Yes yes

Feeling incredibly content and grateful. The Rachel Ries/Anais Mitchell concert was as good as I hoped.

It was PACKED. And on Wednesday Steve had been worried it might not be a good turnout. He threatened to just shut down the cafe forever if people didn't come. He made extra posters, Heli got a Facebook event going and I added a bunch of people to it. I'm not sure who's to say those last minute things helped in packing the house but whatever it was it worked. (probably helped there wasn't really any competition to speak of tonight.)

They played the songs off the EP in order, trading the acoustic back and forth. Then they just started playing other stuff. Did a few from Anais' Folk Opera. Which I still SO want to see. Next time she puts it on out there I am getting a ticket and flying out and I am SEEING IT. dammit. So there. Any part of it I hear or see only makes me want to see it more. She borrowed Rachel's electric for one of them, the one about the Wall, and totally had fun with the whammy bar at the end. :)

Anais mentioned me at one point, because she had a song about Venus, and said something like "This is a song about a goddess, and we were on the radio - Lyrical Venus, is that right? (Rachel nods) and she's here tonight. Anyway it was so funny because Heather told us right before we went on that we couldn't both talk at the same time or it would cut out, and then she asked us a question and we were both silent." hehe. And the song rocked. I think Tim was recording. I hope so because that would be awesome to play on my show.

Rachel had a sparkly shirt and hoop earrings that were very much like mine. :) and she played Hands to Water on the piano, sooo beautiful. And told us about her boy that she got to keep and sang a song about him. And did a new one about how it might be if her grandma was still alive that was really awesome. They did an acoustic version of Shenandoah for the encore.

Only wish it had gone on longer. But it kind of did for a few of us - after most everyone cleared out of the cafe people brought out whiskey and wine and bread and olives and cheese. Somehow we started singing some Christmas carols, because the sound of the roaster was like one of those sleigh bell song beats I think, and then Tom Morgan grabbed Anais' guitar and we sang the first verse of a bunch more, because everyone knows them, but only the first verse really. Sharon sang a couple, and gave everyone some mini shoulder massages. Tim went home and got his pipes, flute & mandolin and some really amazing Italian parmesan that you break off in chunks "so as not to destroy the crystalline structure." Heli gave Rachel a crash course in knitting and Tim gave Anais a crash course in pipes.

Steve got Rachel and Anais to each do one more at the end, and Helen requested one of my favorite's of Rachel's - Summer Came, A Warning. And when Tom asked her she said that she taught herself to play guitar by being stubborn and listening to songs and figuring them out by ear, that she had no theory or fret board knowledge. Anais did a new one she said isn't finished but it was damn amazing and damn sad about a farmer trying to get the hay in before it rained and his wife was in labor and she kept telling him to go out and finish or the whole season would be lost and they could go to the hospital when he finished, but he got half the hay in and went to check on her and she was dead. I had feeling that was where the thing was going, but it still broke my heart. Apparently based on a story her dad wrote.

Told Anais that Brooke had played her song Changer (that was maybe the only one I especially wished she would have played that she didn't) at my house concert and she said what an honor and if I saw Brooke to say hello because she hadn't seen her in a long time. Not really sure when that would happen, but it's nice anyway, and I do hope Brooke comes back.

So yes, a full and happy heart have I tonight. I love it when something is as good as you hoped it would be. So often the high expectations are impossible to live up to. This was not one of those cases.