August 29, 2012
Review by Dan Chester
Leopard-Skin: wandered a bit like everyone has just woken up
Long Black Coat: not immediately identified and then yeah, how you doin’
and then it fell into a wonderful space with the phrasing…first of many
great closings (finding the sound/groove late and finishing song strong)…a
treat
Things Have: played and sung well and moved nicely…tune is growing on the
listener
Tangled: great backing groove to this with the lyrics in a
staccato/bitten-off phrasing and the harp wails in and lordy, lordy, a
lotta fun…stuck with the listener post-show
Jolene: sounded an awful lot like Leopard-Skin and also his “Jolene”s
sounded like a big girl named Jolene just sat on him…pedestrian…maybe he
was just resting up
Saving Grace: the grand piano pleads for the gospel songs and what a
choice (it was hard to believe we were hearing/experiencing it)..concise
delivery and sung really well… “I know I’m only living By the saving grace
that’s over me”…Amen
High Water: from Baptismal waters to rising waters with a fairly deep
groove led by stand-up bass and banjo…this fresh arrangement works
well
Desolation: whirlwind experience…kept morphing, maybe five different
versions within the version with maybe four cool ones and one kind of
schmaltzy (therein lies the danger of the grand piano)…overall pretty
strong, grateful to hear
Summer Days: piano really working some rollicking magic (therein lies the
strength of the grand piano)…would love to hear the lead guitar stretch
out a bit more on this one…the standup bass really jumped
(joyful)...again, found a sweet spot near the end
Can’t Wait: decent little offering, could have been deeper/darker
Highway: different hearing this with the piano, growing on the
listener
Blind Willie: nice surprise, always well done, finished in great space
Thunder: hereby introducing the term “rockaboogie” (or “rockawoogie” or
“boogiebilly”) combining rockabilly and boogie woogie to marvelous
effect…outside of the gospel tunes this is where the piano fits best…just
outstanding
Ballad: echo a tad more interesting…pretty dull overall…love to see this
rotated out even though fans get into it (though not so much tonight)
Rolling Stone: lively yet missing the magic at first…crowd basically
willed him (or he them) into a mighty fun singalong at the end (“with no
direction…” “HOME”)…completely different experience/outcome than the night
before (pretty amazing)
Tower: very good energy, rhythm strong and inventive, real good leads
Blowin’: violin toned down, sung OK, finished well
Summary: basically same venue as night before (minor league hockey
rink)…crowd not chained to their seats as much (sometimes movement is
required)…band solid, piano maybe integrated a bit better, would always
like more use of standup bass and banjo and mandolin and acoustic
guitar…little less antic night from the headliner…closing “goodbyes”
really nice…more gospel tunes coming? (mini-gospel set?)…best tunes of the
evening were Saving Grace and Thunder and Tangled…thanks everybody
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