cuomo

Cuomo was tending bar at the Lucky Cat the other night, contemplating the extent to which he, an anarchist, had violated his ideals by voting for Obama in the primary. I didn't catch his set at the open mic but I had a chance to play a couple songs with Drew and John before Mikey packed up the microphones and cleared the stage.

A few of us stepped outside for air and smoke and to listen to part of Drew's life story. When we came back inside the place was mostly cleared out except for a few tuesday night stragglers. Cuomo picked up Drew's new guitar, a 1930's Kay arch top, and slammed into a song standing on the edge of the circle the rest of us were sitting in. He was bearded and grinning, his eyes connecting with Emma's when she sang harmony. She was standing to his right and my left, their voices in registers high above my head. "I am no one, I know nothing, I have nowhere to be, no one's expecting me" his song started. I had somewhere to be and Ramona was expecting me there, but for eight minutes I sat where I was with my eyes shut.

At the end of the first tune, Drew was quick to request one of Cuomo's new songs. He'd played it the tuesday before and Drew said it was one of his favorite songs ever written ever. Could have been written by Neil Young or Bob Dylan he claimed. "Every lyric in this song is a fuckin jewel from heaven." The first song had justified Drew's enthusiasm, "Poor Robin" blew us all away too.

It wouldn't have surprised me if I'd opened my eyes and seen Phil Ochs standing in front of me singing one of his own songs. Cuomo's voice was so familiar and his lyrics so resonant that I couldn't shake the image of the late folk singer songwriter from an earlier New York decade. Cuomo has more rock in him than Phil Ochs did, but either one could have been singing "Poor Robin" after hours at the Lucky Cat.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR CUOMO AFTER HOURS AT THE LUCKY CAT