Concert #480 - Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues (Sunset Strip) (September 28, 2008)

So we went to a Sunday brunch and a concert broke out. And not just any concert.

As a newbie to such an event, I'd been expecting to eat loads of great Cajun food, then go back for seconds, with some nameless local church choir singing in the background. I'd thought this whole thing would be of interest to Mircea, my European childhood friend who was visiting us at the time, so I dragged him along.

The food part turned out to be totally anti-climactic. There was nothing exotic there, nothing truly memorable, but God Almighty, what a surprise we had on the music front ... who would have imagined that we would be entertained by R&B standout Shemekia Copeland and her high-energy vocal style that's so deeply rooted in church music. But that wasn't all. Shemekia was soon joined by the legendary Clara Ward Singers, who many decades into their careers were still in fine form. Wow!

But the best was yet to come: out of nowhere came the thunderous voice of Dorothy Morrison, the very same voice that we had all known since the late 60s, when "Oh Happy Day" took the whole Planet by storm. And there she was, Dorothy Morrison, standing at center stage in a colorful outfit, belting out "Oh Happy Day" and driving me absolutely crazy. What a thrill it was !!

Dorothy Morrison (with microphone) singing "Oh Happy Day"

Dorothy Morrison (with microphone) singing "Oh Happy Day"

Shemekia Copeland & The Clara Ward Singers

Shemekia Copeland & The Clara Ward Singer

Crowd feasting before the music started

My Better Half with our friend Mircea

Dorothy Morrison (in colorful outfit) taking the bus back home

The House Of Blues on Sunset Strip (Los Angeles)

Concert #612 - Marc Cohn at the Irvine Barclay Theater (November 9, 2011)

The Irvine Barclay Theater has been good to me over the years. I've been there a few times and every time I was able to get choice seats, even front row seats. Granted, I deserve some credit, too, as typically I'm aware of the dates when tickets for new concerts go on sale.

I first saw Marc Cohn in 1998, at the Greek Theater, where he was one of the many performers at a folk music festival. He only sang four songs, but knocked my socks off with his extremely powerful delivery of "Walking In Memphis". Right away I made a mental note that, before too long, I must see him again, as a headliner. The note stayed with me for thirteen years!

Marc came out with guitarist Shane Fontayne, who also played the harmonica and sang backup vocals. He turned out to be a perfect accompanist.

Some of Marc's hair is gone, but his soul and passion are still there. He's very comfortable on stage, writes great songs, delivers them well, sings with a soulfulness that's hard to match, speaks eloquently, has fun stories to share, plays the piano with feeling, plays the piano with power, is not afraid to pick up a guitar, so all in all, he is a top-notch performer, the kind that is heartily embraced by intellectual crowds. The occasional use of the F-word only took away a bit from an otherwise classy performance.

Partial Set List

The Calling

Listening To Levon

Paper Walls

Silver Thunderbird

Strangers In A Car

Perfect Love

True Companion

Walking In Memphis

The Letter

Mama’s In The Moon

The Only Living Boy In New York

Into The Mystic

29 Ways

The numbers I liked the best were "Listening To Levon", "Into The Mystic" and "Silver Thunderbird". "Walking In Memphis" was good, too, with the exception of the part when Marc asked the crowd to sing along.

The stage

A lousy photo taken after the last song

The Irvine Barclay Theater

The main lobby of the Irvine Barclay Theater

Concert #611 - John Wesley Harding at McCabe's Guitar Shop (November 6, 2011)

This was my seventh time to see John Wesley Harding in concert, starting with my first concert ever at McCabe's, in June 1990. At that time, he was one of my favorite singer-songwriters, thanks to his incredibly good first two albums. Since then, my interest in Wes' music has been an up and down affair, mostly down, but definitely up again in recent years.

The concert announcement showed two bands, the Minus 5 and a certain King Charles Trio, which in the end turned out to be the very same group of outstanding musicians, namely:

Scott McCaughey (The Young Fresh Fellows and part-time REM member)

Peter Buck (of REM fame) 

Jenny Conlee-Drizos (The Decemberists)

Chris Funk (The Decemberists)

John Moen (The Decemberists)

Nate Query (The Decemberists)

I laughed out loud when Wes announced the King Charles Trio, only to see six musicians take the stage. I was extremely impressed with the four Decemberists, who are a band in the true sense of the word: all solid players, without being flashy, no showboating solos, just great teamwork from start to finish. I'd love to see them again, preferably at McCabe's

The concert kicked off with the Minus 5 (everyone minus Wes). They played three songs that grabbed me from the get go. Vocalist and guitarist Scott McCaughey and drummer John Moen were in a cheerful mood and so was the rest of the band. Then Wes joined the band, which only added to the humorous tone of the evening. From that point on, the main emphasis was on Wes' just-released new album, "The Sound Of His Own Voice", a highly listenable piece of work. The numbers I liked the best were "There's A Starbucks Where The Starbucks Used To Be" and "Sing Your Own Song".

Wes did not sing a single number from his first two albums, but he did do "If You Have Ghosts", the Roky Erickson song that he recorded in the early 1990s. I did miss "Cathy's New Clown" and "The Devil In Me", but the songs from the new album sounded just as great - in his third decade of releasing music, Wes remains one heck of a songwriter and with a voice that's as strong as ever, he's doing fine in the vocal department as well.

Scott McCaughey made a strong impression on me and I really liked his "Aw Shit Man" song. Now that I know who Scott is, I will start digging up his earlier work.

Scott McCaughey

Playing his guitar and mandolin, Peter Buck kept a low profile throughout the evening. He never soloed and there was no way of telling that he had been part of a band once considered to be America's best.

Peter Buck

In spite of everyone's advice, I once again sat in the front row, where they say you never get the best sound, certainly not when you sit directly in front of a fat drum set. Yet I was amazed by the quality of the sound and the perfect balance between voices and instruments.

The set list

The stage before the show

John Wesley Harding selling and signing merchandise after the show

Concert #608 - Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York (October 18, 2011)

Musicals and concerts are two different things, so I'm not sure whether this concert blog is the proper forum to write about "Mary Poppins", the Broadway musical. But if "Hair" has made it's way into my blog, then I can certainly make another exception for "Mary Poppins", a masterpiece that's been delighting me since my teen years.

I very seldom go to musicals. Massively successful runs such as Les Miserables, The Phantom Of The Opera, Cats, Chicago, Mamma Mia, A Chorus Line, Rent and countless others have left me totally indifferent. In plain English, I haven't caught either of them. But when you're in New York, you do as New-Yorkers do, so two weeks ago, my Better Half and I were walking aimlessly in New York's famed Theater District when we reached the bright lights of the New Amsterdam Theater, a stone-throw from where the 42nd Street meets Broadway. Ten minutes later we were the ecstatic owners of a pair of fourth-row seats, center, good for the following Tuesday's performance. The tickets weren't cheap, but a few days later we got our money's worth, and then some.

The event turned out to be one of the most enjoyable spectacles I have ever attended. Beyond the beautiful music that we all know, I was amazed by the quality of the performers, the stunning set changes, the dance numbers and everything else that happened right in front of us. Even with my minimal previous exposure to musicals, I could tell that this was a world-class performance in all respects. 

Everyone on stage was great, but no one was better than Bert, the chimney-sweep, played by British actor Gavin Lee (aren't all blokes named Gavin British?), and that's no small feat, considering the inevitable comparisons with Dick Van Dyke's mind-boggling performance in the movie.

Gavin Lee as Bert

Steffanie Leigh, who played the title role, was outstanding as well. Her singing, dancing and body language were just as I was expecting Mary Poppins to be. Her final departure, flying over the heads of the audience, was a sight to see. I read something interesting in an interview she gave some time ago: "The show backstage is just as choreographed as what the audience sees. If you stand in the wrong place for a costume change, you could get hit in the head with a piece of scenery as it goes flying across. It's like doing two shows at the same time."

Steffanie Leigh as Mary Poppins

I won't even try to pick a highlight, but "Feed The Birds" and the dancing frenzy that accompanied "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" are hard to get out of my mind and so is Bert's climbing on walls and tap-dancing head down on the ceiling. Here's Gavin Lee going for the roof tops:

The curtain

Mary Poppins flying away

The curtain call

The New Amsterdam Theater

Credits

More credits

The New Amsterdam Theater