Had a couple of really good concerts to report on, which I saw these
past few weeks. Randy Crawford joining Joe Sample and the Crusaders
(with the awesome Ray Parker, Jr. and equally awesome original fellow
Crusader, Wilton Felder) and David Sanborn with his band.

I got autographs from Joe, Randy and Wilton at the end, and got to
shake their hands!!!!! How coooolllllll is that??!!!!!

Randy did the some of the songs that made her famous, RIO DE JANIERO
BLUES and STREET LIFE, but I was hoping against hope she'd also do
KNOCKING ON HEAVEN'S DOOR, with David Sanborn there too, but no
luck. David Sanborn and EC (I LOVE EC, 4-ever, so there!) had done
that song with her on her album, RICH AND POOR, it's my favorite
version of that song!

David Sanborn's show was much better than the last time, and they did
my favorite of his songs, BANG-BANG (he had us sing along, ~ bang-
bang, ~ beep-beep, ~ cornbread, hog maws and chitlins...~)

Joe Sample told some funny stories along with their performances, so
if you go to see them this summer, listen for his story about the
FBI, the Symbionese Liberation Army (remember, they kidnapped and
brainwashed Patty Hearst?), and Wilton's song WAY BACK HOME. . .
hilarious!! Still lmao!

Ray Parker, Jr. (still stunningly handsome at 49!) modified his song
GHOSTBUSTERS to change the chorus to say "Who ya gonna call?
Crusaders!!" and we sang and laughed along with them! Tooooo
cooooool for a very hot summer night!

Later that week I got to see Keb' Mo', Steve Earle and Jackson Browne
and they were great, too. My hubby and I really like Steve Earle and
he has one song SWING LOW that speaks against capital punishment
which always makes me cry, even tho I believe in capital punishment,
but I don't believe in the way it's meted out. Have you ever seen a
rich man be executed?

Anyway, Steve did that song first, to get my weeping out of my system
<g>!! He did some great songs from his new album JERUSALEM
including the one about the lies we have to hear to make excuses for
this war. His percussionist had an upside trash can with the
letters WMD emblazened on it, and my hubby and I joked about "well,
does that mean WEAPONS OF 'MASS DESTRUCTION' (of which, none have
been found) or of 'MASS DECEPTION' (of which, there seems to abound))

Keb's show was funny and almost perfect and he joked, when he saw the
huge crowd there at Blossom in Cuyahoga Falls for him, that he wished
his friends back in Compton could see him now!! He reminds me of a
cross between Nat King Cole and Lou Rawls, just wonderful!

Now about redemption... many years ago Jackson Browne had
disappointed me due to him passing out on stage and having to be
carried off. This time he was as personable and and considerate as
could be. There were some technical problems, the spotlight turned
onto us in my area of the audience, blinding us, and he made mention
of that from the stage to his techs, that had to be fixed asap.

He joked with us about his 21 year old son in Australia who told him
the joke going around there about when Aussie PM John Howard had
asked Bushy how did Bushy know that Iraq had WMD? And Bushy had
replied, cuz we'd kept the receipts!! LOL!!

Very brave of all of them. I guess keeping a good humor about it
all is the only way to weather thru it.

The show had started out with all three, Jackson, Steve and Keb'
doing the "re-hab" version of COCAINE, with some poignant changes and
the end lyric modified to joke that, ironically, the proceeds of all
cocaine purchases funded the CIA, lol!!