Last weekend was "The Bite of Oregon". I believe these events are held all over the country, local restaurants sampling their wares to raise money for charity. Here in Portland the proceeds go to the Special Olympics, and the food comes from all over the state.

Of course they have more than just food. There is all kinds of entertainment, and The Bite is big enough in Portland that they bring in some terrific names. Saturday night was Dr John, Sunday was Patty Smith, but I went Friday night: Todd Snider and Robert Earl Keen.

The cost? $7. That's it. 4 hours of music, a kick-ass fireworks show, and only 7 bucks. Wow.

The opening act never made it to Oregon; the guy got stuck in Seattle traffic (he must not be from Seattle, otherwise he would have left right after breakfast). So the Renegade Saints got moved from the small to the main stage. They are a local band, very good, excellent musicians, and, it turns out, I know the keyboard player. Mike's one of my new friends from the local Obama campaign, and he's one of the few people playing a real Hammond organ. You can't beat the sound of the Hammond, and Mike is terrific. I've heard of Renegade Saints before, and I'm glad I've finally gotten to hear them. I'll be at more of their shows, that's for sure.

Then it was Todd Snider's turn. Todd is from Beaverton, just went of Portland, and he's possibly the funniest guy in alt.folk.country.pop. He's got the Arlo Guthrie way of storytelling, in a more manic way. His songwriting is terrific, too. He gained fame for his "Talking Seattle Punk Rock Blues" but that's only the tip of the Todd Snider iceberg. It's the second time I've seen Todd, and I have his "Viva Satellite" cd (which has one of the greatest gospel songs ever recorded), and even though he's younger than me, he's my hero in the field of "Todd's from Oregon".

And then it was Robert Earl Keen. In his 90-minute set, I think there was barely a minute of chat. It was song-song-song-song. When the girl jumped on stage and kissed him on the cheek, he gave her no notice. None. (The guitar player, when he got kissed, grinned his head off.) When the young guy jumped on stage, just stood next to Robert Earl and grinned — and then got creamed by a roadie who seemed to take a lot of offense at this guy's presence — Robert Earl took no notice. When a couple of fights broke out, well, you guessed it. Probably was pretty tame compared to the gigs he played getting started around Texas, and why the hell it was happening at The Bite, I don't know. But nothing stopped Robert Earl Keen from doing his job: singing.

And oh my god, did he sing. The show started kind of ok, a blues number, but the further he went, the more energy he gave. He's one of those people, like Michelle Shocked, who hold back absolutely nothing. Whatever he sang, he put himself into fully. He's got a few idiosyncratic songs — "Farm Fresh Onions" being a case in point — and he really throws himself into them. He did "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane", a near-gospel song I just love from "Gravitational Forces". And of course, for the encore, "Thr Road Goes On Forever". They did it at an insane tempo, too, the poor steel guitar player almost bursting into flames from friction. But as they kids say, they totally kicked ass.

One odd thing: he didn't dress Texas. He wore a black long-sleeve t-shirt and dark grey slacks, totally metrosexual. With his hair grey and sticking out towards the front and a grey, trimmed beard, he looked more like a jazz player. The reason he can dress like than, perform like he does, and still be a Texas boy? Because he's Robert Earl Keen, and he just is what he is. Pretty damn cool.