Nashville 11/25 – City Winery, Take 2

Stoger delegated the show reporting to me for Nashville, Night 2 🙂 As happens after Lu shows, I can’t sleep, so I will put “pen” to paper in a late-night attempt to capture the evening.

I was so happy to see Lu’s rose guitar being tuned before the show, but alas she did not play this most magnificent instrument. Oh well! It looked like things were not smooth as Lu took the stage and the vibe was a bit strained, but she channeled the mood into a kick-you-in-the-teeth version of…

– Protection

– Can’t Let Go (“written by Randy Weeks”)

– Just Want to See You So Bad (Lu notes that this was just recorded by Rodney Crowell and EmmyLou!)

– Pineola (once again lovingly describing beautiful losers and their habit of “push[ing] the self-destruct button”) (Lu notes that the word “‘dark’ is used alot to describe my songs” and says she doesn’t understand it because that’s what early folk songs and country were all about. I don’t feel her songs are dark… more redemptive and honest.)

– Drunken Angel (LOVE Stu on the harmonica)

– Burning Bridges (Stu melts faces and blows minds)

– Compassion (Lu solo… such beautiful guitar. I can’t get enough of this song.)

– World Without Tears (Stu again is THE MAN)

– Overtime (Lu notes that she’s “honored that Willie Nelson did this one”)

– This Old Heartache (again, Stu rocks this) (After the song, Lu says “someone in this town better record that song, and make it into a big fat HIT, so I can afford a place here and in LA!”) No one needs to record this other than you, Lu!!! This song has such personal meaning for me… reminds me of my mother — not the intended meaning, but that’s how so many of Lu’s songs work out in the soul… or down where the spirit meets the bone.

– Something Wicked This Way Comes with TONY JOE WHITE!!! Someone put his name is red, please!!! Lu announces “This is why I do this!” and pronounces him as “bad ass.” True that. Lu has an enormous smile the entire time he is playing. Totally cool side note: Tony Joe White has a rattlesnake skin guitar strap, with the rattlesnake head rising out of the strap and striking, with GOLD FANGS. Coolest thing I’ve seen in a while.

– West Memphis. Tony Joe White does the honors on harmonica. Wow. Just Wow.

– Everything But the Truth. Hallelujah that I got to hear this live! This made me wish it was not a seated venue… It was like listening to the song with one hand tied behind my back. Someday I’ll hear this in a sweaty venue in New Orleans where I can dance properly. Stoger says this was the most “intense” he’s ever seen Lu play this song. I wouldn’t know because my eyes were closed in reverie the whole time.

– Real Live Bleeding Fingers

– Out of Touch

– Joy (Butch absolutely kills the finale on this)

– Honey Bee (with namaste prayer hands from Butch as a goodbye)

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Lu returns to the stage with Tony Joe White “to do one of his songs” and calls him “the bad man.” 🙂

– Rainy Night in Georgia (Tony Joe’s voice is absolutely haunting) (At the end, Lu says “I was flying by the seat of my pants y’all; that’s not really my key.”)

– Fats Domino’s ‘I Lived My Life’

– Get Right With God

Spirits lifted, faith restored, souls fortified, the show ends.

Fashion report for stoger: Lu wore (new!) black biker boots with rhinestones, and they were not Old Gringo as far as I could tell. I like Lu in a little more bling, as befits a Queen! She also had new earrings, I think. Her blood red silk shirt and matching ruby necklace and multiple crosses completed the outfit with panache.

The opening band, Steelism, didn’t seem to be handpicked by Lu. They were a pedal steel and guitar instrumental band that kind of were a British version of country and EDM… bringing to mind the movies of 007, Pulp Fiction and Blue Velvet. The lead singer looked like a mash-up of Austin Powers and Pat Carney of the Black Keys, bless his heart (which is not an insult at all). They did a version of “Something In The Way She Moves” (the Beatles’ version, not James Taylor’s) using a weird mouth tube thing that I subsequently learned is called a voice box, but makes the singer look intubated. I enjoyed the talent, musicianship and boldness of the music and I did buy the CD to explore them further.

Peace out, Viv