DavidinMaine

Thanks, Stoger–not pretentious at all. Rather, well spoken and interesting. As a matter of fact, I have enjoyed many conversations with LWs, Doug Pettibone (especially when he started his run with LWs), Bo Ramsey, Kenny Vaughn, Jim Lauderdale along with other artists in my musical world (most recently Brett and Rennie Sparks fro, The Handsome Family–there music is some of my favorite and truly remarkable). Thanks, for the post and enjoy the summer. David

Steve:

Elvis Costello (whose real name is Declan McManus) has a long-time trademark of fiddling with the best of them. Whether it was in his first days with Clover as a backing band along with Nick Lowe producing his first slew of albums (9) or playing incredible one-offs (Sweetwater with the other Jerry and the infamous flu-show with George Jones at the Ryman), this Elvis has always had a knack of showing up on-stage with some of the best. The list could go on and on vis-a-vis recent happenings at the last two Hardly Strictly shows in San Fran framed against world mini-tours that documents his ongoing love affairs with The Brodski Quartet and the sound of the New Orleans delta/Allen Toussaint, he really has an ear for all things Americana. One of my favorite tours was the singing song book run with his Rude 5 band back in the 80’s. Anyway, it’s nice to always see and hear him change the way he does things very much in the same vein as The Grateful Dead played with their music along with their choices for stunning cover songs (What’s even better is his ability to pick-pocket an unknowing singer-songwriter’s catalog while sharing the same stage–he’s done this before with LWs so I am confident that he will go way beyond the predictable “Jailhouse Tears” when the two of them are together in a few weeks…). Although he is now more of a sophisticate (married Diana Krall at Elton John’s English estate), he still has a way of bending down to hand us common Americana folk an American Beauty from time to time. Maybe he is The King of America. Either way, his Aim is True while he has never lost his status as This Year’s Model. What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?

Thanks,

David

It seems fairly clear that the reviewer has good grasp of the music while also folding in an understanding of who LWs is as a performer (history included). And the cup thing seems fairly straight forward, right? Is it such a bad thing that a reviewer blends in the Gestalt of the performance and performer (while being respectful and without name-calling or WTF)? Is it a bad thing to approach an independent concert review with a certain amount of thoughtfulness and intellect? Given the bevvy of studio musicians available vis-a-vis the Austin, TXs’ of the world, I have always kinda wondered how ES’s name was pulled from the ranks in the first place (just wondering)… One of the opportunities (or dangers as is the case here) of having an open forum is that different opinions will be posted–some of which everyone might not agree with.

The beauty of live music – especially heavily-amplified rock music – is that things have the potential to go very wrong, particularly when you’re dealing with lots of technology and fragile artists like Miss Williams. As with another recent visitor, Ryan Adams, Williams has a history of spitting the dummy when the cables have some kinks or the stars above the venue aren’t quite lined up correctly. Heart in mouth, I was waiting for her to melt down last night, but song by song and sip by sip she climbed back in to the show and started dishing up some treasures from a dozen or so albums going back exactly 30 years.

Great idea and what a terrific opportunity for listeners to hear and see LWs music from another perspective. It really sounds like an awesome way to think differently and thanks, for your efforts and time. And perhaps most importantly, what a terrific way to help LWs celebrate 30-years.

That being said, a few years back Elvis Costello performed his classic My Aim is True with the original players (Clover) at San Fransisco’s Great American Music Hall more information here –> http://www.gamh.com/artist_pages/elvis_costello_clover_110807.htm. I am really confident that you have already thought about this but perhaps it’s worth mentioning in this thread: Would it be possible and/or realistic to have some of the original players for a few shows (Mickey White, Donald Lindley, Benmont Tench, Gurf Morlix, John Ciambotti, Jim Keltner etc)? My apologies if there are any missteps in terms of these players. However, I think it would be quite nice to see a few really different yet insightful line-ups for a few shows…

Wow, sad news–so sorry to hear this… Duane Jarvis, like the many unsung heroes (Randy Weeks, Gurf Morlix, Jim Lauderdale, Wayne “The Train” Hancock, etc) is a true American Treasure… This, from the ole’ label, Watermelon Records:

On his second solo release, “Far From Perfect,” guitarist/songwriter Duane Jarvis pledges he’ll be the kind of fellow a woman can count on in the song — Mr. Dependability. “My other name is Mr. Right,” he sings earnestly over a touch of twang and bubbling, blue-eyed Memphis soul. It’s an appropriate oath for Jarvis to take, since roots stalwarts such as Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Dwight Yoakam and Rosie Flores have relied on him for musical support over the last decade. Jarvis may have made a name for himself adding the pure ring of glorious, understated licks to their songs, but on “Far From Perfect,” he also reveals a knack for transforming his sound into songcraft…

Wow, the setlists continue to astound… In regards to the comment about the “old days,” it’s true, LWs shows could go marathon but what was most interesting was that the main set would often be small–only 13 to 16 songs. But Lucinda was known to fall into a groove during her encore–it was not unusual to see her play 8 to 10+ songs. I remember talking with her when she was beginning her CWOGR tour in small clubs–right before she caught everyone’s ear–and she commented on how she falls into her creative abyss in this way. Also, LWs has never really been a chatty-cathy as a performer. This is one of the qualities that I personally enjoy about her–she is not a charismatic performer but this is not why I go see her concerts–to be “entertained” by a performer. When I do go it’s because she is one of the best songwriters ever to come out of the United States–in the vein of Hank and Johnny and Lyle–and her music is, for me, super reflective not Rolling Stones projective…

It’s nice that tutus are now the Gold Standard… We all know that Bob would look awesome in a tutu-ala-rolling-thunder. And funny enough, the tutus have been given the ever-rare 4-laughing smiley rating in the above posting as well–what a day that was!