Last Saturday, David and I headed out to Barone's with Tony Russell and his wife Rosemarie, to hear Thelma Jones sing, with Karen Hernandez on piano and Chico Fernandez on drums. What a great night, and wow, was Thelma on fire!! Standouts included "God Bless the Child" (performed as a rumba), "For All We Know", and a rousing closing number whose title I can't remember. It was late. Guitar great Barry Zweig dropped in for dinner, and of course he was summoned to go outside and get his guitar - which he did - and he played all night! I ordered a steak (which I never do) and right after finishing my meal, Thelma called me onstage to sing a song...my steak hadn't yet reached my stomach. Oh dear. I was completely caught off guard, started in with "Like Someone in Love", only to forget the lyrics to the 2nd verse!! I have no idea what I sang to get through that section, but I felt like Jason Castro from American Idol, ripping apart "Tambourine Man". Oh well...like I said, it was late. Right after that, Tony, Thelma and I all joined in on a raucous version of "Sunny Side of the Street", and the audience sang along. (When Tony gets involved, it's always raucous!) But the audience hadn't seen anything yet! Thelma took a break from singing, while Tony took the stage to entertain the audience with "some jokes"..let me tell you, this was probably the best night Tony's ever had. He had Barry Zweig laughing so hard, he had to stop a few times. Tony's a true master, and it's too bad this wasn't caught on film!
