Good morning, CoMo! Roots ‘N’ Blues ‘N’ BBQ is done for the year, but we’re still getting the ringing out of our ears and the groove in our step back to “normal” levels.

For those going through withdrawal or unable to make it to last night’s 9:30 show, this is for you. I’d say close your eyes, but then you couldn’t read this. So keep your eyes open, but come with me on this journey.

Imagine an unseasonably cold fall night with a biting wind that’s hot and sweaty from hundreds to thousands of bodies pressing together.

Imagine crowds of people, from Rock Bridge and Hickman high schoolers to frequenters of the Columbia Senior Center, swaying and singing along with a 66-year-old man in a white tuxedo jacket up on the stage. Imagine the laugh and whoops that come when he laughs and says, “I love this place. Because this is Missour-ah, not Missouri” before casually dropping in that he’s a tad high.

Imagine Seventh Street packed with people. Not full, but crammed like sardines in a can. Packed. And Cherry Street’s the same way, even beyond the fence and beyond the police lines. It’s hard-to-move packed, but the only movement you really feel like you need to do is to rock back and forth to the music and maybe throw in a little of a dance when “I Can’t Get Next to You” starts playing.

Imagine the smell of barbeque, handmade donuts, beer, cigarettes, roses, fall air and maybe a little marijuana perfuming the air as “Tired of Being Alone” gets the audience, both couples and singles, grooving. Imagine the taste of Schlafly’s beer and pulled pork

Imagine an older couple dancing cheek to cheek to “Love and Happiness” while a group of Greek-letter wearing guys just to their right lifts up its beer cups to one of the stinging falsettos.

Imagine not too far away on the pavement and brick of Locust that a husband helps his wife out of her wheelchair so he can dance with her, and a young college couple rocks back and forth to “Let’s Stay Together,” the song everyone’s been waiting for but no one wants to hear because it means the end of the show.

Imagine all of this, and you might as well have been at Al Green’s performance on Saturday night of Roots ‘N’ Blues ‘N’ BBQ 2012. Imagine this, and you’re there.