Banjo Jim's

Had a wonderful gig last night at this very cutesy red-painted bar. First on was my lovely friend and great songwriter, Daniel Carlson and his amazing band. I last played with Daniel in Nottingham last summer, at the Folkwit gig.

I have to say Daniel is great on stage. And so are his band. The sound was brilliant. The guitarist had painted his guitar with swoops of colours that seemed to echo the sonic textures of his solos, and in his camel dungarees and with his long hair tucked into his cap, he looked very dapper as he kicked his leg emoting and expressing with his instrument. The drummer as right on it, into and out of the swells, the keyboard player I so enjoyed, with his Wurlitzer and Minikorg.

So kind, the band members stayed with Daniel, and so did friends of his during my set so it felt really good in the room. I loved performing, I played piano as well as uke again, and Daniel was kind enough to help me with the mic, when the one by the piano didn't work for some reason. I entertained with songs from old London town and demonstrated an old-fashioned knees-up (kind of). I have discovered that I love singing my setting of William Blake's London, you can really give that song some welly, and the words really help you lash it out.

My good friend, the amazing poet Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick schlepped over from New Rochelle, where she's living (Norman Rockwell lived there as well I found out yesterday during my visit to the Brooklyn Museum). Amos then gave us all a lift to a cool shop that serves flavoured rice pudding, called 'Rice to Riches'. I had almond and cheesecake flavours with roasted cherry topping. And we drove back over the Brooklyn Bridge, so I got to see night time city scapes. Awesome.