Rob Lifford

[This post is really more for personal scrapbooking purposes than for communicating with friends and family; please forgive its somewhat self-obsessesed tone. –Ed.]

On Saturday, 2009/08/08, I played at the downtown farmers’ market for the first time as my own act—by that, I mean as the leader of a group that performed nothing but my own original material (unofficial band name for the day: “The Other Dharma Initiative”). I was thrilled and lucky to have two really incredible musicians playing with me for the show: Sick on fiddle and Kevin Willette on mandolin and dobro. This was totally unrehearsed; the guys just showed up at the appointed time, took a glance at the charts I’d prepared, opened their ears, and tore it up. I was grinning from ear to ear listening to these guys play my tunes. For my own future reference, I’m taking note of which tunes we actually played.

Set 1:

• Fat Cats *
• Knockin’ ‘Em Down *
• Flip & Edie
• Lunchbreak at the Lumbermill
• Grey Matters *
• The Alligator Song
• Burning Boxcar *

Set 2:

• Waiting on Carlos *
• 50 Acre Road
• Murray
• After the Ballgame *
• Pick up the Pieces *
• Billiard Ball
• Urban Breakdown

(* = first-ever live performance)

My only regret is that I didn’t make appropriate plans to get the whole thing recorded. Next time. Mostly I’m just glad to say that the whole thing was satisfying and fun enough that I’m going to make the effort to make sure there is a next time.