Tying It All Together

Meet Eula--our good friend and former star student. Always a beacon of creativity and fun fashion, Eula appeared at Saturday night's Borders gig in perhaps my favorite Eula creation to date. It's the ideal Standards gig-wear: a handmade necktie skirt. That's right, folks--you're looking at a skirt sewn together from several dozen old, out-of-fashion ties. (Editor's Note: I would probably have worn any of these ties before they were assembled into Eula's skirt, but I've never claimed to be a beacon of anything--especially fashion.) So, how fun is that?! After the gig, Eula and Beth indulged me while I detailed my plan to use the necktie skirts to save the world. Hmmm--how did I manage to make this my idea?

We had a great couple of sets and enjoyed being enjoyed by a buncha nice people. Here are some of the friends you missed making by not being there!

Alright, so the dude on the right is your friend, even though you weren't there on Saturday. The handsome fella on the left probably would be, too, if given the chance!

I
STRIKE
DRIFT AWHILE
MY FRIENDS, TOO
BACK FROM LITTLE ROCK
HEAVYWEIGHT
SINCE I’VE BEEN GONE
OTIS REDDING SONG
PERPETUAL AFTERNOON
DON’T YOU STARE
GREAT BIG COSMIC
DAMAGED DOLLAR
THANK YOU, HERMAN MANKIEWICZ
YEAR 55
ROSEMARY

II
LEMON
ENDLESS GREEN AND BLUE
KEEPING STILL
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
HOLLOW MOON
WHEN YOUR FEET STEP UNEXPECTED ON MY MAT
SO MUCH CLEARER
SECRETS TO SING
SIMON SAYS
WHAT THEY MEAN

Better than TV?

Well, we sure hope so. We've all played plenty of sports bars in our day, but it's been awhile. It's always a little disconcerting when you're playing a set in front of the biggest big screen in town running Jerry Lawler's greatest hits or, worse yet, when you land the sports bar gig that serendipitously falls on the same day as Game 7 of the World Series. Never a good time.

So, given this discussion, it may surprise you to see a wall of dark televisions behind us at our Wednesday night engagement at T.J. Mulligan's. It was kinda cool. And luckily, there were a couple dozen other TVs around the place, so nobody raged too much. Truth is everyone was generally very kind and receptive and seemed to dig our melodic set of folk-rock originals. Thanks to Dennis, Ric and Luca at Rock 103 for hooking us up with a fun Wednesday night gig.

It was great to have a lot friends with us, too! Like these good folks!!

That would be Ted's better half, Sarah, along with our pals Rachel and Jan. Rachel and Jan are really ready for our new record to be released! Us, too, ladies!

This is our good friend, Chuck, along with his good friend, Melody.

Melody has some other good friends, too, who were feelin' the folk-rock.

Jeff and Diane are 1/2 of one of Amber's and my favorite Cordova families.

OK, so even stranger than playing in a sports bar after all these years is playing in a sports bar to a table-full of former students. Oh yeah, they're all well into their legal drinking years. From left to right: Our friend, Mila, her son and our former student, Misha, along with fellow GHS alums David, Nick and Kevin.

So, for those keeping score at home, here's what we played:

NOTHING TO SEE HERE
KEEPING STILL
SINCE I'VE BEEN GONE
OTIS REDDING SONG
TOP OF THE WHEEL
HEAVYWEIGHT
BACK FROM LITTLE ROCK
BRANDY
IF I WANTED YOU
MY FRIENDS, TOO
SIMON SAYS
DON'T YOU STARE

STRIKE
WHAT THEY MEAN
T-HO'S BROKEN RADIO
JAY-C'S BROKEN RADIO
THANK YOU, HERMAN MANKIEWICZ
DAMAGED DOLLAR
PERPETUAL AFTERNOON
GREAT BIG COSMIC
WATERLOO SUNSET
SECRETS TO SING
SO MUCH CLEARER

I'M ON FIRE
TEENAGE HEART
TAKES SO FEW
ROSEMARY
IN THE BOOKS
DRIFT AWHILE
MOLLY MOSAIC
WHEN YOUR FEET STEP UNEXPECTED ON MY MAT
HOLLOW MOON
I'M ONLY SLEEPING

Farmhands

Many thanks to the good folks down at the Memphis Farmers Market for having us out to play on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day, and we were pleased to support this new Memphis tradition. If you're local and you haven't yet made it to the Market, be sure to check it out.

We met some cool kids there, like these dudes, who were there with their rock 'n roll Dad.

And, to the best of our recollection, there was a Standards' first: a song performed with Jeff on guitar and vocals and Ted on just vocals and handclaps!

We had a great time playing back-to-back duo shows (we did a set at the St. Jude employee picnic in the middle of a thunderstorm on Friday at lunchtime) but look forward to being re-joined by our crack rhythm section this Wednesday and Saturday. Hope to see you out!

Wednesday, June 13
8-11 p.m.
T.J. Mulligan's Cordova
8071 Trinity Road
Presented by Rock 103

Saturday, June 16
7-9 p.m.
Borders Germantown
6685 Poplar Avenue
Smoke-free, family-friendly FREE Show!