Concerts #832 & 833 - Eilen Jewell at McCabe's Guitar Shop (June 15, 2018)

I discovered Eilen Jewell nine or ten years ago, while opening random music videos on YouTube and it took her no time to make a huge fan out of me. This brief review covers her two McCabe's shows on June 15, 2018.

Needless to say, I just had to be there not only for her sold-out 8 PM concert, but also for the late show. I left the venue after midnight, but it was well worth the effort. The concert was exceptionally good, but one small negative kept it from being 100% perfect: the drums were a bit too loud for the intimate listening room of my favorite venue.

The unmistakable highlights of the show were Eilen's voice and the quality of her repertoire. All of her songs, whether covers or self-penned, were top-notch. Her band was good, too - I was particularly impressed with Jerry Miller, an ace guitarist of the highest caliber.

SET LIST

It's Your Voodoo Working

Rich Man's World

Dusty Boxcar Wall

Rio Grande

Don't Leave Poor Me (Big Maybelle)

Reckless

You Wanna Give Me A Lift (Loretta Lynn)

High Shelf Booze

Mess Around

Santa Fe

Boundary County

You Gonna Miss Me

You'll Be Mine (Howlin' Wolf)

Another Night To Cry

Where They Never Say Your Name

Sea Of Tears

Fading Memory

Bang Bang Bang

Down-Hearted Blues

Head Over Heals

You Know My Love

Toward the end of her late show, Eilen told the audience "I think we have found our LA home", a clear recognition of the quality of the venue as well as the audience. I can't wait to see her again.

The 8 PM show had an opening act, singer-songwriter Amanda Anne Platt. Her short set did not grab me. The late show had no opening act.

Eilen Jewell at McCabe's

Eilen Jewell at McCabe's

Jerry Miller & Eilen Jewell at McCabe's

Eilen Jewell with husband Jason Beek at McCabe's

Eilen Jewell mingling with fans between shows

Guitarist Jerry Miller chatting with fans

Amanda Anne Platt at McCabe's

The merch table

The stage

McCabe's Guitar Shop - The listening room

Concert #830 - Todd Albright and Sunny War at McCabe's Guitar Shop (May 27, 2018)

This is a brief write-up on a show I attended six months ago. 

The evening kicked off with a medium-length set by Sunny War, about forty-five minutes in all. She had just received some good press in the Rolling Stone magazine - being named as one of the "Ten New Country Artists You Need To Know" is quite a recognition and there was a palpable buzz in the air before her appearance at McCabe's. Whether or not I agree with Sunny being labeled a "country artist", now that's another matter altogether.

Sunny impressed me with her uniqueness - she is certainly not emulating anyone. I liked her voice, struggled a bit to embrace her singing style, but the one thing that is impossible to forget is her idiosyncratic guitar playing technique: she uses only her right hand's thumb and index finger, something I may never see again. Her original compositions are certainly not bad, but on the minus side, they don't have the catchy hooks that could bring her many more listeners.

In addition to a few of her own songs, among which "If It Wasn't Broken" and "Gotta Live It" stood out to these ears, Sunny played Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train" and a reworked version of "A Change Is Gonna Come" that even Sam Cooke, the song's composer, may have had a hard time recognizing.

Sunny War at McCabe's

Sunny War's set list

Todd Albright delivered an eighty-minute set that was quite good, but a tad too long for me. His passionate vocal delivery was top-notch and he sure knows how to play his 12-string guitar, yet his show suffered from a condition I would call "repetitiveness". It's not that all songs sounded the same, but old-school blues from masters such as Leadbelly and Blind Willie McTell was pretty much all he played, one song after another. Todd did a very good job of introducing his songs and, overall, I found his chatter between songs quite clever. I knew a few of his numbers and, as I write this, six months after the show, I still remember "Delia" and "Statesboro Blues".

Todd Albright at McCabe's

Todd Albright merchandise for sale at McCabe's