Living in an amoral, pharmaceutical kind of way.

Well, I'm still totally in love with Dar Williams (who I did not realize is perhaps even one inch shorter than myself, we're both wearing pretty high heels in this pic...)



And she still gives a rocking show! She did play a ton off her new album, and though I may have pined for (unplayed) old favorites, there really is something to be said for seeing new music live. I have an appreciation for the new stuff now I didn't before. Plus, she always has these bizarre humorous intros that wrap around and sometimes barely seem to even come back to a point (but they're so charming). The subject line came from one; she was talking about growing up reading both Bible stories and Greek mythologies and being very surprised at the latter--after all, they don't really have morals and they're fucking strange.



The show wasn't quite as crowded as I would have liked for her. On the other hand, I got to meet her! (And she signed my songbook--I had her sign on Are You Out There, even though she didn't play it!)

And the guy who opened was fucking great! It was Shawn Mullins, and neither Alex nor I recognized him til the very end (though he did remind me a little of Darden Smith or James McMurtry, but definitely different), when he played his "monster smash hit" Lullaby. I always liked that song fine except the radio raped my ears with it on an hourly basis and I eventually wanted to die. Plus, I realized I'm kinda biased about artists I hear on Clear Channel Dallas radio. I guess I assume they're all wanky, soul-patch wearing (to steal from Alex) douchenuggets. This guy was so cool!

(Side note and case in point: Both he and Sara Bareilles get radio play on their respective big hits Lullaby and Love Song, and though both songs are good, they are so much better in context with the rest of the album--not to mention just being heard live. And in Mullins' case, the intros and backstories really added something. I just bought his newest album Honeydew last night and it's wicked.)

Anyhoo. I also didn't know, but he was one of the songwriters they asked to send in a demo for the theme for Scrubs. While his was not picked (I guess it's not quite the upbeat number they wanted), they did use it in the background of one show. And it's still really great, here it is: