"This Ain't Honky Tonk!"

... but oh it was good! Saw Merle and Neko at the Paramount last night. What a study in contrasts that crowd was. In the ladies' room I kept wanting to take photos of the shoes. I had my black boots on, then there were all the Chucks (when did everyone start wearing Chucks again anyway? It's like an epidemic here in Seattle), some cowboy boots, and best of all, the gold lame sandals on the feet of the woman who was wearing the buckskin suede jacket with the fringe. That would have been a GFY entry for sure.

Neko was amazing, she's such a pro, and when she sang the start of I Wish I Was the Moon, I felt like she was wringing out my insides like a wet washcloth. Where we were sitting, three rows from the front, we were definitely outnumbered by Merle fans, one of whom supplied the quote for my title today. I'm not going to hold the fact that this guy was wearing a greasy leather jacket against him, nor will I pass judgement on the dyed black comb-over-ish hairdo, but I do hold it against him that he didn't appreciate Tacoma's own Neko. How can you not love that voice? When she sings a capella it sounds like there's a whole string section coming from inside her. She's incredible.

Merle is a legend, and we were thrilled to see him too. I loved hearing that deep smokey voice sing "so-called so-cial security" (don't know why but I love that line) in person, and I ate it up when he brought his wife up front to sing Jackson with him, even if I didn't quite get the way they petered out at the end. Truth be told though, at the end of it all, I was missing my all-time favorite legend, Willie and started to scheme about how I might get a chance to see him again...

Hey, March at Radio City Music Hall? Hmm...