![\"Smile\"](\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/wlEmoticon-smile11.png\")
<\/p>\nThis is the first of five posts today. I normally combine an evening into one (crazy long) post, but last night\u2019s 4.5 sets felt like it would be too long even for me. <\/p>\n
We were scheduled to see Abby Payne<\/a> at 7pm, followed by Chris Ayer<\/a> at 8 at Rockwood Music Hall<\/a>. I typically check out the set before in order to grab seats. This time, I wasn\u2019t worried about getting seats for a 7pm show, on a Sunny day, at the start of the Memorial Day Weekend, so I never really clicked through to see if I\u2019d like the 6pm act.<\/p>\n Then, around 4:30pm, I thought, what the heck, let\u2019s at least know what we\u2019re missing.<\/p>\n Buddy Toth<\/a> was listed. I went to his site (linked to his name) and started streaming his album Ex Malo Bonum (I\u2019m too lazy to look up if that\u2019s something cool and\/or meaningful). I figured I\u2019d hear one song, get a sense, stop, then still plan on skipping it.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, I really liked what I heard. So, I let it continue. Long before I had streamed the entire album, I told Lois that we should plan on getting our act together in time to see Buddy perform.<\/p>\n I would have bought his album instantly after I listened to it, but knowing we were going to the show caused me to wait, in case we could buy a physical CD from him there.<\/p>\n We left enough time to get there by 6pm, but the Memorial Day traffic (both up 3rd Ave and down 2nd Ave) was horrible. We arrived a few minutes late, probably somewhere in the middle of Buddy\u2019s second song.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to describe Buddy as a singer\/songwriter (which means nothing other than a person who writes and performs their own songs). It tells you nothing about their style\/genre. He has some Joey Ryan<\/a> like qualities, though I\u2019m hardly saying they\u2019re the same<\/em>.<\/p>\n I grew up loving all music (my dad played classical music non-stop, literally, 20 hours a day [yes, he rarely slept]), but my personal connection came in middle school, when Folk music (of all ilks) grabbed me by the throat and still hasn\u2019t let go.<\/p>\n While we can all debate why one song qualifies as Folk and another doesn\u2019t, even though they are each sung by one person accompanied on an acoustic guitar, I\u2019ll fall back on the age-old saying: \u201cI\u2019ll know it when I hear it\u201d. The important thing isn\u2019t that Buddy is or isn\u2019t a Folk singer (or rather, a pure one, meaning only\/mostly Folk). The point is that his songs sent me back to that time and therefore felt like I was hearing well-done Folk music, even if you would hear it and qualify it differently.<\/p>\n We both enjoyed his performance a lot, but as he himself joked on stage, if you wanted to hear it with fewer mistake, you should by the CD! Matt Rein<\/a> ![\"BuddyTothGuitar\"](\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/BuddyTothGuitar_thumb.jpg\" "\\"BuddyTothGuitar\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"BuddyTothSinging\"](\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/BuddyTothSinging_thumb.jpg\" "\\"BuddyTothSinging\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Winking](\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile10.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nRyan<\/del> accompanied Buddy on most of his numbers (too popular a name to find the right link, sorry)<\/del>. For the most part he played light percussion (shaker and tambourine). He also played the grand piano (very nicely) on a few numbers.<\/p>\n
![\"MattRyanShaker\"](\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/MattRyanShaker_thumb.jpg\" "\\"MattRyanShaker\\"")
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