Okay. Sorry to have done the mysterioso posting thing; I guess I could have waited.
I was waiting for confirmations and some updated info, but the info is still some number of days out, so I thought I’d go ahead and spill thuh beans.
In a couple of weeks, I will be attending an awards ceremony at a fancy-dancy level of the audience. That gets me very preferred seating and some other minor perks; okay, big deal.
After the awards, I get to attend the reception; the very small, very intimate, very elite reception, for the honorees, judges, guest presenters and other members.
The awards are going to Tom Waits (and his co-writer wife, Kathleen Brennan), and John Prine. Right there, I’m good; as I never even expected to catch Waits in concert, even the briefest chance to meet and chat has me stunned. Moreso for his wife, who is usually on the private/family side of things that Waits scrupulously keeps out of the limelight. I love Prine as well and am looking forward to that.
The MC and chief judge is Elvis Costello. Judges (not all of whom will be there; it’s a crapshoot) include Peter Wolf (J. Geils/Starship), Roseanne Cash, Paul Simon, Bono and a few writers… including Salman Rushdie and the current US Poet Laureate. There will be many others of this level, as yet unknown.
What I was waiting to hear, and what may not be known until the ceremony, is the special guests who will present Waits and Prine with their awards. They are traditionally peers or peer-mentor types and have included Smokey Robinson, Lyle Lovett, T Bone Burnett and others. Whoever is chosen, they play one of the honoree’s songs and then present the award. There are many luminaries who could fill this role for either award, but there’s one… a friend and collaborator of Waits’ who just happens to live up this way and is not particularly long odds against. You know him for being indestructible, even when he falls out of palm trees.
Do I owe anyone an apology other than for being a little tricksy with my post?
