I love Chicago. It’s sort of the quintessential American city to me. Home of the electric blues (and the Blues Brothers). I built a huge model of the Sears Tower when I was 12. And Chicago is where I met my wife.

Eric & I played a house concert there on Friday night. It was basically a party with a bonus concert attached, and it turned into a fantastic night despite a few setbacks…

Eric’s flight couldn’t land because of a lightning storm, so I had to plan out a solo show in case he didn’t make it at all. It was billed as a social justice-themed concert, and I was relying on the material Eric & I do together from the Civil Rights era, which didn’t really appeal to me to do on my own. So I dug into the catalog a bit and tried to come up with some last-minute solo arrangements of songs from my past, including ‘One of These days’ and ‘(Who Discovered) America’, both of which were written to be played for Santana and Ozomatli – bands with about 10 guys on stage – so these weren’t exactly solo-guitar-guy friendly songs. Or so I thought.

It turned out to be a nudge in a good direction for me. I held the fort for a half hour or so with all this old material, and had such a blast playing it, I’m going to record it just like that, ‘unplugged’.

Just when I started to hit the end of my impromptu solo programme, in walked Eric. I had prepped everyone to do a lot of loud singing, so Eric and I were almost drowned out by the audience during our set (which is just how we like it). What a great vibe. It was a warm night out and all the windows were open, so when the rain stopped, a lot of the neighbors sat out on their stoops and listened to the show.

We’ll be back…

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