My wife and I went out to a little club where someone we know plays in the band. It was a sort of mid-to-older crowd place. The music was rhythm and blues by a four-piece combo of two guitars, bass (the instrument, not the fish) and a drum.
The drummer only had one drum. He played it very loudly to compensate.
The bass player in these little groups is always a mystery. Do the other members just like him so much that they are willing to split the take another way? I can’t really say that I could identify his playing. I heard the lead singer and her rhythm chords on her guitar. I heard the accompanying guitar doing all sorts of things which I am sure must be musically clever, although much of this is lost on an ear that was trained to Hi-Fi.
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And then there were the refreshments. My wife’s order was a glass of zinfandel, which I managed to mispronounce as “ziff and dale� at the bar, and it didn’t help any when I tried to order a mudslide for myself. The bartender gave me a look, corrected my wine pronunciation, and informed me that they only serve beer and wine.
OK, I made a quick recovery and ordered a Coors. Sorry, no DOMESTIC beers (Well, excuuuuse meeee!). Instead, weird beers from all lands. My first bottle was called “33.� Just “33.� My second bottle was brewed in the Dominican Republic. I poured a little in my glass and did not actually drink any, as I am suspicious of beers brewed in warm lands. I include Texas.
I did manage to suspend my sense of financial reality, as this was, after all, “entertainment.� Cover charge $5 a couple (very reasonable), and cost of a bottle of “33� and a glass of “ziff and dale,� $19. I can buy a whole bottle of wine and a six pack of my brand of beer for that at the package store, but hey! The music was live!
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One of the early numbers was “Captain Midnight,� a good, peppy number. Toward the end of the evening I noticed that all of the numbers, pretty much sounded like “Captain Midnight,� with slight variations. I guess there is only so much you can do with guitar, bass and drums.
I think I may have hurt the guitar player’s feelings, though. When he came out to do a number with one of those harmonica things around his neck, I asked him if he was going to do the cymbals on the knees, too. Bob Dylan was never able to master this.
Bill Abrams resides in Pine Plains.
Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton’s Main Street in 1985.Provided
Fall storage crop harvests amid soil building cover crops at Adamah Farm in Falls Village. Janna Siller 
