Doug Wintch at Pat's Bar B Que

We just got back from Pat's Bar B Que here in the SLC, where Doug Wintch, our should-be-famous-cousin, played to a capacity crowd of meat eatin' fans. While eating pulled pork, mashed potatoes, baked beans and, according to Curt Wankier, the best ribs he's had in a loooong time, we listened to The Doug Wintch Band: Doug on guitar, Jamie on drums, Jason on bass and Dan on peddle steel, guitar and fiddle. In attendance at this Texas style juke joint were: Wyatt (luckiest SOB ever), Lindsey, Riley, Hayley and Grant, Angus and Jilly, Wolf and Little Martha and Bob and Jillian (Curt and Jackie, for those of you not 'in the know').



The sound at Pat's was surprisingly good, given the small space. This made for a nice balance between hearing all the instruments and the vocals AND being able to have a decent conversation with anyone at the table. The downside was sitting on hard benches the whole time, but that was a minor inconvenience.



Doug was fantastic, as usual. The last time all of us saw Doug was at Larry's 50th birthday party where it was more of an acoustic show. Tonight's show was all electric. A couple of tunes he dedicated to the Tuckers in the audience, which I think is the first shout out any of us have had from any stage. Except when Snoop Dogg gave a shout to Riley in Vegas, but that's another blog.



My personal favorite was "Manti", a song I don't think any of us had heard. Aside from the personal nature of the song and that both Doug's parents and our mom came from Manti, the song was instantly fun to listen to. Right out of the speakers it was a tune I wanted to hear again and again. Doug is a songwriter for me that is very similar with one of my favorite songwriters, Paul Westerberg of the The Replacements. His sense of humor is sharp and he has a keen eye for detail. What I've always loved about Westerberg is his ability to sum up an emotion or at least the shadow that emotion left in a way that is both humorous and really sad and longing. After hearing "Manti", all I could think of was the times I spent in that town with my grandma, my parents, my siblings, relatives and friends. It's a special place that evokes very strong emotions and memories; a song that can get you to that emotional space in 3 1/2 minutes is gold to me. I believe the last few lines were, "They say you can't go home again/But some towns you can't leave behind."

One other note on Doug: how many people do you know have kept their dream alive for the majority of their whole life? Since I can remember, Doug has played guitar, been in a band, played shows, made records and stayed "in the game" with his music. That is amazing to me considering the graveyard of dreams most of us carry around in our heads, thinking we should have kept doing this or that or what happened to that thing I loved but I stopped doing? Doug has never stopped playing music. That's inspiring for me.

Thanks cuz!