Tiger Pride

The last time I saw Patrick Sweany perform was last October. I was in the midlle of a stretch where I enjoyed four amazing shows over about a 2-month period by some of the most amazing musicians of our time (Tab Benoit, The Steepwater Band twice, and Sweany). It also happened to be Sweany’s last night of touring in support of “Daytime Turned to Nighttime,” his seventh album.

Rather than taking an exit and making the crowd cheer for an encore, he had fun with the crowd, joking about how they (the band) might otherwise be standing outside the stage door of The Rhythm Room (in a very confined space) and “make you beg for the songs you want to hear.”

“Value Added,” he said. Funny, I use that phrase a lot…

As he continued having fun playing with the crowd, he broke into the story of being a kid from from Massillon, Ohio. “In high school, I was a 152 pound.. tackle” he joked.

So instead of getting his butt kicked on the football field, he picked up the guitar. 

“Tiger Pride” is a fun blues number that feels really close to home. It’s Patrick Sweany’s ode to his hometown. It took him until his seventh album to write it… or at least to put it on record… because sometimes it takes some of us just a little longer to recognize just how good we really had it growing up, or in that place in life, that relationship... job... or whatever it is… and how important it is to keep showing respect to those who made us who we are today.