We drove up from Norfolk to see Nellie McKay live at the Birchmere in Old Towne Alexandria. The neighborhood was a bit shady by our white-bread standards but the venue was very cool…the Birchmere has a first-come-first-served seating system which allows you to get a good seat if you’re willing to show up early enough. We did.

Besides being a small, cozy venue (300-600 seating capacity depending on the expected turnout) they also serve good food and (somewhat expensive) drinks. The home-made potato chips, in particular, seemed to have almost no excess grease at all. Not quite guilt free, but yum!

The show itself was predictably awesome…Nellie comes across as a somewhat retreating personality thrust into the limelight by the force of her convictions and formidable talent. (BTW, Tom, if you are reading this, rest assured that your jealousy was completely justified– Nellie specifically mentioned she was looking for a middle-aged bald guy with a chubby physique and sardonic wit with whom she could share her love of laughter and penchant for kung-fu movies.)

Honestly, anyone who buys her album and doesn’t bother to learn the lyrics is missing the point of her musical mission. Although admittedly adopted by the Liberal Elite, she condemns them for their failings. Having grown up poor, she seems to have little patience with those liberals who profess to understand the pain and suffering of those less fortunate by virtue of having read about poverty in a book.

Her self-effacing, down-to-earth manner seems genuine as she often trips while trying to explain the concepts behind her songs without coming across as a moralist– tough to do. Overall, it all works for her though making her all the more endearing. At one point some lady (?) in the audience screamed out “I love you Nellie!” to which she responded “Oh thank you that’s very sweet. But don’t get too close to me. It’s a little scary to hear that from a stranger.” Dead-on response in my opinion.

Notably, she was not hocking T-shirts or CDs although her opening act (The funny yet forgettable one-man Tractenburg Family Slideshow Players) was hawking all that and more. Good job Nellie…keep the faith sister! The next time you go on tour be sure to visit Hampton Roads…we’ve got a nice jazz club in Norfolk and I’ll personally make sure your show is well attended. As conservative as our area is it could use a liberal infusion!

I’ve been thinking about playing the guitar again but given my past experience with CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) I decided some easier-to-play strings would be in order. To that end I slapped a pack of La Bella folk guitar strings on my Takamine and they seem to play OK although keeping them in tune has been an issue so far. I’m not sure if this is a problem peculiar to nylon strings in general or one that results from using nylon strings on what was meant to be a steel string guitar. You definitely DO NOT want to put steel strings on a classical guitar, however, since classical guitars are not meant to accomodate the high tension of steel strings (more than 2x over nylon strings). Now I need to pick a good song to learn on the acoustic that is within reach of my rusty skills.