Baby Gramps 4/4/19 Cafe 9

Oxymoronic folkie, or maybe an old folkie moron gakked out on Oxy, Seattle-based Baby Gramps was quite the character. Armed with a National Steel guitar, vocals, vocal stylings ( including percussive sounds and lo-fi throat singing) and a dumpster full of stories, Gramps has been lauded as in the top 100 most influential American musicians. More Gramps than baby, BG looked like a cross between Dr. John and Eugene Chadbourne. Gramps recent claim to fame was touring the magnificent Rogues Gallery cache of pirate songs culled and overseen by Jonny Depp, would have liked to be a psilocybin-infused fly on that wall. Seems that Gramps was a denizen of Greenwich Village in the early 60s ( see Inside Llewyn Davis for a glorification of this time and space), referencing opening for Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. His stories oozed authenticity, sang a perfect Visions of Johanna as if he was in the room at it's inception. Industry insider or homeless guy peering in the window when an ancient reel tape of Farewell Angelina was unearthed that had the Dylan-scrawled title "Alcatraz to the 9th Degree", Gramps seemed to get around. Plugging Seattle's answer to Lollapalooza, Bumbershoot, BG brought a young melodica blower out to shade some tunes and crab about a $7 royalty check he received from playing with Phish. BG also claimed to have recorded with Peter Stampfel and The Holy Modal Rounders who were the first band to have been billed as "psychedelic". Closed with a lysergic-addled medley of the Kinks All Day and All of the Night into Lotus Blossom and finally an audience participation Louie Louie. Gramps said The Kingsmen and  Louie Louie put Seattle on the musical map and chortled at the FBI investigating the song's lyrics for hidden subversive meaning, sounds like some 2019 governmental lunacy.