CONCERT OVERLOAD: Tammy Faye Starlite

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July 19, 2015

Concert #752 - Jill Sobule & Tammy Faye Starlite at McCabe's Guitar Shop (July 17, 2015)

What was expected to be a typical McCabe's evening - first a short opening set, followed by the headliner - turned out to be an outstanding double-header, with the two protagonists, Jill Sobule and Tammy Faye Starlite, delivering performances that were as entertaining as they were dissimilar.

Taking the stage first and appearing as a faux Marianne Faithfull, Tammy Faye impressed me with a performance like few others. No, she did not attempt to replicate Marianne's gentle voice from the sixties, nor what was left of her vocal cords after years of heavy smoking. Instead, Tammy used her own voice and her own phrasing to perform ten of Marianne's best-known songs, and - to Tammy's credit - her renditions still sounded a bit like Marianne's originals.

Tammy Faye Starlite at McCabe's

While playing the role of Marianne Faithfull, an artist not known for stellar vocals, Tammy Faye managed to impress me, paradoxically, precisely with the quality of her voice. Everything she sang sounded great to these ears - actually she sounded so good, that I gave her a pass for her overly frequent use of the F-word. With so many great songs, there's no way I can pick a concert highlight, but I will mention Leonard Cohen's "Tower Of Song", Shell Silverstein's "The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan" and John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" as some of the evening's finest.

Tammy Faye Starlite's set list

Note the inclusion of "Why'd Ya Do It", a three-minute song with lyrics of a vulgarity I had not heard in my twenty-six years of frequenting the venerable McCabe's Guitar Shop. But don't blame Tammy Faye - she was just channeling Marianne Faithfull's work, and yes indeed, Marianne is credited to be one of the co-writers of the song. Interestingly enough, another co-writer, Barry Reynolds, was right there on the stage with Tammy Faye, providing able acoustic guitar accompaniment. Tammy's exceptionally intense rendition of this controversial song will be hard to forget, that's for sure.

Throughout the evening, Tammy Faye's outstanding performance was further enhanced by musicians Kevin Salem and Barry Reynolds, who played their acoustic guitars with great skill. Barry is known as Marianne Faithfull's long-time collaborator as a guitarist and songwriter.

Barry Reynolds at McCabe's

Tammy Faye's opening set went on for seventy minutes and, as far as I was concerned, her time on stage just wasn't long enough, that's how much I enjoyed her portrayal of Marianne Faithfull.

Tammy Faye Starlite at McCabe's

After a short intermission, Jill Sobule entered the concert room from the back and, with support from guitarist Kevin Salem, she sang "Almost Great" while standing right in the middle of the audience.

Jill Sobule and Kevin Salem kicking off the evening's second set

As expected, Jill sang some of her best-known numbers, such as "Palm Springs", "When They Say We Want Our America Back", "Where Is Bobbie Gentry", "I Kissed A Girl", "Supermodel" and "Mexican Wrestler". At one point during her show, Jill brought out composer-producer-arranger Steve Weisberg, who accompanied her on the piano on "Party Girl" and a few newer numbers Jill wrote to the play of "Yentl", one of Isaac Bashevis-Singer's best-known pieces of work. Not having fully memorized her own lyrics, Jill asked for someone to come up to the stage and hold her iPad so that she could read the words - long story short, I ended up on the stage clutching her iPad while trying to remain as motionless as I possibly could. "I Hate Girl Things", "Jonathan And David" and "What Have I Done (Oh Shit)" were the three Yentl songs Jill sang while I was on the stage. Later in the show, Jill asked me to hold her iPad once again - this time she sang "I Hate Horses", a song that appears on "Dottie's Charms", her latest album.

Jill Sobule at McCabe's

Steve Weisberg at McCabe's

Yours Truly helping out with the lyrics

Jill wrapped up her show with "One Of These Days" and "Good Life", which turned into a joyous sing-along. All-in-all, I had a heck of a good time. I know Jill will be back, not so sure about Tammy Faye, but if she ever plays McCabe's again, you bet that I'll be there.

December 8, 2014

Concerts #731 & 732 - Jackshit at McCabe's Guitar Shop (December 5-6, 2014)

Announced as The Fifth Annual Have A Shitty Christmas Spectacular, these two shows did not need a lot of time to sell out - five hours after the announcement went out, all tickets for the Saturday show were gone and a few days later, the Friday show sold out as well.

This blog contains many other write-ups that focus on Jackshit, the band, so I won't repeat the real names of the band members, nor their assumed monikers.

The band was in their usual great form, both in terms of music and humor, with Rock & Roll Hall-Of-Famer Pete Thomas being more talkative than ever before.

As a tribute to the recently passed-on Jack Bruce, Jackshit played a great version of "White Room", featuring Shorty's outstanding vocals. Beau stayed away from the guitar lines of Cream's original recorded and came up with his own tasty riffs.

As always, the band's Christmas shows generated a certain buzz, as we were all wondering who the surprise guests might be. This year we must declare ourselves happy with the crop of guests who popped in for a few songs each. Here are their names:

Friday: Jackson Browne, Tammy Faye Starlite, Larry Goldings, Charlie Faragher, Nick Vuckovich
Saturday: Dave Alvin, Vonda Shepard, Charlie Faragher, Nick Vuckovich, Pammy & Jimmy Faragher

Unannounced guest Jackson Browne at McCabe's

Let me first say that Jackson Browne can no longer be described as a "surprise"guest, as he comes out to play with the band more often than not. As always, Jackson delivered his songs in a low-profile kind of way that was well received by the crowd. After his Friday night's set of four-songs, he came out again for the encore to play "Take It Easy", which transitioned seamlessly into "Our Lady Of The Well". By the way, the song abbreviated as ROE on Friday night's set list is "Running On Empty", as you might have guessed.

Guest Dave Alvin at McCabe's

Dave Alvin's appearance during the Saturday show was truly special. Adding outstanding storytelling and good humor to his stellar guitar playing and songwriting, Dave, a.k.a. No Shit, brought the house down like only he can. His musical chemistry with Val McCallum came in evidence as they were trading guitar licks while exchanging humorous looks. Watching the two feeding off of each other was definitely one of the highlights of the evening.

Guests Larry Goldings and Tammy Faye Starlite

Introduced as Tammy Chick Shit, Hoboken singer Tammy Lang introduced us to her Tammy Faye Starlite character and what an introduction that was: with her coarse language, faux-anti-semitism and excessive facial make-up, Tammy Faye stood in sharp contrast with your typical McCabe's female performer. Supported by Grammy-nominee Larry Goldings, Tammy Faye sang Willie Nelson's "Crazy" and Loretta Lynn's "Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year".

Youngsters Charlie Faragher (drums) and Nick Vuckovich (vocals), both members of a pre-teen band named Bang, joined Val McCallum and Davey Faragher to deliver "Nobody's Fault But Mine", from the repertoire of Led Zeppelin. In spite of their young age, Charlie and Nick did exceptionally well.

Guest Nick Vuckovich

Introduced as Sassy Shit and Soul Shit, Davey Faragher's siblings Pammy and Jimmy took the stage to deliver two up-tempo classic soul numbers. I knew one of them - "Lovey Dovey", recorded by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - but I had to look up the other one, a late sixties hidden gem titled "Soulshake", recorded among others by Delaney & Bonnie and Peggy Scott & JoJo Benson. I was very impressed with Pammy and Jimmy's vocal prowess and I know that I will remember Pammy's unconventional dance moves for a long, long time.

Guests Pammy & Jimmy

Saturday night was my first time ever to see Vonda Shepard in action. Looking and sounding great, Vonda delivered her own version of Willie Nelson's "Crazy". There were few parallel's between Vonda's rendition and the one performed the night before by Tammy Faye Starlite.

Guest Vonda Shepard

Here are the set lists of the two shows:

Set list - December 5

Set list - December 6

Overall, I enjoyed both shows very much, especially the second night, when we got to hear "Ugly And Slouchy", the band's "country-oldie-cum-rock & roll-medley" that, to these ears, was pure delight.