It's all relative

Bear with me, it does tie in.

Several years ago I wound up at a Pure Prarie League concert in Nashville -- Poco was the opening act. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip, but despite the fact that the PPL was not really a "name" act any longer, the show was sold out and we didn't have tickets. Through some sort of wizardry, Caffeine Brother was able to get his hands on tickets for us, so we did get to see the show. Before that, though, we heard some biker dude expressing his disappointment at having to miss the show. Quoting from memory, he said something like, "Man, who knew Poco was that popular?"

Even though their big hit (Aimee) was far in the past, I'm 99.9% sure it was the PPL that drew the sold out crowd, not the even more washed up opening act. Still, to biker dude it was proof of Poco's lasting popularity. It's all relative.

I was reminded of this last night. One of my very favorite charitable organizations is The Land Trust of Huntsville and N AL. Yeah, it's a long name, but they do good work. Basically they raise money to buy and protect green space from the ever hungry developers -- of which there must be a million in Huntsville alone! Anyway, one of the things the Land Trust folks do is they have a fundraising concert every year. Last night was this year's show and it featured the funky bluegrass/jazz combo Robinella and the CC String Band. Though I own their first major label album, I never really considered myself a big fan. Still, it was for a good cause and the concert was being held at the coolest venue ever, so I figured I'd go.

Turned out, the show was fabulous! I think a lot of it had to do with the setting. I mean, how can you beat quirky musicians playing a concert in a huge cavern carved out by a former limestone mining operation? Beyond that, though, the music was good too. Robinella and her band even learned "Freebird" just for the folks in Alabama. [Given that they're mostly UT alums, I was afraid they'd play "Rocky Top", but they had better sense.]

The most surprising part of the evening though was the opening act -- a singer/songwriter guy named Jay Clark. Many of Jay's songs were sort of humorous protest songs about environmental issues, perhaps not surprising as he has a PhD in wildlife ecology. He sort of struck me as a cross between the singer/songwriter Todd Snider and the writer Rick Bass.

Anyway, after the show I was buying some CDs from the merchandise table and I told Jay that though I was sure he'd heard it before, I had to tell him he reminded me of Todd Snider. He said he had heard that before and I rushed to assure him it was a compliment. He agreed and then he said he sure wished he could sell CDs like Todd Snider! Inwardly I chuckled at that because Todd Snider is FAR from a commercial success, yet to an independent singer/songwriter I can see how he could be the gold standard. Yep, it's all relative.

Regardless, if you get the chance to see either Robinella or Jay Clark, please do. Also, take a few minutes and check out their websites. Heck, you might even decide to buy some of their merchandise. I'm sure it'd be greatly appreciated and, in my opinion at least, it would not be a waste of money. The same could be said for Land Trust donations/memberships.

P.S. Interesting side story. Before the concert started, I bumped into two folks I went to college with several years ago. Though we've lived in the Huntsville area for close to 10 years, this was the first time I've actually seen them locally. I did see them at an event in Oxford last year, but I had not run across them locally until last night. Cool, huh?