i dig liz longley

i had every intention of giving carl johnson's guitar every minute of my attention tonight, and thought it safe to entrust the early evening's entertainment to livinston taylor down at the lowell summer music series show at the high school auditorium tonight safe in the knowledge that i could effortlessly duck out at the intermission and be down at the sky box in tewksbury in plenty of time, but you know what they say about the best laid plans.

livingston taylor, who i've had the pleasure to have seen several times before, never fails to bring a smile. his deft way with a tune, and immaculate fingerings running such eloquent chord changes through the heart of so many a standard, are something to be heard more than once. and he's always entertaining. and tonight was no exception, though still not, to that point, getting in the way of plans for an early exit... and then...

liz longley.

like a bell her voice is--so true. livinston has done this before, i'm told, and brought one of his berklee students onto the stage to share it, but i can't imagine any like liz. when the two of them brought the audience to its feet and the house down during their final duet on "over the rainbow", i had tears in my eyes, and a feeling of music in my heart like you can touch. with the top down and the stereo on 11 on the way down to tewksbury, i knew i had chosen well.

even so, it was hard to know that big trouble had been at it awhile before i got there. 70's classics (war, grand funk, etc. etc.) were the staple of the sky box evening, and carl's guitar was a fender tonight, and sounding great.

best place on earth