Don’t let Batman screw your girlfriend — sage advice from West Marin legend Jerry Hannan, spring, 2014

Sixty-nine miles to West Marin to see NorCal legend Jerry Hannan paid off for us thanks to the music, the food, the weather, a judicious serving of Sierra Nevada and our lucky stars.

It was my first visit to Rancho Nicasio, a legendary little club owned by Bob Brown. We got there three hours early and made a side-trip to Point Reyes, then got back just in time to sweat through (literally and figuratively) the first half of the first set of the sold-out show; I guess that is success to have 52 fans in a room that only holds 50. Eventually we got two good seats at the bar, the beer hit home and we chased it with some calamari then split an order of meat loaf. During the break Jerry and I got re-acquainted, and I introduced him to Terry. A slightly drunk lady interrupted our little pow-wow to give JH a big hug.

“I’m Irish” she said.

“You feel Irish” he replied.

“I’ll take his word on that”, I chimed in.

A highlight of the show was “Society” which is Jerry’s top-seller, although more people probably thing Eddie Vedder wrote it. I sampled about a dozen of the covers and versions available here on the magic information box.

Jerry balances some rather wickedly raunchy songs with some poignant and socially-conscious stuff. We bought his new cd which he signed something about “Ranch O’Nicasio”.  I thought I spotted Bonnie Raitt sitting on a couch in the back of the bar, for a few songs, but it may have been a mirage. For a while there, around 2000, there was always a sideshow at Jerry Hannan gigs of a clique of celebrities that either really liked his music or were rehearsing a scene from “The Late Henry Moss”.

Here’s to ya, Jer. Keep calm and Jerry hann-on.

edita: Terry’s camera-phone blows mine away:

Mark Weiss, Terry Acebo Davis, Jerry Hannan, Rancho Nicasio, April, 2014 (Jerry joked that we were making a deal)