8.20: The Golden West Cafe
Wil at the wheel and Joshua as shotgun navigator, we headed up 95 to 301 to Baltimore–a more scenic route to avoid traffic.
Upon crossing an enormous bridge over the Potomac into Maryland, we couldn’t help but to take note of the large number of liquor stores and seedy motels -all of which seemed to be patronized.
Our route led us from the highway, into downtown, through the craziness that is the Inner Harbor, back onto a highway and then into a pocket of town with a handful of bars. It’s Joshua’s theory that Mapquest is in the pocket of the city of Baltimore and takes all traffic through the touristy parts of town, no matter the destination. I might agree with him.
We met Alex Champagne at The Golden West Cafe, unloaded our gear and settled in. Both Wil and I gave Joshua our drink tickets–maybe not the best idea for the navigator to be the one drinking…
The set up for The Songwriter Sessions is a lot like Richmond’s late ‘Live at Ipanema’ series–based in a restaurant, it begins after the dinner crowd ends, the bar remains open, and the show is recorded. Alex talked about moving the series to a more quiet intimate space, which I think is a really good idea.
Amy, AKA, Awkward Read, performed first with a series of vocal loops, samples, and keyboard. When I caught a clear line of her voice it sounded really really good.
I was next. Joshua joined me on cello for a couple of songs, I played some new ones. Wil was pretty into it.
Alex moved a couple mics around and it was Homemade Knives’s turn. We played through five songs fairly easily and got some hoots and hollers from the crowd.
Alex played last and was accompanied by two accomplished cellists. It was an impressive display. Both cellists shredded like hell and generally tore it up.
The drive back was late, full of talk about this and that, and a Wawa stop led to trail mix and tasty cakes. After everything, Wil got us home safe.
