While waiting for David Spade to shimmy and finish watching Arsenal steal one from Man U. at the Emirates (Thierry Henry in the 93rd minute for the Gunners!):

My brother and I attended a show during the first week of the Lyle Lovett/John Hiatt/Joe Ely/Guy Clark show, the "Songwriters Tour", at the State last night. It was a great night to listen to these American songwriters, some would think of it as a Mount Rushmore. I describe them this way: Clark is a bit older and tells stories in the Townes Van Zandt mode. Ely is more of a rebel, even at 60. Hiatt tells powerful relationship stories, sometimes with a wink and a nod, and Lovett tends to be the more studious of the bunch.

The venue: You gotta love the State. It really is a beautiful place to watch a show. Ranging from the White Stripes to Spam-A-Lot, it's multifunctional to a high degree.

The Seats: We were in the lowers. We were in row L, on the left, on the aisle. A little worried that someone needed a booster seat in our row (not me), but the kid was quiet throughout.

The Crowd: The average age of this crowd was probably the highest of any show I've seen in a long, long time. Jane Scott was there, in case anyone is tracking her Dead Pool status. Lyle Lovett offered very kind words in her direction in a sweet tribute. Did not like people shouting requests though. In the rotation, each could only play maybe 6 or 7 tunes.

The Stage: Well, you have four guys and their acoustic guitars. They sat on chairs from left to right: Lovett, Hiatt, Ely, Clark. They rotated songs amongst themselves, starting with Clark. Clark said, "We have no agenda, no setlist, and we have no clue...but we have no fear." as to what they would play. Then the others would sit and listen, while one guy would sing. Occasionally, one of the others would join on guitar or a backup vocal. Some storytelling, a la VH-1, but not much.

The Music: Hard to determine what was played, because this was not a pop music show, but I'll give it a go.

Lovett: A really beautiful Clark tune, "Step Inside This House", "My Baby Don't Tolerate", "What Do You Do", "If I Had a Boat".

Hiatt: The class clown of the bunch, but an unbelievable writer. Just beautiful stuff like "Crossing Muddy Waters" and "Have a Little Faith in Me". Also, "Memphis in the Meantime".

Ely: "I'm Gonna Strangle You, Shorty". Joe will be out with The Flatlanders in the spring, as well. And, of course, he says the line of living in West Texas. "It's so flat, you can look for 50 miles in every direction. Stand on a tuna fish can, you can see for a 100 miles."

Clark: "L.A. Freeway", "Things That Work", "Homegrown Tomatoes"

All: "White Freightliner Blues" by Townes Van Zandt. And "The Brand New Tennesee Waltz" by Jesse Winchester. One of those was described as a song "we all wish we had written".

2 hours and twenty of great stuff.

Meal of Links

How can Sam Brownback be taken seriously as a presidential candidate, when he displays the worst timing ever to announce? Hillary is in. It's not too early, as we still have a couple of states jockeying for the first primary and we may have caucuses in December of 2007. Time is a wastin'.

Just so you know. James Brown has not been buried yet.

Why not have your e-mails sung to your friends? It's kinda funny.

Exercise Yard

HBO darling, but not a favorite of mine, Ricky Hatton fought last night. I got home from the concert in time for the intros. His opponent was the WBO champ at 140, Juan Urango. This reflected the time-honored tradition of boxing to seek out an inexperienced champ to obtain a title, which can be used either as leverage to force a fight or tossed in the garbage to seek a bigger payday with someone else.

In other words, an OK fight, but nothing great.

Hatton clearly outworked his opponent for 12 rounds. As a matter of fact, he almost tossed a shutout as Urango won only the fifth on all the scorecards. No knockdowns, good technical stuff from Hatton early, but lots, I mean, lots of holding late. So, it was really a dance to the final bell from around the 9th round or so.

It looks like Hatton-Castillo on PPV in June. I wouldn't toss a nickel at that one, as Castillo, after a layoff, looked less than stellar in the opener last night. Hatton actually said Mayweather-De La Hoya will be dull, but his next bout will be a war. Must have had many pints right after the fight.

Visitor

None, it's another football Sunday.