Monday was spent recovering from all the excitement of the long weekend in New Orleans before St. Valentine’s day rolled around on Tuesday.
My fiancee made a delicious dinner of filet mignon topped with lump crab and a side of baby carrots and accompanied by a delicious Stag’s Leap Artemis (one of my favourites) that was being saved for a special occasion.
Saturday was a busy day that started with a drive to the University of Texas at Arlington to watch the Boyd High School Jazz Band perform in a competition. They played 3 songs and sounded great. Here’s one called “Cutie” by Count Basie and featuring Alicia on the flute.
We drove from UTA to the diamond store to pick out a final setting for Diana’s diamond and to pick out wedding bands. Jeff helped us choose efficiently and we were finished in less than 2 hours.
Then it was over to the hotel to check in before the Delbert McClinton show at the Granada Theater. We had a delicious pre-show dinner at the Sundown next door – I’m not sure we really needed the truffle mac n’ cheese for dessert but it was excellent. The opening band was Teresa James and the rhythm tramps. She was a cross between the boogie woogie piano style of Marcia Ball and the voice of Carolyn Wonderland – right up our alley. Here’s Delbert playing one of his more well known songs, “Starting a Rumour”.
His 9 piece band was excellent as you just heard. The saxophone and trumpet players were real highlights. Here’s a clip of them taking center stage while Delbert took a short break. He’s 76 and played for a solid 2 hours. His was the first show I saw in Texas – back in 1985 at the Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth when I was training with Gearhart and he sounds as good now as I remember then.
Sunday morning started with brunch at the Dream Cafe in the Uptown district of Dallas. Diana reminded me that the last time I took her there was on New Year’s Day 2016 to try and make up for falling asleep before midnight the night before. I like the feature when this restaurant has a wait – they give you an album cover and then call out the name of the album when your table is ready – very clever and entertaining.