Brian Joseph (wrap-up)

By Greg Pool
Host, TreeHouseConcerts.org

Here's a wrap-up of Brian Joseph's visit to the Tree House (pictures of that night):

• We first saw Brian at Ron Sandige's house concert series in Aptos last July, when Juliet was 30 weeks pregnant. That really got Brian's attention, and he sung his "new father" songs to her all evening. That's when we knew he'd be the perfect artist to re-start Tree House Concerts, and we booked him right there and then, because we knew he would understand if we had to cancel.
  


• That was a memorable night, especially when Brian broke a string and I ended up getting to re-string his guitar while he played ukulele.


• Tracy and Steve, who will be new parents around Thanksgiving, sat in the "splash row" at our show. Tracy's pregnant belly was the apple of Brian's eye all evening, much like Juliet's was last July. And Tracy made the perfect model for Brian's Diaper Crew hat.


• At one point, Brian realized that at least three people in the audience were named Judy. When he asked how many others were named Judy, everyone raised their hands.


• Brian's wife is 8 month's pregnant, their second child, so he's almost ready to loose sleep all over again.


• Brian was fresh off the main stage of the Fall 2005 Strawberry Music Festival, where his five-piece band included multi-instrumentalist, Joe Craven, who just played Arden's Garden in Monterey.


• It was our daughter Sonoma's first Tree House Concert but her third actual concert. Her first was Joan Baez at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at six weeks, followed the next day by Tree House artist Mark Erelli at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley.


• Sonoma slept through the first set, but was wide awake at the break and was all excited throughout the second set, talking and kicking.


• Sonoma's favorite song was "King of Echo Park," which is in heavy rotation on her lullaby playlist on our iPod.


• In the after-show interview, the "nude" podcast Brian refers to is Juliet, who was breastfeeding Sonoma during the recording.


• Brian was completely at home holding Sonoma before the show, even while he was eating dinner. Hey, I thought we were the hosts!