Dave Potts Singing at the Ford Library

Dave Potts Singing at the Ford Library
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

After a long drive from Alabama, with a stop in Carbondale, eager to get real Chicago pizza, Dave Potts arrived at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library last night for our Friday at the Ford concert. With his guitar and with his Chicago friend Kip Rainey from the bluegrass group Tangleweeds at his side playing mandolin, he sang about a dozen of his compositions about modern life in the South.

My favorite song was "If I Broke the Record," which told the story of a minor league baseball player in Birmingham, not talented enough for the majors but still proud of the way he plays. I also really liked "$12.99," a song about cheap sweatshirts and unexpected romance. "Martin" was another interesting piece, which told the story about a high school hero who never went very far but still had style.

As you might have discerned by now, most of Dave's songs are stories. He said he has at least eleven about why a guy from Denver likes living in Auburn, Alabama, but he did not sing them all.

Between songs Dave made numerous humorous observations. He wondered why all the Chicago higway maps identify expressways by numbers but all the radio stations identify them with names that someone from Alabama would not know. He never knew on which old dead guy he was driving. He then conceded that he had heard of Eisenhower.

Dave sold 8 or 10 CDs after the show for the price of $12.99 or 2 for $20. He said that he would like to play at more libraries. Contact information is on his website, as is sample music.