last saturday night found us once again at the roasterie, at yet another outstanding free show coordinated by kansas city’s own doby watson. i have to give another round of love to grumpy bear for turning me on to doby’s boo hiss project when they did a split with him . . . it’s always nice to find great artists in your immediate vicinity.
the saturday night show featured, as always, several out-of-towners, but we showed up for the final three due to a prior commitment. just missing las vegas club, we arrived for kansas citian ross brown’s live debut. ross’ songs followed a template of acoustic guitar and introspective lyrics, interspersed with comments about how nervous he was – totally understandable given that it was his first show.
ross also designed the flyer for the night:
second up for us was the highly entertaining morgansorange, known as ronn benway to his mother – who was in attendance! benway’s songs were a mix of lighthearted entrances and heavy substance once in the middle of things. he was absolutely at home in front of – and in – the gathered crowd. i think the thing that struck stephanie and i the most about his set is how inspirational he was, in that he proved how important it is to really believe in what you are doing, and then to enjoy it to the absolute fullest.
lastly was doby watson’s debut under his given name, retiring the boo hiss moniker. doby’s set was short, but just as full of sincere commitment as those who’d preceded him in the night. playing several older tracks as well as some from his upcoming debut, doby demonstrated once again why he’s making the transition from the cd-r format to the label release.
more news – doby’s organizing a show in lawrence at the solidarity book store 9/28 with the legendary karl blau. not to be missed.
and . . . kansas city/lawrence residents — keep the monday after thanksgiving open on your calendar – november 26th. more news on this one once it’s confirmed, but let’s go ahead and ruin the surprise right now — thanks to a little tsos bird, doby’s working on bringing mr anacortes himself, phil elverum to the area. everyone – we need to make this happen!