Close, But No Cigar
Dear Jeff Daniels
I sent this letter to actor/musician Jeff Daniels a few years back, tucked into a copy of my book, Cigar Box Guitars. Hardcore fans of The Newsroom might recognize a nod to Season 2/Episode 1.*
Dear Jeff Daniels,
If we’d reserved a table rather than getting SRO tickets to your show at Evanston Space; if the young couple behind us had not been so effusively and loudly into one another; if their mutual infatuation had not rendered them oblivious to the effects of their conversation on the older couple in front of them; if my girlfriend Mary Beth and I had been able to figure out a tactful way to quiet them without completely raining on their parade; if we could have found another place to stand; if we, both virtual non-drinkers, had opted to split a soft drink instead of a dark beer (which made us tired)... then I might not be sending you this letter to tell you of my disappointment at having missed the cigar box guitar part of your set, and the story you told.
In a more perfect world, Mary Beth and I would have stayed to the end of your last encore, and you and I would have chatted a bit after your show about cigar box guitars. In a more perfect world, I’d have had one of my books with me and I’d have given it to you, autographing it with an ironic flourish, as if I were the screen actor and you the fan.
In this imperfect world, though we never leave a show early, Mary Beth and I left your concert just after you left the stage to the Ben Daniels Band, but not before you had earned our respect as a singer, guitarist, raconteur and songwriter (we both found “Back When You Were Into Me” particularly moving).
In this imperfect world, a friend of ours who stayed to the end called the next day to say that you had returned to the stage that night with a cigar box guitar, and an amusing story about where you’d found it and what you love about it.
As we’re now part of the same cigar box guitar community, I thought you might enjoy some of the stories in my book.
Thanks again for a wonderful, if star-crossed, night out last month.
All the best,
David
* Called “First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Lawyers”, S2E1 starts: ”If Ben Furusho hadn’t broken his ankle; if Jim Harper hadn’t gone to New Hampshire to cover for him…”
Mike Snowden’s cigar box guitars.
Concert footage (not from the Evanston Space show):
Nice. It would have been terrific if he’d written you back.
Any interest in reading some of my stories that I publish approximately weekly? You can check some of them out to see if you want them appear in your inbox. Eventually I put most of them on my blog.
zain.mackeycoaching.com/blog/