Q: How do you find a lead guitarist?

A: Wait until after he sees you before you take out the shotgun.

Yup, I made that one up myself.

Late in a long gig musicians often end up telling musician jokes. This is actually better than the other one I knew about guitar players.

The Joy Drops played three times lately.

Memorial Day we played at a BBQ in Berkeley. It was a perfect setup for us – beer, daylight, slack. The party had an art school faction and an average joe faction. The average joes hung out and dug it, the artists stayed away in droves. We played ok but just ok – I was rusty after a month off.

The day after we played a bar called The Pour House in the Tenderloin in San Francisco. We were in excellent form and rocked the house. You could tell we did good because the bartender was happy about moving more drinks than normal.

Then we played Mojo Bicycle Cafe on Divisadero St in San Francisco. It’s half cafe, half bike store. This was just two of us, Noah on standup bass and me on guitar, vocals, and mandolin. Mojo has a great feeling to it. The front opens up, the people are casual, the flow just kills for some reason. Our first set was off but the second was strong, and that’s when the room was full.

Noah and I are playing as a duo again next month, at Art Ark Gallery in San Jose for First Friday on July 6. It was fun to do last night because I could really hear Noah’s playing. He had great tone and mood.