Tyson's Tavern 2-4-9 Ken-G Songwriter's Night

Tyson's Tavern
2112 Fleet St.
Baltimore, MD

On my Monday night pub crawl, I usually stop by the open mic at Leadbetter's in Fells Point to

a) practice new songs
b) hang out with musicians
c) fulfill my insatiable desire to play live music
d) try to hook up with the bartender
e) all of the above

If you picked (e), you are wrong because the answer was (f).



(f) only a), b), and c)

because that's not the type of guy Fonz is.

Anyway, Ken-G Shorts was hosting and he came up to me and asked if I had any plans for Wednesday, when he hosts a songwriter's night at Tyson's at Fleet and Boston. I told him I had plans before recognizing that he wanted to have me on a gig.

My first solo acoustic gig!

So, after apologizing for not being able to hang out on Wednesday, I show up and there's another fine, fine singer/songwriter named Kristin Watts. In a unique format, the three of us trade songs all night, filling in when we can. Ken-G has a really great ear for chords, so he can usually find something on some instrument (mandolin, lap guitar...) to fit.

After doing all our originals and a couple odd covers, Kristin had to leave at 11. Ken asked if I wanted to stay till 12 and I wasn't doing anything, so I said sure.

That's when the fun started.

We ended up trading songs back and forth as more late-nighters wandered in until 1:30. The owner, Dean, really seemed to enjoy us and Ken knows so many songs, both common and un-, that he could pick things that were predictable or memorable enough to follow along with (sorry, sorry, sorry!!! --with which to follow along) that we could both play/sing all night. The bald contingent (Rucker, Dr. Pimpenstein, and Dean) made for a good time with odd requests, Mr. Enthusiasm (Pino) showed up to keep the night interesting, and I met a bunch of remarkably cool people (well, mainly 1). The night did not end until well into the morning, which made it hard to run errands on Friday. Speaking of errands, I must split. Will be back with the weekend wrap-up next time.

Next: Need to blog Thurs., Fri., Sat., and, oh shit, fucking SUNDAY!