I'll do a solo set at 10:30 tomorrow night at the Hyperion Tavern at
1941 Hyperion Ave, in Silverlake, Los Angeles, California. Also on the
bill: Dick and Jane (before me) and the Homebillies (after me).

There'll be sheet music of my transcription of "Living Easy" by Irving
Jones to give out to anybody who wants to learn the song, and of
course I'll play the thing myself. This song disappeared almost
instantly on publication in 1899, was never recorded as far as I can
tell, and has left only three impressions in the historical record:

1) Charles Ives recalled having heard it in the early 1890s, sometime
around the birth of ragtime in 1893.

2) In the mid-1890s when Scott Joplin lived in Sedalia, Missouri there
was a local band named after a line in the song — the "Pork Chops
Greazy Quartette." ("Grea_z_y" isn't a typo, that's how it was spelled
in the sheet music. This is low culture and proud of it.)

3) Copyrighted and published in 1899.

And that's it. It was a hot underground ragtime tune very early on,
and as soon as it got a bit of commercial support it went *poof*.
Until tomorrow night in Silverlake in the year 2008, 109 years later.

Musically I've been on a roll lately, and if I don't break my streak
it'll be a fine night of hella old music, so c'mon by. If you haven't
done one of these Hyperion shows the thing to know is that it's a tiny
place with cheap beers, no cover, and no electricity to to amplify the
music and drown out your conversation, which is better for you than me
but what the hell. Dick and Jane and the Homebillies and myself all
play there regularly, and the crowd is generally heavy on musicians
and people in the music business. The situation is low key to an extreme.