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.

IBL:mm