Sometimes you don't need a reason

This morning's entry is courtesy of CL Editorial Assistant Dawn Morgan:

Noelle Price was coming through town from California, as she often does, to play bars and clubs and visit her friend Lara Cerri.

Lara asked her Parson Brown bandmate Ed Lehmann if he knew of any place they all could play together. Ed made some calls and came up with New World Brewery, adding local music staples Rebekah Pulley, Cat Cheshire, and Natty Moss-Bond to a bill he lovingly called Girls with Guitars. He would like it to be the first in a series.

When the show started at 7, there was about 35 people around the courtyard. Many more straggled into the bar throughout the night.

Jenny Lewis' Rabbit Fur Coat played between sets and I recommended the Framboise to all the non-beer drinking ladies (and Ed).

Conversation tidbits heard throughout the night: from singing to books to the unfairness of paying tax on tampons.

Ed's wife, Jennifer Hollowell, is host of the ND Hour on WMNF, and a full time “cookie baking” stay-at-home mom. She used to go with her friend Bev to Orlando or Atlanta at the drop of a hat. But she's so tired by the end of the day, Jen says she only made it out tonight because the show started so early. “Most shows don't start until 10. I'm in bed by then.”

Cat Cheshire (pictured left with friend Jaime Jensen), originally from Reading, England, came to the States 4 years ago after meeting Joe, an American, backpacking in Thailand. Cat had been living in Cardiff, Wales where she enjoyed “loads of music clubs, art and underground stuff. A very eclectic scene.” She misses the down-to-earth Welsh people and loves their music, but finds it comparable to Tampa and St. Pete.

Alas, she hasn't been getting out much lately due to being “busy writing very bad songs."

Carrie Waite, techie by day and some-time photographer for CL, was out supporting friend Natty Moss-Bond. They are apart of a group of girlfriends that periodically go out. “It started with Monday night facials and turned into 30 of us” going out to the bars, she said.

Natty performs every Thursday night (Ladies Night) at Dave's Aqua Lounge, along with April Maxwell, Rebekah Pulley, and female allies Meyer Baron and Crash Mitchell. “All kinds of girls will join us,” Natty said. “Sometimes poet Lori Karpay. We play acoustic, just a couple of mics plugged into the P.A.”

Despite the line up of local all-stars, Natty says not many women make it out to the weekly event. It makes her think back 20 years, when she was just beginning to play rock 'n' roll in high school. “There wasn't a single girl when I started playing. It was more acceptable for them to be in the church choir or in chorus.”

But Natty confirms that it's changed by leaps and bounds. “The amount of women that play music has increased exponentially in every genre. Things really are changing, for the first time in history we're getting to be even.”

However, she adds that some club owners still don't give her the time of day, but will speak with her male band mates in an instant. “You have to be really stubborn in any industry. Banker, lawyer, reporter - just to get your foot in the door.”

Still, Natty is well known for being just plain nice. She cites the early band days when club owners would try to chump change the musicians after playing a gig. The guys in her band wouldn't stand up to owners, instead sending Natty when it was time to collect.

“How could you be mean to this face?” Natty says, eyelashes aflutter. They'd hand over the money no problem.