kakki and darice, you both must have led a good life, because there sure is a lot of gooooood karma going your way. i wish things like that would happen in sacramento. thanks for the stories, gene green w/envy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "kakki" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Michael Paz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Joni Digest" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 7:21 PM Subject: Re: Graham show - Joni and related content - LONG
> I'm still exhausted but will try to hit some of the high points. It really > was a special night. Met up with Darice at HOB early and hardly anyone was > there so Darice just opened the door and walked in after we heard the > rehearsal going on. I followed, of course, and we got to listen to the > "pre-show" a bit. Then I had to go wait in the "Industry" line to pick up > our tickets from Guacamole Fund. We were chatting with two guys standing > behind us when one said "there's Joni!" as she slipped through the VIP > entrance. The guy sounded like he knew her but I didn't think much more > about it at that point. We waited a long time in the line because > apparently the guest list of several pages kept burgeoning and the powers > that be wanted to have it all finalized before they let anyone in. Once we > finally got in I was amazed to see that the audience was comprised of at > least 90% celebrities and family and friends of Graham and the band! It was > a strange feeling - being a regular folk - it felt like barging in on a > "private party" in a way. The actor Ed Begley, Jr. hung out at the bar with > us a bit and offered us some french fries. Nice man. Then the show began. > Graham and band (Kunkel, Klein, Pevar, Parks, Raymond) were just perfect > throughout the night and how could they not be? Interestingly, Graham only > played about 3 or 4 songs from his new album, and devoted the majority of > the show to all his best songs of the past 30 years. It was wonderful. At > least three times, he made references to Joni while starting a song! She > seemed to be definitely on his mind. He sang "I Used to Be a King" almost > right off the bat, the song that he claims to have written the day they > broke up. While he was playing the interlude from The Whale Song and right > in the middle segued to a bit of "River" before going on to "Wind on the > Water." Before another song that I don't recall now he said "Joni taught > me this crazy tuning!" at which point several in the audience starting > calling out for her to come down to the stage and sing with him, but she > didn't. He did beautiful renditions of "Pavanne", "Winchester Cathedral," > "49 Bye Byes," and also "Immigration Man," "Pre-Road Downs", Marrakesh > Express," "Wasted on the Way"" and "Military Madness." Graham's wife Susan > was standing next to us at one point and we talked to her a bit. She is > beautiful and very sweet. So you know me - had to go check out the smoking > porch upstairs and while I'm on my way there I run into the two guys from > the ticket line heading the same way (and passing Jackson Browne on the > way). So they start talking about Joni again and I asked if they knew her > and they said yes. I asked what the one guy did and he said he mastered > records - asked his name and he said Joe Gastwirt (!) This is the man who > did all the remastering of Joni's (and CSN's and Grateful Dead's and a host > of others ) albums for HDCD. He also did the CSN box set and Joni's "Hits." > Amazing - very friendly and nice guy and he said Joni and Graham are his > favorite people to work with. Back downstairs for more Graham, who > introduced with mock irony his first encore as "the song I will be singing > the rest of my fucking life" "Our House" ;-) and then ended with "Teach Your > Children." After the show Darice and I were supposed to meet John, the tour > manager up on the exclusive third floor because he was supposed to take us > into the dressing room. We got up there and he told us to wait just one > minute at which I ran out for another smoke, running into Joe Gastwirt > again. Darice followed me out. Well, it's all my fault because John came > out frantically looking for us and said he'd had them all lined up but > thought we'd left - argh! He did take us to meet Graham for a quick bit and > as we were heading that way, Joni was heading past us, probably to the > smoking porch! Ha! She really looked good - slim and stylish and healthy > but that was the last we saw of her. After meeting Graham, we headed into > the Foundation Room and hung out at the bar a bit with uber-photographer > Henry Diltz who was as fun and nice as ever. I made Darice show him the > blow-ups of Mick Jagger and Brian Jones that she took with her Brownie > camera in San Diego in 1964 - lol - he got a kick out of them. Mr. Klein > was sitting on the other side of us, but was with someone and we didn't > interrupt him ;-) Met some other interesting people and Darice will have > more to tell. It was really, really fun for these old girls ;-) > > Kakki
