I take notes when I’m recording stuff, mainly for the purpose of labeling the tracks on the recording, and I sometimes get the feeling that it looks a little nerdy to be doing that. Jon Dee Graham expressed amazement over that one time.
That said, one night when Billy Don Burns was playing at Byron’s, by the third set he was pretty much on auto-pilot due to liberal imbibing, and I had realized that he probably couldn’t remember which songs he’d done and which songs he hadn’t done, particularly the latter. So I used my phone, accessed my own archives with their nice notes and made a list for him.
That turned out to be reinforcement for my even being there, since I had chosen between my girlfriend’s performance in another town (she plays a cajón in a duo) and BDB, and I wasn’t sure I’d figured that out right, but it turned out I had a reason to be there (to write this).
He seemed to appreciate that and started out with Keith Whitley Blue, which I had suggested, it being one of my favorite songs of his:
That’s what nerdy stuff is all about, man. Every once in a while, somebody needs the information.
