Concerts #422, 464 - Susan Werner at McCabe's Guitar Shop (October 27, 2006 - April 4, 2008)

Sometime in 2006, I overheard Zach Love, former Concert Director and current Webmaster at McCabe's, talk in complimentary terms about Susan Werner, an American singer-songwriter I knew very little at the time. Zach's words did stir up my curiosity and, as a result, the next time Susan played McCabe's, I was right there in the front row, ready to be entertained. And entertained I was, even though I did not know any of the songs she sang that night.

Susan impressed me on many different levels. Her sense of humor and mine were in excellent alignment, I liked her friendly nature and intellectual talk, but most of all, I liked her music. She sang a number of songs from "The Gospel Truth", an album that was just about ready to be released. With their catchy hooks and often humorous lyrics, these songs were the perfect introduction to an artist who most definitely deserves a wider audience. My favorites were "Our Father (The New Revised Version)", "Probably Not" and "I Will Have My Portion". I went home with a strong feeling of wanting to see her again.

And in 2008 I got to see her again, but this time - unlike in 2006 - I went to McCabe's with much higher expectations. The show started with a short opening set by Natalia Zukerman, the singing daughter of violinist Pinchas Zukerman. Natalia was joined on stage by Susan's musical collaborator Trina Hamlin, who played percussion and harmonica. They were OK.

Natalia Zukerman

Susan's set was good, but maybe half-a-notch below her 2006 appearance. Her newer songs did not hit me as hard as the ones from "The Gospel Truth" in 2006, but my higher expectations may have had something to do with Susan's lack of punch this second time around. The best moments came when Susan, Natalia and Trina were together on the stage.

I have not seen Susan since then, but I will reconnect with her one day, that I know.

Concert #622 - Ray Wylie Hubbard at McCabe's Guitar Shop (January 29, 2012)

I do occasionally listen to Ray Wylie Hubbard's music, but I can't say that he's on my power rotation - I like his albums, but one good listen is enough for a while. His live shows, on the other hand, are a different story altogether and it's much more than just the promise of getting to see some unannounced high-caliber  guests, as was the case a few years back with Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes. 

This was my third time to see Ray in concert and let me start by saying that there were no famous guests this time around. Yet the concert was so good that it made me seriously contemplate staying for the late show as well, which I ended up not doing.

Ray came out with drummer and percussionist Rick Richards, bassist George Reiff and a young guitarist who turned out to be Ray's son, Lucas. The latter surprised me very much. The sounds of his electric guitar dominated the evening, a welcome departure from the exclusively acoustic character of Ray's earlier shows at McCabe's. Although only eighteen, young Lucas can play. I liked his bluesy sound, but he can rock and can play classic country as well.

Lucas Hubbard

Ray's sense of humor and the way he delivers his stories are an integral part of the "Ray Wylie Hubbard Package" - my friend Steve put it best: "I could sit here and listen to his stories for hours". But the main attraction was Ray's music, a good mix of old and new material, all sung with his unmistakable voice that's still going strong.

(VERY) PARTIAL SET LIST

Mother Blues

Namedropping

Without Love

The Messenger

Snake Farm

You Got To Move (encore)

Drunken Poet's Dream (co-written with Hayes Carll)

Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother

Canadian up-and-comer Brandy Zdan sat in to sing backup vocals for just one song, so I could not form an opinion. She looked great, though.

All-in-all, it was a fabulous evening with a true treasure of the American music scene. I will definitely catch him again.

Ray Wylie Hubbard, with son Lucas (January 29, 2012)

Ray Wylie Hubbard, with son Lucas (January 29, 2012)

Rick Richards and George Reiff

Chatting with fans after the early show

Ray Wylie Hubbard after the early show

The stage before the show

Concert #621 - Kathleen Battle at UCLA Royce Hall (January 21, 2012)

Last October, while surfing the net in search of a Christmas present for my Better Half, I got really excited when I discovered "An Evening of Spirituals with Kathleen Battle", a concert that I knew she would enjoy very much. I managed to secure two decent seats in row EE, the fifth row from the stage ... or so I thought. When we walked in, we could not believe our good luck: the stage had been built out into the seating area, at the expense of the first four rows, so in actuality, row EE was the front row!

The stage, just before the musicians came out

My own expectations from the event were high - I've always liked gospel music and negro spirituals, but have seldom experienced these genres in a live setting. The concert started with pianist Cyrus Chestnut's solo delivery of "Tribulations", a hard-to-categorize piece of music that sounded dissonant at times, with the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers humming in the background. Then Kathleen came onstage and, without acknowledging the cheering crowd, launched into "Lord, How Come Me Here".

Surprisingly, there were no microphones anywhere on the stage. From our front row seats, we had no problems hearing the voices and the piano, but Royce Hall is not a small house and I'm not sure whether the folks in the back got their money's worth in terms of the sound.

The songs just kept coming, but something wasn't right up there on the stage - everyone seemed to be uptight and I could sense tension in the air. There wasn't a lot of interaction between Kathleen and the choir and that meant a few lost opportunities - her a cappella rendition of "Wade In The Water" wasn't bad, but it could have been far more powerful had the choir joined in. Then there were a few awkward instances when Kathleen walked off stage for a minute or so, with Cyrus and the choir just sitting there in silence, seemingly not knowing what to do. 

Things improved significantly after the break. Everyone appeared to be more relaxed, there were more smiles on the stage, the tempo of the songs picked up a bit and - at long last - I started to feel the music. There was more interaction between Kathleen and the choir and those were the best moments of the concert. Kathleen sang with power and precision and the crowd responded accordingly. I liked her voice and singing technique, everything she did was fine, but I missed the feeling of rawness I often hear in gospel music. Well, that's to be expected from a classically trained operatic voice.

THE SET LIST

Lord, How Come Me Here

Go Down Moses

Wade In The Water

Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray

Give Me Jesus

Roll, Jordan, Roll

I’ve Been ‘Buked An’ I’ve Been Scorned

Over My Head

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Ride Up In The Chariot

Wasn’t That A Mighty Day

Steal Away

Plenty Good Room

I Don’t Feel No Way Tired

Hold On

Were You There?

Fix Me Jesus

Balm In Gilead

Dontcha Let Nobody Turn You ‘Round

Let Us Break Bread Together

He’s Got The Whole World In His Hand

Every Time I Feel The Spirit

I would have loved to hear more from the Jubilee Singers - their sound was a lot closer to the traditional gospel music that I like so much. I also enjoyed watching their faces and body language, as they were responding not only to Kathleen's singing but also to Cyrus Chestnut's unique style of playing the piano.

The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers (January 21, 2012)

The songs I liked the best were "Fix Me Jesus" and "He's Got The Whole World In His Hand", a song that got everyone on their feet. Kathleen's one-song encore, "Evey Time I Feel The Spirit" was great, too. The concert ended with two prolonged standing ovations and few clapped louder than me. It's true, it wasn't a perfect concert, a few things could have been better, but the entire evening was truly special and just like everybody else there. I knew that I was in the presence of greatness.

Cyrus Chestnut, Kathleen Battle, Albert McNeil and the Jubilee Singers

The final bow

Kathleen Battle leaving the stage

Concert flyer

Lyrics from the concert flyer

Concert poster

Concert #465 - Ash Grove 50th Anniversary Concert at UCLA's Royce Hall (April 18, 2008)

 

Living in LA is a mixed bag of good and bad, but if you are a concert goer, it's pure heaven. On any given night, there are many top-tier concerts to choose from and sometimes it's a headache just to decide where to go. But I had no such problems on April 18, 2008, when UCLA's Royce Hall hosted the first of two nights dedicated to the legendary Ash Grove, one of LA's most revered and now sadly-defunct concert venues. The event brought together a number of big names from different musical generations, many of them with some Ash Grove connections. Not unexpectedly, the evening turned out to be something truly unforgettable, for more reasons than just its nearly five-hour duration (the concert ended just before 1 AM).

Masters of Ceremony

Dr. Demento (Barry Hansen)

Anna DeLeon

List of performers

Dave Alvin

Arlo Guthrie (surprise guest)

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott

Ben Harper (surprise guest)

Laura Love

Bob Neuwirth

Mike Seeger

Roland White

Ry Cooder

Culture Clash

Holly Near

Emma's Revolution

Ashley Maher

Greg Leisz

Taj Mahal

Barry Fisher’s Ellis Island Band

The flyer I picked up at the door did not mention Arlo Guthrie, so imagine everyone's surprise when he took the stage as the evening's first performer. We all screamed with excitement, then we watched him deliver his father's "This Land Is Your Land", a song that's far more common to hear as an encore rather than a show opener. Later in the show, San Francisco's Latino theatrical outfit Culture Clash performed the same song, but with a humorous and hugely provocative twist - their rendition had Woody's well-known words changed to "This land was our land, now this land is your land".

Arlo Guthrie

Accompanied by guitarist Greg Leisz and drummer Don Heffington, Dave Alvin sang and played "Shenandoah" and his own "Ash Grove", a perfect song for the occasion and - in my opinion - one of his best songs.

Dave Alvin

Wearing a cowboy hat and looking perfectly fit, Ramblin' Jack Elliott came out to a huge ovation. It was my first encounter with the legendary artist and he was great. Dave Alvin and his band stayed on to accompany him - together they sang and played two Woody Guthrie songs ("Do Re Mi" and "1913 Massacre") as well as Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues".

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Ry Cooder teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger and bluegrass master Roland White to play three old-time songs - "How Can You Keep On Moving", "Stolen Souls Of Africa" and "She's More To Be Pitied".

Ry Cooder

Little known Laura Love was the revelation of the evening. Accompanied by veteran guitarist and singer Orville Johnson, she delivered a fifteen minute set that brought us to our feet. Her soulful renditions of "We Shall Not Be Moved" and "Load Up" were two of the best songs of the entire evening.

Laura Love and Orville Johnson

Holly Near sang solo and also with the vocal accompaniment of Emma's Revolution, a young East-Coast duo. They left less of an impression on me. Likewise, Ashley Maher's dancing and singing was half-a-notch below the other performances.

Holly Near (center) and Emma's Revolution

Late in the evening, Taj Mahal came out to introduce Ben Harper, the evening's second surprise guest. Ben's all-acoustic set was exceptionally good. I had heard some of his earlier recordings and I wasn't expecting him to sound just like the classic blues, folk and gospel singers of yesteryear. But he did. Ellen Chase, Ben's mother, was there on the stage as well. I had known Ellen from Claremont's Folk Music Center, but had no idea how good a singer she was. Together, Ben and Ellen played five songs, including Bob Dylan's "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" and Ben's own "Spanish Red Wine". Taj Mahal joined in on guitar for the playing of the latter.

Ben Harper and Ellen Chase

The concert ended well past midnight. With many spectators having gone home, I moved up to the front row, from where I watched Barry Fisher’s Ellis Island Band and their guest vocalists, the final group of musicians to take the stage. Michael Alpert, John Bilezikjian, Ethel Raim, Stuart Brotman, Catherine Foster, Sal Mamudoski and a few others played a mix of Klezmer and Gipsy music that contrasted sharply with everything else played that night. It was my first time to hear Klezmer music live and I liked it quite a bit. John Bilezikjian, America's foremost oud player, impressed me enough to make me memorize his name.

John Bilezikjian

Exhausted, but happy, I got home after 1 AM. I did not attend the second concert, which took place on April 19, 2008.

Concert #466 - Patty Larkin at McCabe's Guitar Shop (April 25, 2008)

Almost four years after the concert, I can still clearly recall the overall impression I walked away with from McCabe's, but there's not much I remember about any of Patty's songs. I went to the show without knowing much about her music, hoping to discover a new source of musical pleasures from an artist not known by the masses. Well, Patty wasn't bad, but she did not deliver the knock-out punch I was ready to absorb. The problem was probably me - I was expecting to be hit hard - and that punch never came.

Patty's set was quite similar to that of your typical singer-songwriter - she sang mostly her own songs, played the guitar and told stories. Yes, she definitely belongs on the national scene, but there wasn't anything out-of-the-ordinary to these ears, nor do I recall any numbers of high vocal or instrumental virtuosity.

The surprise of the evening turned out to be Peter Mulvey, whose opening set was unexpectedly good.  Funny thing - that was the same Peter Mulvey who failed to impress me the first time I saw him, in 2005, when he appeared alongside Kris Delmhorst and Jeffrey Foucault in Redbird.

Peter Mulvey

I will probably catch Peter again in the future. I'm less sure about Patty.

Concert #619 - Albert Lee at McCabe's Guitar Shop (January 13, 2012)

After a long wait of twenty years or so, I finally had my chance to see someone I truly admired, the great Albert Lee, the devilishly great guitarist I first became aware of two decades ago on Mark O'Connor's "The American Music Shop". So there I was, sitting in the front row, dead center, I could have almost touched my hero, but instead of loving every minute of the show, I was unhappy.

A music-stand and a huge Korg synthesizer stood between my eyes and Albert's guitar and hands. For the entire duration of the show, Albert played either fully or partially hidden behind those things. That was disappointing. After all, I waited in line for close to two hours so that I could sit up-close and watch Albert's finger work. Here's a photo that shows what I mean:

Can you spot Albert Lee's guitar?

OK, so a humongous synthesizer blocked the view of some of the spectators. That would have been tolerable had someone actually played the darn thing. But no - the Korg just sat there unused until late in the show, when Albert accompanied himself on keyboards for the playing of two ballads. 

But enough venting. There were plenty of positives to talk about, which I recognized even while being unhappy. Albert is a guitarist like few others. His blistering solos were something to behold. And he can sing, too. While on CD he sounds like an OK singer, I was surprised about how good a singer he actually is. Clearly, he is getting better with age, and that is quite a compliment, considering that Albert has been on the road for fifty-two years, as he told us last night. 

Albert may hail from Great Britain, but his set consisted almost exclusively of older American songs, originally recorded by the likes of Fats Domino, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, the Everly Brothers, Little Feat, Rodney Crowell and others. In that sense, Albert reminds me a bit of Dave Edmunds, another British guitar wizard with somewhat similar musical interests. To me, the best songs were John Stewart's "Runaway Train", Ray Charles' "Leave My Woman Alone" and "Spellbound".

The set list

The final song of Albert's set was "Country Boy", a number that I've heard many times over the years without knowing who penned the song. Now I know - Albert himself is one of the co-writers! Here's a high definition YouTube clip showing Albert's outstanding treatment of "Country Boy":

Alexandra Lee, Albert's singing daughter, took the stage to perform Emmylou Harris' "Luxury Liner" and Gram Parsons' "She". No doubt, Alexandra can sing, but she appeared exceedingly nervous up there on the stage.

Albert Lee and daughter Alex Lee at McCabe's

Albert Lee came out with Will McGregor (bass), JT Thomas (keys) and Jason Smith (drums) - they played well together in spite of having had only one rehearsal under their belt. Albert told us that the band had showed up late, so they had no time for a proper pre-show sound check. The first song of the evening, Fats Domino's "I'm Ready", served as the de-facto sound check: it did not sound good when it started, but by the time it ended, everything was in good balance.

Albert Lee singing

Albert Lee signing merchandise after the show

The stage before the show

Musically speaking, the show was exceptionally good, yet I went home with a sense of disappointment. I did get to see Albert Lee in concert, that was great, but the overall experience could have been better. Five of my regular concert-going friends were in the room - although seated in different areas, they all had some trouble seeing Albert's guitar and fingers. We all hope and pray for Albert Lee's return to McCabe's, sometime soon, with nothing placed between him and his fans.