If you told me that you had a grand time elsewhere last night and asked me how my evening was, well then….
If I told you that this show was promoted for only two weeks prior but was so well anticipated that even the Sun Sentinel did a unexpected and unsolicited pre-show plug on it (see PS below)….
If I told you that Stephen Minotti, who will be making special guest appearances in future Music Land shows, graciously agreed to be the emergency back-up performer last night in case Raiford got eaten by alligators on his way to the café during his long, pre-show, horse-drawn carriage trek across the everglades….
If I told you that just hours before the show Jack Shawde, who has played and toured with everyone from Bob Dylan and Bo Diddley to Tom Petty and Enrique Iglesias, phoned up to ask if he could “sit-in”….
If I told you that both Raiford and Jack upon walking into the café for the very first time in their lives and witnessing what a magical place it is both had that stunned sparkle in their eyes like children seeing snow for the very first time….
If I told you that so many people came up from Dade county that if I had drunk one or two more beers and then squinted my eyes just a little tighter that I might have thought I was back at Luna Star Café (and loving it)….
If I told you that so many YBPC café open mic regulars were there – Kathy, Bill, Laura, Dan, Linda, James, Susan, Rudy, Val, Boomer, Jo, Max, Pam, Seth, Anita, Frank, Wendy, Gary, Cynthia, Jeff, Chris, and many more – that we could have had our own jam in the back room (but we didn’t)….
If I told you that the famous and every so often infamous Professor Rick – the official historian and liturgical writer for the Canadian mega group The Cowboy Junkies (yes, Virginia, there is a Canadian mega group) – dropped in and sat front row center to “have a little listen to your shin-dig”….
If I told you that show time was 8:00 pm and that by 8:15 pm there was not an empty seat to be found anywhere in the entire café, north, east, south or west….
If I told you that I opened the half-time show with my Music Land Band – Boomer Hess, Pam Newstreet, Michael Palecki, and Seth Shealer – only to find myself butchering every other cord in my own song “Left At All” so much so that I’ve now labeled that performance the official Japanese Kyoto version, but that my band mates never flinched, stuck by me, and like phoenixes from the ashes we rose up and brought the house down (in a grand way) on our second song “Alexis’ Farm”….
If I told you that Nicole Noël and Chance Meyer, who will headline next month’s February 7th Music Land show at the café (see PSS below), had the entire audience hooting and hollering for more and more during their half-time debut….
If I told you that my very own musical godmother Valerie Wisecracker, who will headline the April 4th Music Land show at the café with Marie Nofsinger, had everyone in the audience laughing so hard and singing along so loud during her special guest appearance that some well meaning but perhaps over-libationated patron actually got up and danced half naked in spirit next to her during that moon-slapping, star-pointing performance (but I won’t tell you who it was so that I will still have some shred of personal dignity left the next time I go out in public)….
And if I told you that Raiford Starke and Jacke Shawde played such an amazing and stellar show for everyone last night at Your Big Picture Cafe that Garth Brooks and Eric Clapton would have been torn between dazzled glee and unabashed jealousy….
….but you weren’t there….
Well then, don’t miss the next time around when Raiford Starke (confirmed) and Jack Shawde (confirmation pending) bring even more musical fireworks to Music Land at Your Big Picture Café on July 4th, 2014!
Yeee-haaa!!!
Dr. Bob
PS – here’s the Sun-Sentinnel plug:
http://www.southflorida.com/events/sf-go-raiford-starke-cafe-davie-010314,0,1152165.story
PSS – here’s the event link for the February 7th Music Land show at Your Big Picture Cafe:
http://drbobsongs.bandcamp.com/album/event-noel-meyer-free-concert