Last night I saw Tracy Grammer and Jim Henry give an amazing concert. Shame on me for waiting until 9:46 PM the next day to write about it. I have an excuse to not write it in the morning but that’s it. They played at the Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series in Deep Dark New Jersey, Morristown. In the good old days, when I had a car, I’d make my way there from Eastern Queens or from my job in Columbus Circle. I went often enough as to volunteer when I was there on sound. I haven’t been there in ten years. The only reason I could get there was that I know that my frniece (portmanteau of friend and niece, It works better the other way, I’m their fruncle) River loves Tracy and would go if she could make it. She lives in the Garden State and has a car. So I went to Morristown via two subways and a train and River picked me up. This was exciting for many reasons. I was seeing Tracy for the first time since the ante-plague era. I was seeing River for only the second time since the ante-plague era. I was meeting River’s person, Erica, for the first time ever There was one more piece of excitement but I’ll hold that as mystery for those who know me well to deduce. I think Perry will get it.
River proved that though we are not blood relatives that we are related in more important ways. They showed me where they were parked by taking a picture from the car, not of the car. I could walk until what I saw matched the view in the picture. That’s quite effective, at least for River and me. I have tried that with myself and the people who I was trying to guide to where I was sitting thought it totally useless. As they were friends I can’t say that it’s something my friends can do. No, this points to kinship.
We ate where I always eat when I go to the Troubadour, the Morristown Diner. I haven’t been there in ten years, but I remembered what I order there, the Cajun chicken sandwich. It was as good as I remember. Erica’s tuna melt met their expectations and that is their measure of a diner. I don’t know if River commented on their portobello burger. As this is Wise Madness and food has the highest coverage priority, I feel that I have not failed you, but not done my best. If I didn’t remember what everyone ate I would have to do major penance.
Don’t worry Tracy and Jim, I will get to writing about you, but as I said, food has the highest priority.
We deliberately met early so that we’d have hanging time before the show and still be one of the first people on line. On the train ride there I realized that would let me do the thing that most excited me, buying Taylor Ham, the greatest asset unique to New Jersey. I asked if River minded stopping at a supermarket so I could get it. Google found one on the way. I not only got it but I got helped by a store employee who loved it Taylor Ham as much as I do. I needed help on the self-checkout as the price wouldn’t scan and she had to check it for me. When she came back she had to say how great Taylor Ham is When she went to school in Massachusetts she always made sure to pick some up when she went home.
I am now going to go above and beyond; I promised River and Erica that I would spend no more than two thirds of my blog waxing poetic about Taylor Ham. Instead I will finish with this paragraph now and a coda later. No where does it say “Taylor Ham” on the packaging. That is a legal issue decided in the distant past. It is labeled Pork Roll an that is what they call it in the Southern, less civilized parts of the state. There is no consensus on where the boundary of North and South Jersey is but it is the pork roll/Taylor Ham line. Ask someone from NJ what they call it and their answer will tell you if they identify with North or South Jersey. Gender might be non-binary but in my experience, the pork roll/Taylor Ham line is absolute.
I am 747 words in and I have not even reached the venue yet. That speaks volumes about how great the show was. My mind was stimulated and is now working on turbocharger.
When we got there we got on line for the doors. We were not the first, but we were close. I started going through something I knew would be awkward, seeing people that I know, that I knew would know who I am, and I would have no idea what their names are. I handled it very maturely, avoiding them until cornered and then letting them know that I’m a terrible person that forgot their name. One of those was the emcee, Jay. I know him the best.
When we were let in, I headed to front row house right. River and Erica said in horror, “What are you doing?” What they noticed that I didn’t was that was the mask optional side of the room. We then headed to the left. Notice that the seating matches the politics, people on the left are much more pro-mask. Sorry, as I said, my mind was stimulated, I’m going to keep thinking of things.
I have seen Tracy, let me count, a zillion times. I have seen Tracy with Jim a zillion times for small values of a zillion. Excepting the shows with her late musical and romantic partner Dave Carter, this was the best I’ve ever seen her. It is no knock on Jim or Tracy that the shows with Dave were the best. Dave was arguably the greatest songwriter of his generation. I’d argue that. He died much too young, on my birthday in 2002. Yesterday was Mozart’s birthday so it is appropriate to bring that up. Tracy avoided two traps and landed between them on the green. She could have become a Dave Carter Tribute Show. I’d probably enjoy that, at least for a decade or so, but that wouldn’t put Tracy in my pantheon. She could have had a fragile ego and avoided playing his music so as to escape from his shadow. But no, she charted the middle course, she keeps Daves music alive as no one else is capable of, and she developed and grew her own musical voice. She is not afraid of letting Jim, who is a great guitarist and songwriter in his own right, take the lead at times. An added benefit of that is that it lets Tracy play her first instrument the fiddle. If you aren’t Emerald Rae, it’s difficult to sing and fiddle at the same time.
Not only has Tracy’s songwriting developed but so has her stage presence. I will now give her the highest praise possible, she rivals Dar. Her banter is hilarious, captivating, and informative. She doesn’t speak like Dar, but that vibe was there. River felt it too. One of the things that I learned was that not only was her late cat Miss Kitty a great travel cat that went on the road with Tracy, but was also a member of my tribe, the Children of Israel? She wrote a song commemorating Miss Kitty called, Fine Jew. Wait, what is that, Tracy? I misheard? Oh, that’s embarrassing. Sorry forks, Tracy just told me the title was Find You. This was part of a songwriting exercise Tracy took place in, “Real Women, Real Songs.” Each week our friend Cary Cooper would give the group a prompt. Every member of the group was to write a song every week to the prompt The prompt here was “Flashlight.” I had a lot of friends in the group including Carolann Solebello who is a good friend to both River and me.
Tracy played many songs that she wrote for RWRS. She was built for that challenge. They aren’t throwaways, there are some great songs. One key is that she’s still working on them. The rules said a song a week but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t continue to refine them She said that from watching us listen to the song she learns how to tweak them,.
I don’t remember which song it was, but one of Tracy’s songs passed the ultimate songwriting test. I closed my eyes and pictured everything she sang. I was watching a movie and getting inside the head of the characters. That’s the best, when I’m no longer aware of my surroundings and exist inside the song.
The show closed with a merging of Solo Tracy and Dave and Tracy universes. Her “final” song was the first song she wrote, The Verdant Mile which is about Dave. In it she names checks two of his greatest songs, Gentle Arms of Eden, and The Mountain. Their encore was Gentle Arms. That’s my ringtone for River. It’s our song. I had tears in my eyes. River put their arms around me. It doesn’t get better than that.
After the show River and I went to talk to Tracy. I’ve done that many times, this was River’s first. They showed Tracy their Gentle Arms of Eden tattoo. Tracy was so impressed. Sometimes having high expectations leads to a letdown, this did not. We finally tore ourselves away as I had to make the last train back to the City. I did! The rest of the trip was not as smooth. On the way home, it wasn’t one train to Penn Station, I had to switch Secaucus. That wasn’t bad but as it was also a local the trip back to Penn was quite a bit longer than the trip out there. That was the easy part. Instead of two trains to get home it was going to take three. The D train was only running to Yankee Stadium where I had to switch to the 4. First I had to take the A to 59th street where I could switch to the D. I just missed a train and had a long wait for the next Then I had a longer wait for the D. We then sat in the 125th Street station for an interminable time. The wait for the 4 wasn’t bad but the subway portion of the trip home took an hour longer than it should have. I didn’t get home until 2 AM. I then couldn’t get to sleep until 3 AM. Then I woke up at 6:30, I get up weekdays at 5:30. Didn’t get out of bed. I didn’t even open my eyes. I knew the time because I asked Google. I then existed in the land of the lotus eaters until 10:15. That was not a deep sleep, and I was still tired. This is why I didn’t write in the morning. I fell asleep in my chair after brunch. Guess what I had for brunch. You should know! I had Taylorhameggandcheese on a bagel! That was heaven on earth. I told you it would come back in the Coda. Then I finished planning next week’s Gord’s Gold. I had already programed it, but I had to change it on the fly. I needed to play Verdant Mile followed by Gentle Arms of Eden. I then made it a Dave Carter set by adding covers of The Mountain and When I Go. We all think of that latter as the elegy that Dave wrote for himself.
This is the longest entry I’ve written in ages and I’m leaving out important things. I love Erica! It wasn’t awkward when River left us alone at the Diner. She laughed at my ridiculous jokes, not me. I laughed at hers. I felt kinship. It’s always a relief when you find you love the people, the people you love, love. I hope you can parse that sentence. It says exactly what I want to say but god knows if my punctuation makes that clear.
Now to finish post this and reward myself with a hot chocolate.
Wise Madness 