MELODIES THAT LINGER ON
Saturday Nights at La Tosca Restaurant
777 Laurel Ave., San Carlos, CA
Played by the Wondering Truebadour
Bio inside – FULL MENU AT PIANO – Your requests are invited
Perennials
Ain’t Misbehavin’
Cool Water
Indian Love Call
In the Mood
Lara’s Theme (from Dr. Zhivago)
Lili Marlene
Scarlet Ribbons
September Song
Shenandoah
Shanty in Old Shanty Town
Stardust
Sweet Georgia Brown
When You Wore a Tulip
Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby
Blues
Ace in the Hole
Ample Leeway Blues
Blueberry Hill
Fever
Folsom Prison Blues
Frankie & Johnnie
Here We Go Again
House of the Rising Sun
London Homesick Blues
Mood Indigo
My Man Stands Out
St. James Infirmary
St. Louis Blues
Serenade to a Jerk
Sugar Blues
Summertime
After years of trying to perfect my piano-playing technique, I realized that the imprecision of my fine muscle co-ordination which made me somewhat awkward on the football field (and more than somewhat on the basketball court) was also a liability on the keyboard. Prior to this realization I had believed that “practice makes perfect.” By the time I learned that only perfect practice makes perfect, I had hopelessly perfected the imprecision that tends to make my keyboard fingering style “unusual”. (This is the very word, by the way, with which I once answered folks when they asked me, “What are you going to be when you grow up?”).
So let’s face it: I’m never going to play this Yamaha as flawlessly as it can play itself. My muscles are analog, not (like Arnold Schwartzenager’s) terminally digital.
I had basically accepted that my fingers were digitally challenged when I named my 3-piece high school dance band “The Fumblers”. Yet it took 20 more years before I became fully at ease with my condition. This came about one evening when, as I was playing in a restaurant near Aspen, Colorado, a curious patron asked me about my style.
“What does it sound like?” I asked. “Well,” she reflected, “sort of like you are flirting with chaos.”
I wasn’t quite sure that this was a compliment, but at least she was paying attention – and piano players do like that! So I asked, “What do you mean?”
“Just when it sounds like you’re going to pieces, you recover somehow.” I thought about this for a few moments: “Well, then, I guess you could call me a ‘drop-stitch’ piano player.”
Now when I sit at the piano, sewing melodies where others tend to reap, I’m just thankful that my drop-stitching sew-sew piano style draws more attention than a so-so one.

Blues (con’t)
Stagger Lee
Summertime
Tin Roof Blues
Tonight’s the Night
Wabash Blues
Wondering Truebadour’s Blues
Boogie
The Beat Goes On
Get Back (Beatles medley)
Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry medley)
Memphis
Pinetop’s Boogie (Boogie Woogie)
Wha’d I Say
Country
Almost Persuaded
Blue Side of Lonesome
Cold, Cold Heart (Hank Williams medley)
Green, Green Grass of Home
He’ll Have to Go (Jim Reeves medley)
Help Me Make it Through the Night
Honky Tonk Angels
I’ll Sail My Ship Alone
I’m Not Lisa
It’s My Lazy Day
Jealous Heart
Kawliga
Long Black Veil
Movin’ On
Now & Then There’s a Fool Such as I
Peach Pickin’ Time Down in Georgia
Please Help Me, I’m Falling
Please Release Me, Let Me Go
Rose of San Antoine
She Thinks I Still Care
Steel Guitar Rag
Today I Started Loving You Again
Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother
Wabash Cannonball
Waitin’ For a Train

Folk
Down in the Valley
Foggy, Foggy Dew
Greensleeves
Irene, Good Night
Jamaican Farewell
Jimmy Crack Corn
Puff, The Magic Dragon
Sippin’ Cider Through a Straw
Sloop John B
Tom Dooley
Honky Tonk/Ragtime
Down Yonder
Mississippi Mud
Ragtime Cowboy Joe
Snow Deer Rag
The Sting
12th Street Rag
Waitin’ for the Robert E. Lee
Inspiration
Amazing Grace
Imagine
It Is No Secret
Just a Closer Walk With Thee
Let It Be
The Question (Moody Blues)
Whispering Hope
International
Boccharini
Finiculli Finiculla
Mexican Hat Dance
O Solo Mio
Santa Lucia
Sicilian Tarantella

Sentimental/Nostalgia
Among My Souvenirs
Anniversary Waltz
Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
Blue Skirt Waltz
Cruisin’ Down the River
Daddy’s Little Girl
Danny Boy
Far Away Places
Galway Bay
The Girl that I Marry
Half As Much
Harbor Lights
The House Song
I Can’t Stop Loving You
Jealous Heart
Joan of Arc
Just a Song at Twilight
Let the Rest of the World Go By
Little Boy Blue
Love Me Tender
Loving Her Was Easier Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again
Making Whoopie
Moonlight & Roses
My Happiness
Old Shep
Peg O’ My Heart
Recuerdos de l’Ahambra
Red Sails in the Sunset
Sentimental Journey
Snow Blind Friend
Song Sung Blue
Tell Me Why
Tennessee Waltz
Tiny Bubbles
That’s Why I’m Leavin’ Up to You
The Waltz You Saved For Me
To You, Sweetheart, A Lower (Hawaaian Pullman Song)
Two Sleepy People
You Can’t Be True, Dear
You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby