INSIDE

A lady pinged her little xylophone thingy to warn us hat the show was about to start. I caught up with the daughters - and we were seated before the end of RB Morris's first song. This is a great, spacious venue - comfy seats and elevated floor that your feet don't stick to, every seat really was a great seat. My girls were still outside the door finishing their drinks, being woo'd by strange men - when this long lanky guy in a beat up cowboy hat and boots came in with this beautiful young woman and sat next to me. He kept his head low and hands over his brow...but somehow they both looked familiar - I just couldn't remember from exactly where. They definitely didn't want to be noticed.

R.B. Morris

There were two young women up in front on the right hand side of the stage - signing with hands, body motions and facial expressions - Folk songs in sign language, think about it, I got lost in that  thought for a moment felling fortunate that I was able to enjoy both.

3. Hell on a Poor Boy (he mentions Dolly Parton in this song and the sign language for her was wide eyed expression with two hands cupped way out in front of their chest) 

RB talked about meeting John Prine and getting signed to Oh Boy Records and meeting Don Gibson when he was younger and how he would never let him forget it (there are so many he's and hims that I intentionally did that because I didn't get the story straight either) RB wrote a song for John about it and John sings it with RB on RB's album - then he sings:
4: Roland The Wino 
 RB began to tell a story of how he was stuck in Iowa without any plastic to rent a car with and how Bo Ramsey drove to meet him, get him out of his jam, and get him to the concert. RB spoke fondly of Bo Ramsey and how he and Pieta Brown were on tour and so great. (I had seen Bo for the first time this past January 2004 with Lucy Kaplansky and Greg Brown (Pieta's dad) They're all famous Iowans, well, Lucy is an honorary Iowan since she went to college just across the river) The long legged guy and beautiful woman next to me slide down in their seats some more.

5: Better Tip Your Hat or Buttercups - or Don't know what I'm gonna do about that  (for Bo)

6. He intros this as a mew song - ?How Every Empire Falls?
He said good night and was beckoned back for one more that prompted another bit of a history lesson
7. Devil Woman

During this whole show my eldest has the binoculars out and is infatuated with Mr Morris, he reminds her of someone and she loves his music, voice, Southern drawl and persona. (more later on that)

Row mates

...for just a few minutes and asked if I could shake his hand, told him how I'd just seen him with Kaplansky and Brown and it was a wonderful show. He looked up at me for just a second, and HEY, he does have a face, a kind of Buddy Holly-like face with those thick rimmed glasses. And that was it... I tried to not bug them. It turns out the beautiful woman was none other than Pieta Brown who I  had not knowingly heard before. (later in 2004 both of them play at the grand opening of our River Music Experience - in Davenport, IA)