stacey and mark

Last Friday, August 11, I drove to Des Moines to see Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart. I almost didn't go. I'm so glad I did.

(Disclaimer: Here's where I tell you all more information than you need to know...but since no one really reads this...it's ok) Spring of 2004 I made a pact with myself...a pact to do what I want and quit waiting. Up until that point, I'd spent much of my adult life waiting...waiting to get married to buy a house (stopped that wait fall of 2003 -- bought the house on my own), waiting to see if my then boyfriend would "like to go" where ever, and then just not going because he wasn't around. Spring of 2004, I stopped waiting and began living again. That summer I went to many, many live shows...pretty much anything I could find, actually. Sometimes pretty bad shit, but mostly good. Since that summer, I really haven't stopped going. I would sometimes find someone to go with me, but often I went alone. That was ok, because that was the pact...to go if I want to go and not wait for someone to go with me. For a while I had a great friend that attended most things with me. We saw some awesome shit. Bob Dylan (twice), Willie Nelsen, Andrew Byrd, Paul Westerberg, Steve Earle, Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart, Hamell on Trial, DBT, The Black Keys, etc. Well, he is no longer in my life and I'm pretty much alone again, but I've kept my pact. Last Friday, I almost broke the pact. I was tired. It had been a long week. And frankly, I didn't want to go by myself. Being the Friday before school started, most of my friends (all teachers) were not wanting to go. But, the pact MADE me go. :-) I wasn't going to let loneliness win again.



I walked into the bar and Mark was standing right there. He said, "Hey Dona, it's good to see you. I'm so glad you came!" It'd been a long drive (longer than usual, due to a traffic jam) and I had to use the little girls room. As I was coming out of the stall...Stacey walked in. She said, "Hey, how are you? Mark is going to be happy to see you!" I love it that they recognize me...and I'm not a stalker. :-)

I quickly grabbed a spot to sit, front and center of course.

The crowd was fairly sparse. While I was waiting at the bar for my glass of Pinot Noir, (for some reason, it's all red wines for me lately) I met a woman that is also a musician. I'm pretty sure she lived in the DM area...but she was familiar with CSPS. Anyway, I invited her to sit with me (cuz it was such a choice spot).

The show was great, of course. The highlight for me was hearing Wedding Night for the first time live. It's from Stacey's first CD Simple Gearle. It's one of my favorite songs on the CD, and they never play it live. I have the Must Be Live CD (a REALLY good one to purchase if you are just learning about them). It has songs from two CDs, Simple Gearle and Dancin' with Them That Brung Me AND some of Mark's songs. It's totally live, and if you listen to it start to finish, it's like listening to an actual concert because they kept the "in between song talking" on the CD (it's a two disc set). Anyway, whenever a song from Simple Gearle comes up, I turn it up an sing real loud. :-) The songs on Simple Gearle were written when she was 31-37 years old. I'm thinking that's probably why...my age. I can just relate to so many of them.

I can't wait to see them again in the Spring.