The All-Togethers with the Devil's Duo at Red Dwarf, Saturday Nov 19, 2022

The All-Togethers were always one of our favorite bands in town, acoustic or otherwise, so we were disappointed when founders Ken and Cindy left town and the group broke up, so we were pretty thrilled to hear about a one-off reunion show and, of course, asked for our new acoustic project to be on the bill. The AT's were good enough to include us for this terrific event!

The AT's actually did two sets with the Devil's Duo in between, which through us off a bit as we normally open and put us at a bit of a disadvantage as the packed house was all there for the AT's, so us interrupting their party was almost a bringdown. We also had n incredible amount of technical difficulties that plagues the entire set. We soldiered on and Melanie was a super trooper and we received a good response regardless, even though our tunes were significantly slower and less party oriented than the AT's!

(DD photo by Nikki Ruffling)

The All-Togethers, on the other hand, while also having multiple technical difficulties, handled them like the champs they are (unlike myself!) and put in two sets filled with some of their most popular self-described "hillbilly jazz" numbers, and I believe there were even a couple of new tunes, if I'm not mistaken. Classics like "When the Night Comes", "So What", "Darktown Strutters Ball", Michael's "Sonata in Whiskey", s rap number (I have no idea what is was cuz I'm old) that morphed into "Folsom Prison Blues" (with Brandon singing) and, of course, their show-stopping cover of the Who's "Baba O'Reilly". Ken alternated between mandolin and banjo with accompaniment'n'vocal harmonies from Cindy on stand-up bass, Brenna on cello, and the aforementioned Michael and Brandon on guitars. 

Everyone was truly on point and played excellently, even as the drinks were flowin' and feedback was flyin'! The packed house showed that these cats'n'kittens were truly missed and we can only hope that at some point they will decide to grace us once again with the melodious presence! Excellent show!

(As always, sorry for the quality of my photos!)