Concert #765 - Kinky Friedman at McCabe's Guitar Shop (December 5, 2015)

As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as overdosing on Kinky Friedman. Last night was my fourth time to see the Kinkster live and, even though he did recycle some of his older lines, the whole evening delighted me at least as much as it did ten years ago at the Skirball Center, when I first saw him in a live performance. I just can't get enough of his songs, humor, personality and stage presence - heck, I even love it when he reads out loud from his books, something I typically have no patience for.

Introduced as the "Governor of the Heart of Texas", Kinky took the stage dressed in his trademark black outfit, complete with a cowboy hat and a large cigar which remained unlit throughout the show. Performing without a predetermined set list, Kinky kicked off the proceedings with Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd", followed by a mish-mash of covers and self-penned songs intertwined with multiple humorous stories and jokes delivered in his inimitable style, with little regard to political correctness. At the respectable age of seventy-one, Kinky is still fully capable to entertain on multiple levels, music being just one of them.

Kinky Friedman at McCabe's

The Set List

Pretty Boy Floyd (Woody Guthrie)

I'm The Loneliest Man I Ever Met

Get Your Biscuits In The Oven and Your Buns In The Bed

Western Union Wire

Silver Eagle Express

Waitret, Please Waitret (with Mojo Nixon & Van Dyke Parks)

Tie My Pecker To My Leg (Mojo Nixon solo)

Ride 'Em Jewboy

Yellow Rose Of Texas (Van Dyke Parks piano solo)

The Navigator (read by Kinky from his "Heroes of a Texas Childhood")

They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore

A Christmas Card From A Hooker 

Lady Yesterday

My Sh*t's F***ed Up (Waren Zevon song)

Pickin' Time (Johnny Cash original)

As I expected, Kinky had a few unannounced guests, and I got super-excited when Mojo Nixon took the stage. Mojo's "Elvis Is Everywhere" is one of my favorite songs from the eighties, but sadly, he went for "Tie My Pecker To My Leg", a song that has little in common with good taste. 

Kinky Friedman and Mojo Nixon at McCabe's

Mojo Nixon at McCabe's

Just before Kinky came out, singer-songwriter-producer Brian Molnar delivered an impressive short set of his own that ended with a rousing rendition of Hank Williams' "Wait For The Light To Shine".

Brian Molnar at McCabe's

The evening was kicked off by Michael Simmons, Kinky's old friend and collaborator, who sang three songs. The one I liked the best was "I Guess I'll Smoke Another Cigarette". Don Heffington kept the beat throughout Michael's set.

Michael Simmons (left) and Joe Cirotti

Providing support to Kinky, Brian and Michael, guitarist Joe Cirotti impressed me quite a bit with his exquisite playing. Particularly impressive was his role as Kinky's accompanist toward the end of the evening.

The often-seen Van Dyke Parks popped in for some piano playing, including a solo playing of "Yellow Rose Of Texas". The crowd gave him a loud welcome.

Van Dyke Parks at McCabe's

Overall, I had a heck of a good time with Kinky and his guests and I'm pretty sure I will catch him again before too long.

The stage

Kinky Friedman mingling with fans after the show

Concert poster

Concert #282 - Brian Wilson & Friends at UCLA's Royce Hall (October 6, 2002)

Announced as "Brian Wilson & Friends", this was the fifth annual Carl Wilson Foundation benefit concert, organized at UCLA's Royce Hall. From the moment I saw the concert announcement I knew that a few notable "friends" would show up, and they did.

Over the years, I have had relatively good luck getting decent seats at UCLA. For this concert I sat about seven or eight rows back from the stage, dead center. Not bad.

The most notable friend turned out to be Eric Clapton. He was featured extensively in the second half of the show. First, accompanied by Brian Wilson's band, Eric played  "Stormy Monday" and "Layla", then a bit later he took the stage during Brian's headlining set and once again for the encore.

Brian Wilson (left) & Eric Clapton at UCLA (photo by Adrees Latif)

Led by Mark McGrath, Sugar Ray, the band, delivered a short set that included "Every Morning" and "Fly", their catchy radio hit. They ended the set with "Do It Again", the old Beach Boys song, performed with the participation of Carnie and Wendy Wilson (Brian's daughters and two-thirds of the successful trio appropriately named Wilson Phillips).

Earlier in the evening, In Bloom, a three-piece band that included Justyn Wilson and Carl B. Wilson, the sons of Carl and Dennis Wilson, respectively, delivered a short set that wasn't bad, but did not stand out either. They were followed by their cousins Carnie and Wendy Wilson, who sang "Til I Die" and "This Whole World", but they weren't done - they came back after the intermission to provide back-up vocals for Brian and some of the guest stars.

Brian Wilson's band consisted of the Wondermints, an LA-based power-pop band, reinforced with a few musicians among whom the talented Jeff Foskett stood out. Jeff played the guitar and sang lead as well as back-up vocals on a number of Beach Boys covers. Jeff's singing, especially his falsetto voice, was remarkably good. The band did a great job recreating the many different sounds of the Beach Boys.

Brian's headlining set benefited from the participation of a number of guests: Eric Clapton helped out on "Good Vibrations" and "Warmth Of The Sun", while daughters Carnie and Wendy provided harmony vocals on "God Only Knows". Matthew Sweet and Billy Hinsche sang the lead vocals on "Sail On Sailor", with Brian singing back-up and I was quite impressed with Matthew's singing. The three members of In Bloom came back to sing lead on "Time To Get Alone" and "Forever", the latter being Dennis Wilson's best-known song. Brian's set also included "Help Me, Rhonda", "Wonderful" and "Heroes And Villains".

Other contributors included Van Dyke Parks, who, together with Matthew Sweet, performed "Ride", a tune written by the Wondermints, the accompanying band. Van Dyke also performed a couple of songs from "Orange Crate Art", an album released jointly by Brian and Van Dyke in 1995.

The encore brought together all of the earlier performers, plus Bill Medley, Jackson Browne and America's Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, who apparently couldn't just sit idle and watch. Seeing these legendary artists on stage alongside Eric Clapton, Brian Wilson and all the others gave me a massive thrill. Together, they played "Barbara Ann", "Surfin' USA" and "Fun, Fun, Fun", with Eric looking the happiest of them all.

After all the guests left the stage, Brian and Jeff Foskett played Carl Wilson's "Heaven" in what turned out to be the final song of an evening that was both unforgettable and exhausting.

Concert T-shirt

 Brian Wilson's band 

Jeff Foskett (guitar, vocals)

Darian Sahanaja (keyboard, vibraphone, vocals)

Nick "Nicky Wonder" Waluska (guitar, vocals)

Probyn Gregory (guitar, French horn, trumpet, vocals)

Scott Bennett (keyboards, vibes, percussion, vocals)

Paul Mertens (saxophone, flutes, harmonicas)

Mike D'Amico (percussion)

Taylor Mills (vocals)

Bob Lizik (bass)

Jim Hines (drums)

The following photos are taken from:

http://www.carlwilsonfoundation.org/walk02/concert02b.htm

(copyright holders: M. Dowdle Head and Rene Diaz)

If requested, I will remove all photos without delay.

Brian Wilson with daughters Wendy (left) and Carnie at UCLA

Carnie Wilson (left) and Wendy Wilson at UCLA

Eric Clapton (left) & Jeff Foskett at UCLA

In Bloom at UCLA

Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath at UCLA

Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints at UCLA

Matthew Sweet (left) and Billy Hinsche at UCLA

Van Dyke Parks at UCLA

 

Concert #502 - Loudon Wainwright & Friends (Peter Case Benefit) at McCabe's Guitar Shop

This was the first of three sold-out concerts organized at McCabe's to benefit Peter Case, whose medical expenses had amounted to much more than his wallet could bear. Tickets cost $50 per night, a small amount to pay for a good cause, not to mention the chance to see a plethora of great musicians who offered their time and talent to help out a fellow musician in need.

Announced as "Loudon Wainwright III & Friends", the evening sold out ina couple of days.

LIST OF PERFORMERS

Loudon Wainwright III

Van Dyke Parks

Inara George

Phranc

George Gerdes

Peter Case

Leland Sklar

Grant Geissman

The concert kicked off with Van Dyke Parks and Inara George, who played a few songs from their earlier collaborative effort, Inara's "An Invitation" album. Not bad for a short set, but not my cup of tea for a full evening.

Inara George & Van Dyke Parks

Phranc's set was short, but quite good. She sang one of my favorite Phranc songs, "I Like You", then she followed up with "I'm A Peter Case Lover", a paraphrase of her own "Live Lover".

Phranc

Loudon Wainwright brought out a somewhat reluctant Peter Case, at his first public appearance after his open heart surgery in January 2009. Looking understandably weak and out of shape, Peter brought the house down with his version of Blind Willie McTell's "Broke Down Engine Blues".

Peter Case

Loudon's long-time friend and collaborator George Gerdes popped in for a couple of songs, while the legendary Leland Sklar and guitarist Grant Geissman provided accompaniment during much of the evening.

Leland Sklar

The show was closed, as expected, by Loudon Wainwright. It was my seventeenth time to see him live in concert, which probably explains why I can't remember a single song he played that night. But he was his usual good self, that I know.

All-in-all, it was a fun evening, with a few great artists coming and going in quick succession, which kept all of us fully engaged until the lights went on.

Concert poster in the window at McCabe's (with unwanted street reflections)

Concerts #388, 523 - Eliza Gilkyson at McCabe's Guitar Shop (January 21, 2006 - October 10, 2009)

Eliza Gilkyson is yet another outstanding artist whose talent is inversely proportional with her name recognition. Come to think of it, I myself am guilty of being a latecomer to Eliza's music, but once I got started, there was no going back.

My first encounter with Eliza took place in January 2006 and the first thing that comes to mind when I think of that concert is the F-Bomb that she dropped right there on stage. Fine ladies who write beautiful lyrics and make gorgeous music needn't resort to bad language and that's just my opinion. Well, it happened only once, and otherwise the show was clean and quite good.

She sang many songs from her just-released album "Paradise Hotel", among them "Jedidiah 1777", "Man Of God", Borderline" and "Bellarosa". She spoke lovingly about her father, Terry Gilkyson, and sang "The Bare Necessities", one of his better-known songs.

Her show in October 2009 was just as good. Eliza's performance was warm and gentle, her voice was in perfect shape and the songs were all great. Nina Gerber accompanied her on guitar throughout the show. Brother Tony was there as well to help out on guitar and Van Dyke Parks assisted on piano. Eliza sang "Rare Bird and "Clever Disguise", both from her 2008 album titled "Beautiful World". There were no F-words this time.

Eliza & Tony Gilkyson

The McCabe's crowd, just before the show

Concert #564 - Kinky Friedman at McCabe's Guitar Shop (July 31, 2010)

 

Kinky Friedman is a national treasure, but the nation doesn't know it ... sad but true ... but the 150 folks who showed up to see him at McCabe's were in the know and were rewarded with a truly great show.

Generally speaking, I prefer singers who sing, with minimal chatter between songs. But we all know that some artists just talk too much on stage, and more than once in my concert-going career I felt like shouting out "Shut up and sing". But paradoxically, in Kinky's case, the exact opposite was true, even though there was absolutely nothing wrong with the musical part of his act. I just couldn't get enough of his wit, humor, warmth and intelligence. Kinky is truly special, what a shame that most people don't know him. On the plus side, his relatively low name recognition is what allows me to sit in the front row when he comes to town.

Kinky came out with Little Jewford (Jeff Shelby) and Washington Ratso, both of whom stayed on the stage for the entire show. Later in the set, they were joined by Van Dyke Parks and his accordion.

Plenty of funny things were said, but I only remember two:

"I believe all politicians should serve only two terms. One in office, and one in prison".
"Here's to honor - get on 'er and stay on 'er." 

"Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight", "Ballad of Ira Hayes", "Nashville Casualty & Life" and "Homo Erectus" were just a few of the songs he sang. I can't wait to see him again.

Kinky arrives at McCabe's

Kinky (left) and Washington Ratso

Van Dyke Parks leaving the stage at the end of the show

Kinky autographing books after the show