So, it's a $5.50 glass of Wild Turkey, a smokey bar and a mediocre band with it's amps up too loud. But it's some kind of stimulation after all and I've this little book to talk too.

They start something up with an acoustic guitar in a minor key and I settle into my drink.

Now one must always give credit for effort and I do, but the lead of this group is some lame and blameless kid singing about lame and pointless stories, and it just goes on and on.

Finally, they announce the last song. ( Thank god.)

It's called "Sad Marie". I think she's lucky not to be here.

I'm happy when "Sad Marie" is over and luckily for me, this was just an opening act for a very good band called "Mule".

The crowd shifts around while the bands switch equipment and I move over to the single guy seat at the end of the bar. This is were the old, defective, or dead sit and keep an eye on the living and connected.

I'm weary, whiskered, and I smell of cigars and bourbon. Still, things aren't so bad. The liquor has made me numb and comfortable, and soon, "Mule" will start up their music.

I like this band. They sing about things I understand like useless love, jealousy, and being a stranger, maybe even being a strange stranger ...

It's not that the music eases the pain so much as it gives it some recognition and a form that can be shared instead of it being the lonesome silence we take home. During the set, I was made melancholy enough to write some lyrics;

There's always going to be
Something wrong with me
Always something better
Something better I could be

In any room full of faces
There's always those you'd rather see
I know there's something wrong
Something wrong with you and me

I reckon I've been everywhere
'cept but where I want to be
But there's always something wrong
Something wrong with me

Cigarettes and good whiskey
Cigarettes and good whiskey

I know she's other choices
Better choices I can see
Yeah, there's always something wrong
I'm not the man I oughta be

Well she's finally gone her way
I'm just alone and free
And there's finally nothing left that's wrong
Finally nothing wrong with me.

Cigarettes and good Whiskey
Cigarettes and good Whiskey