Hey, Barry:

Peter Johnson! Egads!!! I hadn't thought about him in years. I did a concert for him in Boston back in the late 60's, or thereabouts. It was one of the stranger experiences of my life. For starters, anyone who wanted to do a guest set was invited to perform at the start of the concert. Without any exageration, there must have been at least eight or ten performers before me (one of whom did at least a twenty minute "set.") I had a couple of friends who came to hear me who finally had to leave before I even got a chance to sing. I had to cut my set down to a single half-hour in order to get out in time. I shoulda opened for myself, and I would have had almost as much time, and the friends who came to hear me wouldn't have had to leave before I sang.

But that wasn't the strangest part. It was the organic carrot salesman. I crashed that night at Peter's, as did another guy who was very friendly, if a little spaced out. He had just gotten a terrific deal on a couple of bushels of organic carrots and was expecting to make a killing. Unfortunately, the bottom had just fallen out of the organic carrot market, and he was stuck with two bushels of flaccid carrots. Nobody wants to eat a carrot that folds over when you pick it up, even if it is organic. But, it had been a strange and frustrating night, haven driven a couple of hundred miles to be almost an after thought at my own concert, so I found consolation in munching on a flaccid carrot or two.

We all seek comfort where we can find it.

Jerry