I Hadn’t Anyone ‘Till You, Instinct 2006

Some nights, playing music, you feel like you can wrap up all that sadness - all those moments of deep loneliness, that inability to really share anything with another human being, that feeling that even if he or she (the person you’re looking for) were out there, you would walk right by, so burdened are you by the years of living alone, cooking tuna-melts in your toaster oven, waking up in last night’s smoky clothes, completely enveloped in your self-indulgent fantasy of the suffering artist - you feel like you could just lay that down in a few simple chords and send it out into the crowd.

Nobody’s listening. You’re pouring out your soul and they’re all just yacking away. Everyone except the little lady at the bar, who seems to be hanging on your every note. Is there a kind of gleam in her eye? Is she crying, softly, all alone? Or is it just all this damned smoke in here?

Giga Shane, whose self-produced solo album was released in summer 2006, cut his teeth at jam sessions like the one at Ortlieb’s, in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. Despite having moved to Brooklyn, where he’s swimming with the big fish, he’s still got that soulful, down-home Philly swing, and a milky-white tone to boot. The solo intro to this tune just drips out like unwelcome tears, and long-time partner-in-crime Lucas Brown slides in on the b3 to ease the pain. Check out Brown’s group, Four Blind Mice, if you’re in Philly.