Hello. Still kind of reeling from Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams and Neko Case at the Hollywood Bowl on 9/10. First let me tell you what they were wearing. Willie was wearing jeans and a tucked-in T-shirt and braids. And of course the stripey macrame guitar strap. Ryan was wearing a tiny Batman T-shirt, jeans and light-brown motorcycle boots with a substantial heel. They looked good when he did this hopping backwards thing he does. Neko was wearing jeans and an incredibly dazzly royal-blue sequined cardigan with a satin bow that was supposed to close it, but she let the pieces of satin hang down to her knees and blow around in a romantic way. Also dangly earrings and a black camisole-ish thing. She was accompanied by one of my fave singers ever, Kelly Hogan, on backups, who looked sophisticated in a basic black blazer, top and pants.

It was an amazing show, although they didn't do any songs together. FYI, Willie's new record is produced by Ryan and features his band the Cardinals. Neko was astounding; her beautiful voice filled the Bowl up to the brim. It was our first time seeing Ryan, and boy, did he live up to our expectations. The band was amazing, and Phil Lesh guested on bass for some of the songs and they did some Dead covers (see Ryan's set list). It was crazy seeing Willie...I kept looking at him going, "That's really him!" He did all the classics one after another, plus that vigilante-ish song he does with Toby Keith, "Beer for my Horses" (it was a #1 hit after all). There was a lady singing along a bit too much behind me, which was really OK except for when she did it during "Always on My Mind," which Willie was really imbuing with a lot of bittersweetness. Many of his family members were onstage. And then just a week later he got busted.

Anyways, please see the info re: our XXroads gig.

And Happy New Year. As Rabbi Burt said, "I'm still writing 5766 on my checks."