Happyland II

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We are back to see Happyland at the Saxon Pub on Monday. We've got Gord and Leslie with us and are sure they'll be impressed — they are! We were here a week ago and really enjoyed the show. This is their last show for a while, as Kimmie Rhodes is going to be out on tour, so it's a bit of a special event. There are some tables reserved for guests of the band but we arrive early and get front row seats of our own. The doorman recognizes me as a regular!

We've taken an UberXL, as there are the four of us, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge for these aging seniors. There's a third row seating which Reg struggles into, after he gets in there the driver, who seems to speak no English, shows us how the second row of seats fold down. I can tell you that even with them folded down it was a struggle to get out. Oddly the driver opened the tail gate first as if that were a possible route for Reg to climb over! On our return trip we had a cautious driver from French Guyana (we could try a bit of French ... or at least Leslie could) where we could easily put three in the back seats and one up front. Getting out of that car was a bit of a leap though, Kate sort of fell out but landed on her good foot — there was a running board which might have made that easier.

We have some snacks from the food truck parked in the lot of the Saxon for our dinner. There's very little parking here, we always come by Uber and never attempt to bring our car. In years past we've biked here but not today. The fellow running the food truck is incredibly cheerful and helpful. We place our orders at the truck and he brings them in to us.

In the photo above you can see from left to right: Gabe Rhodes (electric), John Goudie, Kimmie Rhodes, Shawn Pander, Harmoni Kelly (bass) and Louis Rhodes (obscured on keyboards). John Chipman is behind on drums, we saw him on Sunday with the Purgatory Players at the El Mercado for brunch. He sang a lead there but tonight he's just adding harmonies. The Purgatory Players like to call him "John Morocco" — I have no idea why. Everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves as were the audience. There were repeats of several tunes from our last visit but some new songs as well. Apparently John Chipman was responsible for the set list tonight. There was some joking that Kimmie is the band leader but she responded that "No, I'm not your mother!" She is the mother of Gabe (on electric) and the grandmother of Louis (on keyboards).

They made fun of "cow persons" as Kimmie and Shawn were wearing hats. A fellow, who had just came into the bar, was centered out as another cow person as he had a lovely big white cowboy hat. Everyone was laughing and having fun, the audience member was somewhat embarassed, and Kimmie cautioned that's it's never a good idea to heckle the audience. Such is life at Happyland — lots of laughs, good music and fun.

Two time Grammy winner Gary Nicholson was called onto stage to perform a couple of tunes. One that he and Gabe had recently written and another about "Nights Like These".  Kimmie reminded the audience that there's a song writers workshop event that she and Gary were having here at the Saxon on Saturday. Another "rock star" in the audience was the fellow who had mastered Kimmie's latest record which comes out soon.

Another great night of music. I taped the show and will work on the song sequences later. Oddly DanViewtube was not in attendance. Happily, someone else was. Here's some recordings by Kelso King posted to YouTube:

• Where do we go from here?, Kimmie Rhodes & ensemble
• Let's talk about love, Kimmie Rhodes & ensemble
• The table of the Lord, Gabe Rhodes & ensemble
• I wish you love & happiness, Kimmie Rhodes & ensemble

Titles are just my best guess. Kate had bought Kimmie's book at the house concert we attended earlier. She enscribed it "I wish you love & happiness", a lullaby and a gentle wish.