Show #20

Last night's Birmingham show was a doozy. They played a couple of tunes I'd never heard live, they did the set list completely out of order, Warren called out an old blues song on the fly, an Mr. Salt and Pepper American Idol Taylor Hicks sat in.

The show was going wonderfully until Mr. Hicks was called on-stage. He didn't sing, as one may expect, but instead took to the harmonica. I always thought it was near impossible to be off key playing harmonica as it is only in one key. It was confirmed that his harp was in the right key (more on that later) but the way he played it was just bad. I almost felt sorry for the guy having just gone out and made a fool of himself on front of 5,000+ people.

This apparently isn't the first time he has sat in with the Allmans and it's not the worst performance he's given with them. It is, however, the worst performance he's given sober. Anyway, after he came off stage he set his harmonica down on one of my cases and walked away. Thus, I am now the not so proud owner of a Hohner harmonica in the key of D played on stage by Taylor Hicks. I have no idea what to do with it but for now it will rest in my backpack. Maybe I can sell it to a middle aged woman fascinated by his boyish good looks underneath a sea of gray hair giving her an idea of youth in her later years.