trout's on a friday night, tour d'backweirdsfield

the best thing that happened at trout's tonight was when joyce simpson kindly forgave me for something stupid i did yrs ago... she & red were there, & chris sprague said he was "shaking" to be in red simpson's presence. i stuck close to friendly frank lee sprague, who provided burly barrier between me & drunk fellows not put off by a wedding ring. i forget what can happen when people start bar drinking on a friday night, since mostly i'm in such places (& then only rarely, esp lately) only to play music myself... standing around not playing can be a spooky deal. larry petree was dressed to the country-gentleman 9's, wide-smiling & inviting as usual, & rockwell shook my hand. lovely joyce told me her grand daughter just graduated from berkeley (in 3 yrs!) & is coming back HERE to teach! i was happily stupefied to think someone so obviously precocious & idealistic would bring her talents back to this place so known for "brain drain"... the honky-tonk & truck-driving tunes rocked the dark saloon & tho a bit scary to me, the large drinking young cowboys were nice enough in the end, as well as were the line-dancing gals. i would go back to trout's again, in a second, especially if i had burly barrier, which my electric piano might nicely provide... i made the spragues a tour d'bakersfield, suggesting spots like okie ray's, the old river theatre, oildale saloons, el taquito, downtown signs & residence hotels, the arizona cafe, & the usuals like luigi's, old eastside basque places, & of course the palace, where buddy allan plays tomorrow night w/the buckaroos... i'll meet the spragues there at that time if they stick around, but i think hollywood'll call them back 1st.
frank gifted me TWO of his merseybeat cds, as well as the offer of use of his recording studio, stories of musicians far & wide, & talk of tx, from where he & bro chris hail, then walked me to my car so i wouldn't be killed (not that i would, but i'm a chicken). a nice evening, in other words. and like i said, best of all, forgiveness. dang ego sure makes me an ass sometimes. i was grateful joyce touched me with her grace. oh yeah, & tonight's meeting was good, too, & i even got a nap in earlier. :)