pulaski", Mike Cooley

One of my absolute favorites...

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"Cartoon Gold", Mike Cooley

Solo acoustic...

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