It's always an honor to play with Jack Pledge, and I was lucky to get the chance to do so last night. I was at the open mic at Twin Creeks when our mutual friend Diana (Jack's girlfriend's aunt) texted me saying Jack was at B.B. Rovers. I finished my set at TC, made my apologies, and high-tailed it to Rovers.

Besides being a consummate songwriter, Jack is also a great picker. He accompanied me on four songs: "Eulogy," "Hot Pepper Tamale," "Don't Dallas My Austin," and "Guilty Pleasure." Later, he and Jenifer (Jack's aforementioned girlfriend and Diana's aforementioned niece) spent the night at Casa Davenport before heading back to San Antonio in the morning. Thanks, Jack.

Audience member Dudley took a few minutes to tell a joke about Paul and me. Thankfully, only Paul had to sit down by him.

Two nights playing downtown this week; tonight I was at Lynette Wolfe's new open mic gig at the Lucky Lounge on 5th Street. It's two doors away from where Antone's used to be.

David P. Dunn called yesterday afternoon to tell me he had picked up a last minute gig as featured artist at B.D. Riley's Irish Pub. He asked if I could come down to support him, and if I could drive Diana down there, too.

Joe Gee hosts the Monday open mic there, but unlike other open mic hosts, Joe doesn't double as featured performer. Instead, he schedules other musicians to play a 45-minute set before the open mic begins. (NOTE: I didn't know this until yesterday.)

David had a good set, and I was glad to have been able to bring Diana downtown to see him. I signed up for the open mic list, and got the fourth slot.

Honestly, the crowd had been a little lukewarm to the first three acts. I was lukewarm to the first act, too, but I felt like the next two acts deserved better.

My plan to open my three-song set with "Eulogy" changed when I stepped on the stage. On a spur of the moment, I decided to open with "Don't Dallas My Austin," which seemed appropriate for my first Sixth Street show. I'm so glad I made the change because the microphone stand began slowly slipping toward the end of the first verse. I was forced to squat lower and lower on stage to sing into the mic. The audience saw what was happening before Joe did, and I hammed it up quite a bit while trying to catch Joe's eye.

The crowd loved it.

Joe rushed back on stage and tried to fix the mic stand (he also hammed it up a bit), and he ultimately managed to swap it out with a new stand during the song's lead break. I finished to a big applause. All in all, it was a great way to start.

With the crowd in a comedy mood now, I abandoned any thought of doing a serious song. I went straight to my old standby, "Hot Pepper Tamale," which they also loved. They enthusiastically helped out with the horns, and with Diana's prompting, some of them held up "hook 'em horns" fingers, too.

Applause, applause, applause.

I wrapped things up with David's song "Mary Rode Joseph's Ass." Most of the crowd loved it immediately. The three folks at the table closest to the stage seemed taken aback at first, but they quickly got into the spirit, too, and sang along with the chorus. I got the biggest applause of the evening. What an incredible ego-boost! 

During the next act, Joe Gee told me he wants to schedule me as the featured act sometime next month. I must admit that I had quite a bounce to my step when I left the bar.

Tonight's show was great. I hosted a dozen guests in the Sunday open mic at B.B. Rover's Cafe & Pub. Regulars included: Kaye Reznick, Jake Riggs, Danny Fast Fingers, and Overdue Bill. Paul Teneyuque also showed up, but he arrived too late to play. Also performing last night: Jim Cleveland, Gene Douglas, Daniel Varcleford, Xochitl, Andrew Castro, Travis, Twitching Kitten, and The Cool Hand Ukes.

Twitching Kitten boldly tried to introduce the acoustic crowd to some non-acoustic sounds. They followed their friend Travis, who stood with just a harmonica. His middle selection was "The Wild Rover," and I was the only one in the bar who knew how to sing it, but (with my help), we eventually got a few audience members to sing along on the chorus.

All the way from Sacramento, CA came the beautiful voice of Xochitl (pronounced SO-chee) and her friend Andrew Castro. I traded CDs with both of them. Xochitl kindly autographed mine with: "Your open mic ROCKS my California soul. -Xochitl."

My ukulele friends Nancy, Lita and Gary closed the show, performing as The Cool Hand Ukes. I hope other members of the Austin Ukulele Society take this as a challenge to get out to more open mics, especially mine.

I also had a very special guest, not on stage, but in the audience: my mother. She bravely stayed through the evening, enjoying the music and the BBR burger.

The unassuming town of Walburg rests just a hop, skip and J northeast of Georgetown. Its local beer garden ("beigarten" in German) is home to a semi-regular Wednesday songwriters show. Last night was my first time to be invited to play, and I'm already looking forward to going back.

Performed with the beautiful and talented Kaye Reznick at The Legacy in Leander, TX today. It was a kinda last-minute thing, and I'm glad we got the chance to do it. Hope to have pictures soon.

Only sour note, so to speak, was the preamp on my 12-string quit working just before the gig. And no, it's not the battery.

Last night of Kevin Carroll's rock-n-roll ukulele class. It's been a lot of fun, and to celebrate we went to Tyson's Tacos, which is knows for giving a free taco to anyone who can play a song on their ukulele. We brought our own and played "Sunshine of Your Love."

Performed with the Austin Uke Ensemble at the Texas Association of Magicians conference in the Sheraton Austin Hotel. It was great.

I always love playing with these folks. Their enthusiasm and joie de vivre lifts my heart.

Had a fantastic time at this year's HAAM benefit. Saw some folks I hadn't seen in a while, and had a great song swap with Kaye and Paul. Carlos on the congas and Brian on lead guitar. Thank you, Gail McClanahan for the photos.