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:
Keith Whitley Blue, It Would Kill Mama, I Don’t Have A Reason To Go To California Anymore, Outskirts of Desperate
That’s what nerdy stuff is all about, man. Every once in a while, somebody needs the information.
It didn’t stay like this, but that was because the bass player was overcome by something after the first set; the band was tight when they opened with one of Yours Truly’s favorite Stones songs (from Exile On Main Street):
Stop Breaking Down
Originally scheduled as a street dance in conjunction with Pomeroy’s Sesquicentennial +1 and moved indoors due to weather uncertainty, the night featured an interesting mix of returning Pomeroy-ites for the city’s celebration and Byron’s regulars.
Jamie Grimm and John Price arrived with a rhythm section but the bass player had difficulties which forced her to sit out after “Beautiful” and for the rest of the show the band rotated in a couple of “ringers” (smile) and various members took over bass duties.
Originally, Todd Partridge was the sound guy:
But Todd can play bass, so they drafted him.
toward the end of the show, Calvin stepped in and did “Folsom Prison”
Since the middle of 2019, we’ve been recording shows at Byron’s Bar, Pomeroy, IA and a few other locations nearer by (Byron’s is 65 miles away from us). Byron’s is a gem of a listening room, to which many performers have attested. Ever since yours truly discovered the place in August 2018, I’ve sat there thinking: somebody ought to be archiving this stuff. By the following July I’d acquired a little Zoom recorder and a little bit of stuff to go with it and already had the editing software since we already edit samples of records we’re selling here on our site. Since then I’ve missed a show or several due to the inevitable opposing circumstances that can come along, but I’ve recorded everything I’ve heard, which has to be something in the neighborhood of thirty-six shows. I’m a Deadhead and that’s what we do. A couple of artists have requested that I not distribute those, but otherwise they usually go to Archive.org, which is a sharing site for all kinds of stuff.
A guy has to be prepared for somebody telling him “no” when he asks if the recording thing is ok. There are various good reasons for that, and this past Sunday, November 25, 2000, Maurice Vaughn did say “no” when I asked if recording was ok.
That kind of pulls the rug out from under my feet if I define myself as “the guy that’s there to do that”, but after all, in the first place, we only posted set lists on Facebook, and it was still possible to do that.
So, first of all, here’s the set list: Set 1 01 Travelin Man (Vaughn) 02 Garbage Man Blues (Vaughn) 03 Baby What You Want Me To Do (Jimmy Reed) 04 A Computer Took My Job (Vaughn) 05 Sitting In The Park/I Do Love You (Billy Stewart) 06 I Got The Blues (John Watkins) 07 The Feeling Is Gone (Bobby Blue Bland) 08 Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson)
Set 2 01 I’m So Proud (Impressions) 02 If I Hadn’t Been High (Emory Williams Jr.) 03 Bring It On Home To Me (Sam Cooke) 04 I Just Want To Make Love To You (Muddy Waters) 05 Don’t Take My Monkey (John Watkins) 06 As The Years Go Passing By (Fenton Robinson) 07 Keep On Sleepin’ (Vaughn) 08 I Don’t Care (Vaughn) 09 Kansas City (Wilbert Harrison) 10 Going To New York (Jimmy Reed) 11 It Serves You Right To Suffer (John Lee Hooker) 12 Mustang Sally (Mack Rice)
Set 3 01 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson) 02 I Got My Mojo Working (Preston Foster) 03 Help Me (Rice Miller) 04 Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday’s Just As Bad) (T-Bone Walker) 05 Money (That’s What I Want) (Barry Gordy & James Bradford
Maurice Vaughn seemed quite interested in the fact that there was a guy taking notes, which has happened a time or two before (notably when Jon Dee Graham played one time), and he was enthusiastic about helping me with the correct titles and attributions. That’s fun. Especially if you’re me, and you’re note-taking about a genre with which you’re not particularly familiar and artists’ names and songs’ titles can shift over the years. Because I wasn’t concentrating on the recording thing, I could think about what I was hearing and I came to the realization that both Vaughn and John Watkins really knew the historical stuff and the fabric of the pieces that they were playing.
That’s all on a ten dollar ticket.
Maurice said it was ok to do a track or two but not a whole show. I think he thought I was using some million dollar camera and producing some gorgeous HD thing, so I shot no photos or video at all, and got to a nearby cell phone recording which should remain anonymous or else it will appear that I did it, and maybe I did.
So I gave it the same primitive treatment that I’ve used on all the Byron’s stuff – simple low-tech fan production with mostly free software, things you can do at home with Windows or whatever.
This isn’t in the spirit of piracy. It’s archival – somebody ought to be keeping track of this stuff….
Setlist Kevin Gordon Trio 2/7/20 Byron’s Bar, Pomeroy, IA
Kevin Gordon, Stephy Graham, Jim Viner
Set 1 01 Don’t Stop Me This Time 4:06 02 GTO 3:52 03 Black Dog 4:54 04 Gloryland 5:14 05 Down To The Well 4:32 06 My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It 3:13 07 Illinois 5 AM 3:00 08 Saint On A Chain 5:44 08 Casino Road 5:01 09 Get It Together 3:42
Set 2 01 Flowers 6:08 02 Oil City Girl 3:12 03 Over The Levee 4:23 04 Looking For The Killerman 4:22 05 Crazy Mixed Up World 5:01 06 Paulline 5:00 07 Colfax 9:40 08 Deuce And A Quarter 4:09
Set 3 01 Tee-Ni-Nee-Ni-Nu 8:19 02 Something Heavy 5:37 03 Gatling Gun 4:19 04 Promise Road 4:29 05 Jimmy Reed Is The King Of Rock And Roll 4:37 06 24 Diamonds 5:08 07 One I Love-City Refuge 8:22 08 Find My Way 3:14 09 Miss Froggy 3:16
GTOYou’re The One That I Love-City RefugeBlack Dog
