I drove from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh last September to see Otis Clay and Billy Price perform one of just two shows scheduled in support of their then recent release "This Time for Real".
I must be getting old because I was wiped out after the 15 hour all night drive by myself. I used to be able to take a trip like that and then stay up all night, what was up? It wasn't so much the getting lost in a rough part of east Chicago and almost running out of gas around Midnight. It wasn't even when I had to pull over at an Indiana rest stop to rest my eyes so the double vision would go away and I wouldn't kill myself or, God forbid, others if I nod out behind the wheel. Truth is it was the short nap that I took after checking into my hotel room before the show.
Truth is when I woke up and realized I had already missed half the show I felt so stupid and foolish I could not get myself to leave my hotel. Lucky for me a good friend called right at that moment and told me to get my butt down to the show. Then when I walked into the theater I was greeted by a friendly familiar voice: "Jim? What are you doing in Pittsburgh?" It was my old friend Miki Mulvihill, who I first met many years earlier when she booked the famous Blues Saloon in Frogtown (St. Paul, MN).
Truth is what could have been one of the most futile and pointless trips in my life turned into something beautiful I will cherish the rest of my life. Although I only got to see the encore, I got to meet Billy and Otis, two artists I have seen several times before and greatly admired. Sadly Otis passed away suddenly just a few months later in January 2016.
Fortunately a good friend and film maker friend of Billy's and his crew filmed the show so everyone is blessed with the opportunity I nearly missed.
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