Last night I was sitting in my favourite honky-tonk bar, London’s Richmond Tavern, with some friends, listening to two superlative musicians: Tara Dunphy and Dean Harrison.

They do a show the first Wednesday of every month from 7-9pm, and if you have never gone to see them, then why the hell not? OK, if you don’t live in London Ontario, that’s probably a good excuse, but if you do – what is your problem?

There is music at The Richmond most days/nights, including some awesome Saturday and Sunday matinee acts. You can check out their live music calendar here:

https://www.richmondtavern.ca/upcoming-events

Tara and her husband Tom are the leading lights of the Rizdales, a great honky-tonk band, which you will find on that calendar, and Tom has his own country band that is well worth seeing, also. I can recommend Old School Rock and Roll, KJ and the MoTones, and McAdam Road, too. Oh-oh, if you ever have a chance to see The Jitterbugs, go. They used to play The Richmond from time to time, but have not lately. Great jump and swing.

Anyway, I said to one of my friends at the RT last night that, since I write on this blog about books and reading from time to time, then maybe I should put up an occasional post about music. Truth is, music, especially live performances, are more important to my good mental health than even reading. Sadly, in the 21^st century, finding good live music is harder than finding good books. The economics of the bar and restaurant biz today seems to be such that it is hard to support live music in any venue, which is why I love The Richmond. They keep doing it, and are rewarded at least some of the time by packing the place with happy, dancing, beer-drinking people. If you don’t walk out of a Rizdales Saturday matinee performance with a big smile on your face, check yourself for a pulse.

So, I will write about fine musical acts or performances that I come across from time to time, just as I have in the past written about particularly excellent dining outings my Diners group has had. Stay tuned for that.

Beyond that, I also want to write about other good music, and I will do that briefly here. Most of you are unlikely to have heard of one Joe Ely. He was a Texas story-telling songwriter from Amarillo who I caught on to a long time ago, and bought one or two of his cds. Then, by pure luck, I saw him perform live in, of all places, Austin, Texas, at some outdoor barbecue venue whose name I have forgotten. I was in Austin to give a talk at the University of Texas’s Econ Dept in the early 2000s, but the Chair of the Dept, who was an old friend and colleague of mine, sent me off with some of his UT colleagues to this BBQ place the night I arrived. This was not just a cool BBQ place, Joe Ely was playing a show there. I suspect my old friend had an assignation with a lady arranged for that evening, and needed me out of his house, where he was kind enough to billet me during my stay in Austin. Anyway, it was all a win-win, as I got some good BBQ and Ely did a great show. I can only assume my old friend had a pleasant evening, too…..

Joe died last December at 78, which set me to remembering all that, and to looking for more of his music.

Here’s a photo of Joe doing his thing some 20 years ago.

I have learned that the next best thing to live musical performance can be found on YouTube, which has videos of all sorts of musicians playing live. Some of the videos are of miserable quality, to be sure; some kid at a concert with a phone – but many of them are excellent. When I’m needing a lift and there is no live music in town to be heard, I just put on my headphones and type YouTube into my browser.

Below are links to two songs performed live by Joe, featuring just him and his acoustic guitar. (He had a full rockin’ band, also, and early in his career played with a band called The Flatlanders. They’re worth a listen, too.) These two performances I think will give you a good idea as to what was special about Mr. Ely. I highly recommend you use a pair of decent earphones to watch/listen to these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbBw9F0cOmI&list=RDqbBw9F0cOmI&start_radio=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5zbUuxo-jU&list=RDo5zbUuxo-jU&start_radio=1

The man could write a lyric.

If you like those, there is plenty more Joe to be found on YouTube, playing solo or with his own and various other bands.

Oh, yea – and Tara Dunphy has plenty of great stuff on YouTube, too, just go there and type in her name. But c’mon, you can see her live if you live in London. Nothing’s better than that.