>> He gets a lot of airtime on the radio station I listen to most down here. I got to see him at the BB King Bluesfest last October. <<

The show was a bit of a disappointment to me. I have seen John several times over the years, going back to his angry-young-man phase in the early 1980s. I definitely missed having the band there, for one thing. A few of the more uptempo ones like "Everybody Went Low" and "Tennessee Plates" just weren't the same in solo acoustic form. The venue also worked against him, which was curious because it's one of my favorite places. He played at Ravinia, a beautiful place which has outdoor concerts from Memorial Day through Labor Day. (All kinds of music -- it is the summer home of the Chicago Symphony). You can sit in seats under the shell or buy cheaper lawn seats. The majority opt for the lawn and bring picnics. This being on the leafy North Shore, there are some pretty darn fancy picnics -- silver, crystal, fancy salads, etc. It's not a hot dogs and hamburgers crowd. And last night was a beautiful night, one of the nicest of what has been a very hot summer. But the crowd was getting on my nerves a little. There is always an element who treat the music as background noise and talk throughout the show, and with it being an acoustic show they actually could talk over it. There was a group of 15 or so right in front of us who seemed unaware there was even a concert going on. I suppose I should have tuned them out, just like you tune out the yuppies at Wrigley Field who talk on their cell phones the whole game and don't know or care about baseball. But it was an unwelcome distraction.

I was also a little put off by John's increasing down-home mannerisms. He lives in Tennessee now and seems to be marinating in that aw-shucks syrupy drawl. He's from Indiana, not the south, so it comes across as a pose.

It wasn't a bad show. It's just that I've enjoyed him a lot more other times.

Mike