uTopianTurtleTop

SMALL TOWN LIFE

Tuesday morning the dental hygienist was torturing my gums and chatting engagingly. She’s in a band. Yeah? What’s the name of your band? Jo Miller & Her Burly Roughnecks. She’s Jo. No, I don’t know them. She used to be in a band called Ranch Romance. Oh yeah, I’ve heard them! Western swing! Good band!

Well, it turns out they play the first Thursday at a little bar called the Little Red Hen, just north of Green Lake on Woodlawn, and really good dancers show up, it's a lot of fun. And so tonight my beloved spouse and I got a babysitter and went, and the band was great -- solid Western Swing, in-the-pocket rhythm section, solid accordian, solid lead guitar, good harmony singing -- and the dancers were great, and Jo came and talked to us between sets -- "My patients always say they'll come hear me but they never do!" She recognized my spouse, didn’t know why until she asked whether she saw the same dentist that I did, and she does, at which point Jo grabbed my spouse’s lips and looked inside, “Have I worked on you?” She had.

Bonus -- tonight was Jo’s birthday. Her fans brought cake.

It also turned out I’d played with Nova, the accordian player. She had randomly showed up at a restaurant where Jake London and I were playing a late night. She had just come from a gig and opened up her accordian and started playing with us. We loved it. She’s a darn good player.

Not doing anything on a first Thursday of a month, if you’re in Seattle and like Western Swing, Jo Miller’s at the Little Red Hen. No cover.