Concert #605 - Jennifer Warnes at McCabe's Guitar Shop (September 24, 2011)

Last night's concert at McCabe's Guitar Shop felt more like an impromptu meeting of buddies singing and playing some of their favorite songs in someone's living room, and that's always a good thing.

Jennifer's "orchestra" consisted of guitarist Billy Watts, lately of Eric Burdon's band, and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, whom I had seen before accompanying Richard Thompson. Billy and Taras brought much more to the show than just their outstanding musicianship - with their humorous and relaxed demeanor, they were outstanding complements to a just as humorous and relaxed Jennifer Warnes.

Last night's show can also be described as "Musicians Hiding Behind Music Stands", or at least that was the impression of the folks sitting in the first few rows, maybe even further back. Okay, so I didn't get to see much of Billy's face, but that was only a minor glitch in an otherwise outstanding evening of great music and stellar sound.

"A Singer's Tribute To Her Favorite Songwriters" is yet another way of describing the show, as Jennifer handpicked and lovingly delivered sixteen of her favorite songs, penned mostly by well-known musicians but also by a couple of composers that were new to me, namely Michael Smotherman and Zachary Richard.

Twice during the show, Jennifer said "We're getting on", a direct reference to the age of most folks in attendance, including the ones on the stage. Yet her trademark vocal inflections and singing style were as instantly recognizable last night as they were decades ago. There were no attempts to hit super-high notes and no one missed them either. What we all wanted was Jennifer's warmth, her beautiful voice, a bunch of great songs and we got all that. And then some.

Jennifer Warnes at McCabe's (with Billy Watts and Taras Prodaniuk hidden behind stands)

Jennifer's set list included quite a few songs I had not heard before and when it came to the ones I knew, I don't think I could have picked better ones. The concert's best songs, to these ears at least,  were "It's Raining", "Ain't No Cure For Love" and Dylan's "When The Deal Goes Down". Ian Tyson's "Blue Mountains Of Mexico" was also exceptionally good.

A few words about "It's Raining", a song I first heard on Jennifer's 2001 album titled "The Well". Written by a certain Naomi Neville, this song alone is worth the "admission price" - just listen to Jennifer's soulful voice and her exquisite delivery. I had no clue who the songwriter was, until Jennifer revealed to us that Naomi Neville was the pseudonym used by the great Allen Toussaint in his early days. So when I got home after the concert, I looked up my copy of "The Allen Toussaint Touch", and lo and behold, there was the original version of "It's Raining", sung by Irma Thomas, yet another huge favorite of mine. Irma's version is quite different, but equally good.

Jennifer Warnes will be back at McCabe's in October 2011 and you can bet your life that I'll be there again.
 

Fans lined up in front of the venue

The crowd settling in



Concert #604 - Mary Gauthier & Lori McKenna at McCabe's Guitar Shop (September 17, 2011)

This was a rare double-header at McCabe's, coming six months after the rather disappointing triple-header involving Dave Alvin, Chris Smither and Peter Case. Just like the aforementioned trio, Mary and Lori received equal billing, but one of them had to go first, so the task of kicking off the proceedings went to Lori McKenna, and for a good reason: most of the people there, myself included, came to see Mary Gauthier.

I'm always open to new artists and new sounds and since I couldn't call myself a Lori McKenna connoisseur, I gave her my full attention. But there was nothing much for me there. Lori's melodic sense and mine are definitely not in alignment. Nor did I find her voice and singing style appealing. Same goes for her guitar playing, which consisted of not much more than just endless strumming. Was it just me? Maybe so, because she was well-received by the crowd, no doubt about that.

And that highlights the problem with double-headers: if one of the acts doesn't do much for you, then all you get is an abbreviated set from the other performer, as was the case with Mary Gauthier's short, but otherwise great performance. She took the stage for just barely over fifty minutes, and that left me craving for much more.

Throughout the show, Mary Gauthier was accompanied by Canadian fiddler Tania Elizabeth, who also provided harmony vocals. Mary was in her typical great form, vocally and otherwise. She sang nothing but her own compositions, not a single dud among them. "Mercy Now" was conspicuously absent from her set, but there were plenty of other great songs. The ones I liked the best were "Drag Queens And Limousines", "I Drink", "Christmas In Paradise", "Karla Faye" and "Wheel Inside The Wheel".

Mary Gauthier's song list (not the actual set list)

The final bow - Mary Gauthier (right), with Tania Elizabeth

Mary Gauthier chatting with fans after the show

Lori McKenna at McCabe's

Lori McKenna's set list

A rather modest poster in the window at McCabe's

Tania Elizabeth

My Beter Half was with me and so were Nancy, Jim and Steve, we all had a good time chatting before and after the show.

Nancy and My Better Half, seated at McCabe's

And now for the part titled "Lessons Learned": The next time they announce a double-header, I have to be a little more circumspect, but knowing myself, I'm afraid I'll be first in line once again, no matter what. So much for "lessons learned"...

Concerts #406, 603 - Slaid Cleaves at McCabe's Guitar Shop (June 11, 2006 - September 16, 2011)

Last night I saw Slaid Cleaves in concert for the second time and unlike in 2006, when I went to see him on a whim, this time I showed up with my homework done: I knew exactly what to expect, I knew many of the songs, so naturally, I enjoyed my second outing a whole lot more.

No doubt, Slaid is one of America's best singer-songwriters, capable of churning out one great song after another. And he's a heck of a performer, too. I like his vocal inflections and I absolutely love his soulful phrasing - no one sounds quite like him. The stories he tells in between songs are engaging without being exceedingly long and there's good humor in everything he says. But there's one negative aspect I feel compelled to bring up: with very few exceptions, Slaid's show at McCabe's consisted of songs of pretty much the same tempo and similar structure. There was plenty of variety when it came to story lines, but from a purely musical standpoint, there were few roller-coaster rides in his performance, with one notable exception: his fabulous yodeling, of course, which came out of the blue during "Horses And Divorces" and generated the crowd's loudest response of the evening.

Most of the songs he sang were self-penned, and when they were not, he duly acknowledged the respective writers, as was the case with two of Karen Poston's songs ("Flowered Dresses" and "Lydia") and Woody Guthrie's lyrics, which Slaid set to new music to create the gorgeous "This Morning I Am Born Again".

SET LIST

Drinkin' Days

Breakfast In Hell

Twistin'

Broke Down

Rust Belt Fields

New Year's Day

Cry

Quick As Dreams

Horses And Divorces

Rolling Stone From Texas

Temporary

One Good Year

Go For The Gold

Green Mountains And Me

Horseshoe Lounge

Lydia

This Morning I Am Born Again

Flowered Dresses

Life’s Other Side

A very able Chojo Jacques accompanied Slaid on mandolin and fiddle for most of the evening. His solos were understated and subtle - at no time did he attempt to outshine the headliner.

Slaid Cleaves & Chojo Jacques at McCabe's (September 16, 2011)

Slaid Cleaves at McCabe's (September 16, 2011)

Slaid Cleaves at McCabe's (September 16, 2011)

Slaid Cleaves' cryptic set list (DD = Drinkin' Days, HS = Horseshoe Saloon, etc.)

Slaid Cleaves and wife Karen at the merch table

Intermission at McCabe's

The stage during intermission

Concert poster in the window at McCabe's

A few words about my first encounter with Slaid Cleaves in 2006. I went to McCabe's with my friend and coworker K, also a novice to Slaid's music. We both agreed that the show wasn't bad, just a bit monotonous. To some extent, that assessment was still valid in 2011.

Concert #602 - Jackshit at McCabe's Guitar Shop (September 10, 2011)

This was Jackshit's first appearance at McCabe's since their two Christmas shows in December 2010 and let me tell you: nine months without a Jackshit concert is a mighty long time. I could have caught some of their other gigs in the LA area at the Baked Potato and Echoplex, but none of these other venues offer the same certainty as McCabe's in terms of good seating. At McCabe's, things are clear: you get there early, you get to sit wherever you want, which in my case means front row, directly in front of Val McCallum's amplifier.

I took along a group of friends that amounted to slightly more than 10% of the venue's capacity. They all went home happy, including the four or five first-timers among them.

Last night's set list had more than the usual amount of new songs and to make room for them, a few old favorites had to be left out, as was the case with "Big River" and "Pretty Polly". I missed both of them, Polly in particular. By the way, when I say "new songs" I mean new to the band's repertoire, not recently written songs.

There is a noticeable shift in Jackshit's song selection. Just like before, their set has quite a few semi-obscure old folk-rock and classic country songs, but the numbers that drop out seem to be replaced with songs from the repertoire of decidedly non-country performers such as Jimmie Vaughan, the Beatles, the Who, Pat MacDonald and the Rolling Stones. Yet "False Hearted Lover", one of the evening's best new songs, is a traditional country piece that seems to indicate that the Boys from Cochtotan will never stray too far from the strong classic country flavor of their earlier years. And with songs like "Tiger Man (King Of The Jungle)", the band has reaffirmed its knack for little-known gems that go back in time at least as far as "Ugly And Slouchy" and "Hold That Critter Down".

Among the new additions to their set: "Baby's In Black", "So Sad About Us" and "Child Of The Moon", from the catalogues of the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones, respectively. Bob Dylan & the Band's "Tears Of Rage", yet another new addition, lacked the catchiness that is so typical of most everything Jackshit does.

There were no guest stars, but the always-fun Shit Horns dropped in for the usual "Ring Of Fire" and "The Lonely Bull", it was a blast.

The set list ("So Sad About Us" played in lieu of "Pretty Polly")

And now for the "Good News" department: after months of suffering, Val McCallum, a.k.a. Beau Shit, was finally in a position to show the audience the kidney stone he had passed a couple of weeks earlier. The event was celebrated with a twisted rendition of "Islands In The Stream", a song written by the Bee Gees and made into a huge hit by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton. With slightly modified lyrics such as "islands in my stream" and "we can pee together", the song generated lots of laughter in the room and it was good to see urinary humor make a come-back after having been ignored for so many years in favor of the other excretory matter.

And Val had more good news for us: there will be a third Jackshit album in the not-too-distant future. I can't wait!

This was my twenty-second time to see Jackshit live in concert and I'll be back for more. A whole lot more. Because they are devilishly good, individually and collectively.

Beau & Shorty in action at McCabe's (September 10, 2011)

The fabulous Shit Horns

Val McCallum setting up before the show

Dave Faragher and Yours Truly, with their cock-adorned hats

Some of my friends, before the show

Veteran Jackshit fan Tul, with first-timer Poornima

McCabe's employee Mikki Itzigsohn arriving with munchies for the band

Concerts #459, 482 - Odetta at McCabe's Guitar Shop (January 27, 2008 - October 3, 2008)

I'll be kicking myself for the rest of my days and for a good reason ... up until January 2008, I have skipped all of Odetta's appearances at McCabe's ... I don't know what made me stay away from her shows for so long. Nor do I know what made me buy two tickets for her January 27 show, which turned out to be an evening like few others.

So there I was, sitting with my better half in the front row, waiting for Odetta to come down the stairs to take the stage, like all performers do at McCabe's. But no one came down. Instead, a bit unexpectedly, a frail-looking and wheelchair-bound Odetta entered the room from the left side of the stage, pushed in by two McCabe's employees, who then lifted the wheelchair up on the stage, with Odetta still in it. All this took about half a minute and I could tell that everyone there was a bit tense. Two maneuvers later, the wheelchair was positioned right next to a music stand, a blanket was placed over Odetta's lap and - all of a sudden - we were in her living room, her frailty gone and a beautiful smile replacing the initial apprehension on her face. We were in business!

Odetta at McCabe's (January 27, 2008) (photo by Sherry Rayn Barnett) (Please visit her web site at www.sherrybarnettphotography.com, where you will find countless great photos)

Odetta's concert was beyond any expectation - with a surprisingly strong voice and lots of charisma, the whole evening was nothing short of mesmerizing. She did talk about how much Obama's candidacy meant to her, before launching into an unforgettable rendition of "Bourgeois Blues". "The House Of The Rising Sun" and "Midnight Special" were just as great. Leadbelly got mentioned a few times. Odetta sang for about an hour and the whole affair was heart-warming, humorous and dead serious, all at the same time. Her body may not have been in the best of shape, but there was nothing wrong with her voice, nor her mind. At 77, Odetta's was still radiating power, warmth and credibility and I will never forget her smile.

Croatian-born Radoslav Lorkovic accompanied Odetta on keyboards for the entire duration of the show.

Radoslav Lorkovic and Odetta in 2006

On October 3, 2008, Odetta graced McCabe's' stage for one last time, and I was there to witness the event, along with my good friend Mircea. One could tell that Odetta's overall condition had deteriorated. Her magnetism was still there and so was her million-dollar smile, but her voice was a bit shakier and her hands appeared to be lifeless at times ... still, no one could have foreseen that, exactly two months later, Odetta would be no more ... shame on me for having skipped her many LA area appearances over the years and what on honor to have caught her last three appearances there.

David Keyes accompanied Odetta on, you guessed it, keyboards.

Yours Truly, third in line (October 3, 2008)

The McCabe's crowd, moments before the show (October 3, 2008)

David Keyes' piano (October 3, 2008)

Concert #601 - The Secret Sisters at the Levitt Pavilion (August 18, 2011)

It's no secret that the Secret Sisters are not a secret anymore. People have begun to notice, among them several hundred folks who attended their free show at Pasadena's Levitt Pavilion last night. And what a show it was!

Lawn chairs, blankets, munchies, beverages, families, groups of friends of all ages, dozens of young children - call it the perfect environment for a crowd to become inattentive and even disruptive to those who were there for the music. It was the job of  the Secret Sisters to settle down the crowd and keep their attention focused on the stage, with nothing but one weapon at their disposal: their voices.

So how did the sisters fare in the "crowd control" department? Read on.

The proceedings kicked off with "The One I Love Is Gone", from their first and still-only album. In actuality, the show opener served as the official sound check - initially, the sound was atrocious, with shrieking vocals and an utterly loud acoustic guitar, but fortunately, by the time they launched into their second song, George Jones' "Why Baby Why", those beautiful voices came across with clarity and they stayed that way for the remainder of the show.

The Secret Sisters at the Levitt Pavilion (August 18, 2011)

The Secret Sister's set included two more songs from their first album: "Do You Love An Apple" and the gorgeous "Tennessee Me", a song written by the sisters themselves. And speaking of self-penned songs - last night they introduced us to a few more, and without exception, their songs held up great, even against the well-known classic country hits from their repertoire.

The entire show was solid, from start to finish, without a single weak moment. Laura, the elder sister, did most of the talking, while Lydia barely said a word here and there. They shared a single acoustic guitar. None of them are great pickers, but with voices like theirs, their lack of instrumental prowess was but a trivial detail.

As far as I was concerned, the highlight of the evening was the stunning "River Jordan", another self-penned gem in the vein of the traditional country-gospel tunes of yesteryear. So how good a song is "River Jordan"? Well, the song is good enough to make a secular person like myself pick it as the best song of a concert that had nothing but great songs. Give credit to Laura and Lydia, two incredibly talented young ladies who will become household names before too long.

Throughout the concert, I was amazed by the beauty of their voices and how well they harmonized. At the same time, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the sisters kept the crowd under their spell, a testament not only to their singing abilities, but also their humor and overall stage presence.

The Secret Sisters talking

The Secret Sisters singing

SET LIST

The One I  Love Is Gone

Why Baby Why (George Jones)

Tomorrow Will Be Kinder (self-penned)

Your Cheatin' Heart (Hank Williams)

Tennessee Me (self-penned)

River Jordan (self-penned)

Sweet By And By
Leavin' On Your Mind (Patsy Cline gem)

Devoted To You (Everly Brothers)

Four Walls

Am I That Easy To Forget (Skeeter Davis classic)

Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain

Same Old You (Brandi Carlile tune)

Why Worry (Dire Straits oldie)

Happy Valley (self-penned)

Tonight You Belong To Me (encore)

Here are the Secret Sisters performing "Devoted To You", a song made famous by the Everly Brothers:

The crowd begins to gather