The Holiday Hoot was so much fun.  Everybody was supposed to do one holiday-related song and one other cover of their choosing.  I didn’t figure out wtf I was going to do until 5:30am last night.  I was going through my big folder of Christmasey MP3s listening to one after another after another and couldn’t find anything that blew my skirt up.  I was ready to throw in the towel and just use some non-holiday song, inserting the word "Santa" in there somewhere.  But then I found this one by the Seekers called "Mary Had a Baby".  THANK YOU ROGER McGUINN!!!  You saved my ASS tonight!!!  Such a great song.  The vocals are awesome.  I mean on the recording!!  I can’t speak for my own vocals, but if I had to, I’d say "a little shaky but not half bad." I love that kind of singing, it’s very… what’s the word.  Strident?  Strong, full-voiced.  It’s a folk tune but it’s more gospeley-sounding than anything.  OH!  And I got to do the thing where you stop playing guitar and start clapping and singing, and the audience is semi forced to clap along with you, then you come in with the guitar again for the last verse.  HOW MUCH FUN WAS THAT?!?  I’ve never had the occasion to do that before.  Awesome.

My 2nd song was "I Can’t Stop Loving You".  Which is something I’ve been doing forever and could pretty much do in my sleep.  So yeah, it went well.  Tom Millard from the Dirty Rugs and Zapruder Point joined me on drums for both songs, which made it all the more awesome.  I was very psyched.  I’d only asked him like 30 minutes before we went on… he had NO idea wtf I was going to play.  Ha ha!!  Yeah, you gotta be on your TOES if you’re gonna play with ol’ Edith!  Tom’s great though.  He has whatcha call Big Ears.  Meaning he listens and he plays and there ain’t no delay between the one and the other.  Ear-hand coordination.

Of course there were tons of other performers too, not just me.  My favorite was when some of the members of Canasta did a really pretty pretty version of O Come Emmanuel, with violin and shaker and lovely harmonies.  Mr. Rudy Day played too… that’s a band, not a guy.  Who else?  ERIC!!!  Of course.  He did "River" by Joni Mitchell (”comin’ on Christmas…”) and a song by the Hold Steady.  Who else?  I dunno.  Lotta people.  Thax Douglas was there, he read my poem.  :-) Oh, and Stacey Earley did a lovely lovely song by the McGarrigles (which I got to do harmonies on), and then proceeded to fuckin’ bring the house down with her version of "La Vie En Rose".  She’s soooo good.

I’m not drunk, don’t worry.  Just tired.  I was drinkin’ Diet Coke all night, ‘cuz I was driving.  They were giving it to me free too!  I don’t know if it was because I was playing, or because they take pity on designated drivers but hey, I’ll take it.  They give you the free cokes, you drink ‘em and you leave a tip, is whatcha do.

Oh speaking of which, this is a little weird… when I got up to play, somebody placed a little package on the table right in front of where I’d been sitting.  There was a dude sitting by me who told me when I got back… he said some guy placed it there very deliberately, that it was probably for me, for sure.  But there was no note, no signature, nothin’!  I opened it up and it was a little pumpkin loaf!!!  So I fuckin’ took it, hell yeah!  I showed it to everybody to make sure it wasn’t a mistake but I guess it really was for me.  Should I eat it?  I dunno about this whole eating-food-left-by-strangers thing but it sure smells yummy.  It’s definitely homemade, and that’s not somethin’ I get to eat every day!  Not being much of a cook and all.  Hmmm.  Well, I have my share of weirdo fans but I don’t think any of them are twisted enough to want to poison me or nothin’.  And everybody I met tonight was very nice, not that that means I necessarily met whoever it was that left this.  I think I should eat it.  As soon as possible, like tomorrow with my coffee!!  So if you’re out there and there’s razor blades in there, or strychnine, please let me know before approximately 1pm tomorrow (=today Thursday).  Otherwise I’m puttin’ that shit in my pumpkin loaf-hole.  Ewww!!  Sorry.