Crookston showed early on that he’s a lot more than a singer songwriter touring a lot plying his trade.   His ability to shift gears from story teller to passionate song belter to comedic tongue in cheek dude were impressive.  When a cat is on his own in front of a comfortably tight packed house he has to put up or shut up pretty quickly.  JC jumped into the gig trying unplugged totally to gauge the sound quality for all in attendance.  Nice touch and “I Sing for the Beauty” smoothly started the show.

“I Love My Brother-He Could Use Some Mercy Now” may not be the entire title of the song, but the real life tale about him and his brother being apart for 6-8 years and coming together because JC was mentioned at a CEO board meeting was priceless.

Crookston hails from my neck of the woods in Kent, Ohio and attended KSU.  I grew up down the road in Youngstown and swapping stories with him about Kent State and Ohio were awesome.  Guy Forsyth type qualities in Crookston made me realize how much I’ve strayed from the passionate type “tell like it is” performers you can experience up close and personal at house gigs.

Almost Austin (Kenny Pipes- http://www.reverbnation.com/venue/almostaustinhouseconcertpasadena) and Second Saturday Concerts (Paul Cooper- pcooper1@peoplepc.com ) were in attendance and these gents along with Deanna & Bill Barnes are doing blokes like myself and sweet Rose a good deed by providing these fun evenings.  The Potluck AGAIN was beyond delicious and worth the $15 cover with water and BYOB of course rules.

Some killer highlights of the evening for thee animated guitar jammer were “Freddy the Falcon” a fun sing a long, “Darkling & the Bluebird Jubilee” (title cut of latest CD), “On the 22nd Floor”, “John Jones” about a slave migrating north on the pipeline, and a fantastic rib tickler in “Red Rooster In the Mash Pie”!  Oh yeah, his cover of a Supertramp tune (name escapes me) was mesmerizing to me and well done. The title cut of his 2008 release “Able Baker Charlie & Dog” was moving and his ‘country song’ of the gig “Cheap Beer & Pick-up Trucks” was neato.

Crookston and I also conversed about the upcoming Folk Alliance in Memphis where he’s landed a Showcase spot which I know we’ll catch while there!  Hopefully with some band mates to see how his sound stretches out with back up.  “Fall Down as the Rain”, the moniker for his first release, left the crowd very satisfied and appreciative.  Crookston’s easy goin’ personality should serve him quite well in the future exemplified by a touching (and killer version) of ‘Happy Birthday” to music bud James Klassen!

HMR is in a good place right now and Rose & I Thank the Lord above for getting us to ride down the freeway of music promotion and support.  Once again this night proved there ain’t no ‘STOP’ signs on that road!   Keep posted on the “goings own” at “Don’t EVEN Mess with Deanna’s joint” @ bildeann@swbell.net !

God Bless and keep laffin’ and rockin’!