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The other guy with a small guitar & a big voice

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Last night I had the good fortune of seeing Eddie Vedder actually play that ukulele live at the fabulous Paramount Theater in Oakland.

There were far too many unbelievable moments in that 3+ hour show to mention all of them here but I will say that several of the evening's highlights involved this guy - Glen Hansard.

When he first appeared on the dimly lit stage with guitar in hand, I thought man I would not want to be the one opening for the wildly talented guy that's coming on next. To say Hansard held his on is an understatement - his voice and acoustic guitar filled the already packed venue to the rafters.

Two of his duets with Vedder almost made me cry. First there was the Academy Award winning Falling Slowly from the indie film Once - which I highly recommend, both the film and the soundtrack. And then there was a completely unamplified version of Sleepless Nights - stunning.

There are a few more dates on this tour and I recommend trying real hard to get tickets to one of them. Meanwhile, I'm going to spend some time digging up more tunes from the other guy. The one here - Low Rising is a good start.