Robert Earl Keen

So I mentioned that we were going to see Robert Earl Keen at the 9:30 Club last night. The show was great. This was the fourth time I have seen him this year and this was probably the second best show behind the one in Bryan, TX (College Station really) with Joe. Of course multiple $6 pitchers of Shiner Bock could have influenced my opinion of the Bryan show, but I remember it being fun and rowdy, especially since it was a few hours after the Texas A&M spring game.

Last night we got to hear some of the new stuff that he has been playing and I am looking forward to finding out when a new album is coming. He is playing at least 5 or 6 new songs pretty regularly so a new album must be taking shape. This knowledge though brings me to a realization that I know Joe can sympathize with, the realization that I have possibly entered into "fanboy" territory.

If you have been to visit us recently you know that our guest bedroom serves as the guitar room/Wake Forest room. I have a 5 guitar stand set up with a few more in cases in the room. Last Christmas my Mom gave me a framed poster from a music festival in Winston-Salem called "Music Downtown". The poster is very cool and is hanging above all of the guitar stuff, along with a small 4 x 6 picture of me playing with my band in high school. There is an empty space above the guitar rack between these two items and when I saw the poster for the Downtown Hoedown in Lufkin, TX, which Joe and I also attended in April, I knew it would fit in perfectly with the existing musical decor. However, I forgot about this plan and never got around to putting it in a frame.

While going through luggage recently, I discovered my ticket stub from the Lufkin show, which set my plan into motion. After every show, Robert Earl Keen signs autographs. I have never partaken in this ritual before....until last night that is. The guys in the band actually set up and break down their own gear so I talked with Rich Brotherton, who plays lead guitar, after the Bryan show. Joe tried to take a picture of this but the video card was full and we were too intoxicated to realize it.

Unbeknownst to Julia and Sally, I had two objectives heading into the show last night, which were 1) get Robert Earl Keen and Rich Brotherton to sign the Lufkin ticket stub and 2) find out how old Rich's Epiphone Riviera is.

After the last song, we lingered a bit so I could get the ticket signed. There was a line to meet Robert Earl Keen but Rich was breaking down his stuff on stage and signing stuff for people from there, so I decided to head his way first. When I walked up, there were two highly intoxicated girls talking to him, one of whom was telling him that she was about to divorce her husband and that this show was exactly what she needed. He took it all in stride and tried to carry on some semblance of a normal conversation with them, which was pretty amusing. Eventually I handed him the ticket stub and asked how old the Riviera is. He signed the ticket and said it is actually a 1996 reissue. Objective #2 had been fulfilled and half of #1 as well.

We then made our way through the now shorter line to have Robert Earl Keen sign stuff. Julia waited beside the line but Sally went through it with me. Sally tried to claim that my "man crush" is on Robert Earl Keen, but I corrected her as I think it's actually on Rich Brotherton, as he is the superior musician technically. He's no Josh Howard though Joe..... Anyway, Robert Earl Keen signed the ticket and we made our way out. The ticket stub has now been framed along with the poster. Please note that I managed to break the glass while putting it all together so I will have to get another super cheap frame for it tomorrow, at which point I will hopefully have a picture of it on the wall for my loyal readers.

Just to complete the fanboy extravaganza in one post, I went through recently to figure out how many times I have seen them, as Julia and I discussed it at some point but weren't able to nail down a number. To the best of my knowledge and research, the list is as follows:
10/10/00 - Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC (Alan went to this one with me)
06/03/01 - Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC
05/03/03 - House of Blues, Chicago, IL
09/02/04 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
08/13/05 - Recher Theater, Towson, MD
04/13/06 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
11/14/06 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
11/14/07 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
04/18/08 - Pitser Garrison Civic Center, Lufkin, TX
04/19/08 - Texas Hall of Fame, Bryan, TX
04/20/08 - Toyota Texas Bass Classic, Quitman, TX
11/12/08 - 9:30 Club, Washington, DC

For dinner tonight, I've got something special cooking, which I will detail tomorrow. Thanks for reading this whole thing if you made it this far.

Update from the weekend

Before heading out of town on Friday, I snapped the first picture on the left, which is the front of our building. The second picture is the same scene from back in the spring. I am showing these because the color in the tree in the back was done in the middle of last week and it's pretty much bare now.

We loaded up on Friday night and picked up our friends Jen and James and headed down to Winston for the game. We stopped for dinner at Sonic in Fredericksburg, where I ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster Sandwich and tots. The sandwich was just OK. I had higher hopes for it as I usually enjoy the Texas Toast there. Oh well. Somewhere between Petersburg and South Hill I also mashed a bag of M&M's.

On Saturday, we got out to the tailgate around 9AM and began to enjoy the ham biscuits I put together on Friday afternoon. I purchased 2 lbs of the thinly sliced Virginia country ham from Balducci's and put it on some Martin's Famous Party Potato Rolls. I didn't think to take a picture of all the biscuits as I was putting them together, but it was quite the undertaking. Julia did manage to snap the picture to the left of what they looked like before they disappeared at the tailgate....both trays of them. People really seemed to enjoy them so perhaps we have found our food niche for Almost Gold. I ate some pigs in a blanket and some homemade chicken nuggets at the tailgate, but basically just stuck to the ham biscuits I guess.

After the game, we went out to Ted's Kickin' Chicken and then stopped by Cook Out for a milkshake. I had the caramel cheesecake shake for the first time and was very pleased with it.

On Sunday, we headed down to Lexington and hit John Wayne's Barbecue, where Sally had taken us before. I had the chopped bbq plate with mac & cheese and deviled eggs (both of which were classified as "veggies") and some hush puppies. I drank sweet tea of course. It was all super delicious.

We made our way back to DC, but not before stopping at Jersey Mike's in Ashland to grab a dinner, and in my case, also lunch for today. I selected the giant Original Italian and happily enjoyed it.

That wraps up the weekend recap. I am not preparing anything for dinner tonight and we headed to the Robert Earl Keen show at the 9:30 Club (technically named Nightclub 9:30) on Wednesday night so it may be a light week here. Be sure to check back just the same.