Went to see the Birmingham leg of this tour last night and had a brilliant time. I'm not sure Steve Reynolds was as good as you suggest, though he played a tune called 'Forsaken' which was very good. Carey Brothers was indeed a bit radio friendly, but I think if he had allowed his songs to breathe a bit more if might have been cool. I thought Joe Purdy was brilliant (unsurprisingly), and I really enjoyed Jim Bianco - though I too wonder if an entire album or set would be a bit much to take. Tom was great, too, and I think we got a bit more of him, too (though they had to finish by 10 at our venue, as well) - he did an encore of End of the World News (with some types on stage with him), and also Walking To Hawaii.

Anyway, yeah - I was expecting to enjoy this, and I did. It was exactly my bad - a bunch of songwriters doing their thing in a revue format appeals to me as a muso, and I'd love to see the Hotel Cafe idea catch on over here. I was also left looking forward to the new Tom album next year, which is always nice.