[Portland, OR] I didn’t want to like this guy because he had a stereotypical tall hat on – very Portland. And because he sounded like Tom Waits, whom I really really dislike. And because he passed out a card proclaiming himself as a steampunk Professor Gall: alternative just like all the other alternative kids. But I liked him in the end. He demonstrated why average singer/songwriters are so mind-numbingly boring. His voice was dynamic and interesting, as was his music. He played a guitar and stomped on a mic’ed box. His lyrics were also smart and interesting. He confirmed the winning of the crowd by leaping on the bar and stalking back and forth for his last song – I felt sort of sorry for him that he felt he had to work that hard to grab the interest of the people. Interestingly, the guy next to us at the bar was a friend of his from many years back – they’d roomed together in Portland but bar guy now lived in Denver. They were metalheads back then 

[Portland, OR] We only saw his very last song but we enjoyed him very much. The list of people he has played with is impressive. He is emphatic about not being a one-man band but kind of is, though not in the cheesy way. He reminds me of Nick Cave. He’s gothic folk, maybe punk. One review described him as scary but I liked him right off – with his dark sarcastic air.

I wanted to like this band because they had technical expertise, but they were just sort of bland and clean after the raunchy blues of the band before them. They were closer to speed metal than sludge metal, though they certainly weren’t speed metal. They kind of reminded me of Queens of the Stone Age, whom I feel the same about.

[Abilene, KS] This band was fantastic, outside of the growl vocals. The guys were absolute stoner metalheads, masked in their hair. The music was special though – they managed to blend a lot of groove and blues into their hardcore-ness. They also sell some sort of hot sauce.

[Boulder, CO] This band was the closest thing to Tia Carrera (psych metal) I’d heard in so long and I was in ecstasy. A cacophony of sludge metal. They weren’t as good as Tia Carrera – less dynamic, passionate, interesting – but they have potential. This was only their second gig. The young front man (in a robe) said his main band is a prog band. Good name too.

[Denver, CO] Finally a full band. They had every instrument you’d expect in a bluegrass/jug band: banjo, dobro, accordion. Maybe six members? It was pretty standard Colorado fare, but the thing that stood out to me about them was their country leanings. They were a pretty spot on Pure Prairie League for some songs, which is a glorious thing as far as I’m concerned.

[Denver, CO] There was a second guy who joined Kyle James Hauser and he was the dull singer/songwriter Kyle had escaped being. Then a third guy came and played drums with them – ho hum. This third guy was some Brad Corrigan from a band called Dispatch, never heard of them. Once Brad started singing, though, my opinion of him changed. He was a big relief after the second guy. For some reason, he reminded me of unplugged Alice in Chains, although there was nothing alt-metal about them. I guess it was the torment. The music, incongruently, was some combination of Dave Matthews Band and Vampire Weekend.

[Denver, CO] He had an electric banjo, or at least as far as I could tell. I’d never seen such an instrument before. Despite being a lone man with a lone instrument, he somehow didn’t fall into the bland singer/songwriter category. I enjoyed him. Upon looking him up, it turns out he did a SXSW showcase this year which also confirms he’s no slouch.

after sitting next to their skilled guitar player during the bluegrass workshop, and seeing the respect he was paid, and hearing that they gig all over, I was expecting something great – well, I’ve never seen four men destroy such promising instruments like these four men did: upright bass, guitar, guitar, mandolin/fiddle – it was the weakest ass shit I had ever done seen in my life – the Yo La Tengo of whatever-you-want-to-call-their-music – I heard recently that the difference between the young and the old is that the old understand restraint, well the degree to which these guys have restraint mastered suggests they must be one step from the grave – they were particularly bad when they sang the lead vocalist’s own songs – he’d simper as he described them and they were these cheesy trite bland horrors – I swear he’s trying to turn a church band into a pop band – his voice is weak too, sometimes John Denver, usually church folk – it was the ultimate irony when he was trying to express how he’s changing the world with his music and stated “Nothing speaks louder than music” – the one time they were tolerable was when my guitar man sang – ironically, I feel like their sound has some promise if they would only play more interesting songs– I’ve honestly never seen these instruments handled like they did – they could do ambient bluegrass or something– they also played the song that I hear everywhere I go in Gunnison and will forever consider the theme song of Gunnison: “Wagonwheel” – turns out it’s a song for which Dylan wrote the chorus and never recorded, and then Old Crow Medicine Show wrote verses around it and made it hugely famous… in Gunnison

he was terrific – played a resonator and an acoustic guitar – extremely talented: fingering, slide, stops, taps, you name it – heading toward being a one man band – also had a great voice, a sweet (Jeff B) but hearty-throaty blues voice – he feels the music and it shows in his performance – he did covers by blues greats: Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson – this boy could go places – just realized he’s my pharmacist as well ha

Joe Hahn (of Linkin Park) was a guest DJ on Saturday at Haze. The nightclub, in the basement of the Aria on the Las Vegas Strip, caters primarily to radio-friendly dance music with a revved BPM. So it was a noticeable and immediate shift in tone when Hahn took the reins at 12:30am. He massaged Linkin Park’s nu metal vibe with techno and only the occasional nod to pop or dance. Hahn infused a mix of songs ranging from the Go-Go’s Our Lips Our Sealed, LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out and a extremely deconstructed take on Pumped Up Kicks from Foster the People. Hahn’s approach was sublimely artful – probably not a common thing in a Las Vegas nightclub – and controlled but it lacked the invitation to dance that drew the crowd into Haze to begin with.

[Montreal]: I loved, loved, loved this band – they’ve got a retro sound that manages to be modern and special – ethereal poppy female vocalizing over shimmering guitars – some combo of 80s soft rock, synth pop, and disco – synth yacht rock? Bluesy French pop with psychy soft rock instrumentation? – in same school as MGMT maybe but more pop than psychedelia –a more sincere Cansei de Ser Sexy – kind of Blondie – fairy disco: all high notes and ethereality but still rocking – they were loungey and groovy, simple and complex – I admired their ability to restrain themselves and pick the perfect notes – the kid with a fluff of hair on the front of his head played drums – the kid in the old man sweater played the flute – the kid with the sculpted afro in slouchy baggy-skinny-pants played bass – the girl in a black crop top and black mom jeans played keyboards and provided the vocals, her incessant hair flipping (she looked like F. Bueller’s girlfriend) annoyed me but she managed to seduce the audience very effectively – my favorite though was the bleach blonde kid playing electric guitar in black skinny jeans and an awful color-block jacket (amusingly, I think the yuppie older couple in the front were his parents)

[Portland]: I’m not a huge fan of the House of Blues chain, so this was a nice change of pace – small minorly hipster bar that provided me with my first sparkling wine in a can ever, with a straw attached, enchanting – they also had lots of posters for Coathangers shows, which is a band I tried and failed to see at previous SXSWs, and it turns out they’re from San Diego and frequent this place –it turned out that the majority of the audience, at least initially, was the other bands – this band made me nervous at first glance, Oregon oatmeal, very earnest – they were a guy on guitar singing and a redhead on a cello accompanying him with some “woos” – I ended up really liking them – the guy was a soulful crooner (a la Buckley) – they had great melodies, sounding like Iron and Wine or Mumford & Sons sometimes and more plucky at other times – the rhythm and vocals were solid – the redhead cellist was fascinating – she was very youthful with her long red waves and no makeup but I suspect she’s a black-humor feminist under it all – she’s drama personified – her playing was really good, providing bass and slaps – she gave them a Loreena McKennit quality – they reported later in their show that they were usually a five-piece and were having to make up for the missing band members – they were unique, beautiful , sincere and joyful

[New Jersey]: this band was more interesting –rollicking dance beat (dancepunk) with something of Bright Eyes, Mountain Goats, Hold Steady – three guys on key board & bass, drum, guitars – there was also a laptop on stage but I’m not sure what it was doing – the band’s girlfriends/sisters added a weird dimension to the show, incongruently twirling rave light gear, and singing along at the stage like a bunch of groupies – if I were in the band, I’d tell them to cut it out and stop biasing the audience with their antics – the band were very excited to be playing in CA for the first time, mentioning it first thing, and ending their first song with a reminder that that was the first time the song had been played in CA – it was cute – they told funny stories about their hotel bathroom with a toilet basically in the shower – I liked their music but his atonal plaintive voice got a little annoying

[Ocean Beach, CA]: after spending twenty minutes trying to figure out driving and parking in a new city, I arrived just in time to see this band’s last 2-3 songs – Young Jeezy was playing the main stage at House of Blues, and this was a free show on a side stage – there were 10 of us and rightfully so – this band was standard post-grunge – Creed like

Jeff Ivy’s solo set at the Tootsies Orchid Lounge was a mix of Americana and straight country covers. His voice embodies the sweeter side of country music and I was impressed by the purity of his voice. And he was kind enough to take requests. Sometimes the quality of the artist outshines the dump of a bar he’s playing in, and this was certainly one of those times. Ivy’s own music – which he performs on tour – is a solid collection of songs.

The crowd went apeshit for Chris Young. In his late twenties, he’s still got a pretty boy face and the superstar country music styling down pat. Just from looks, he would do well in a gay bar.

He has a handful of #1 hits some music awards, and his music was toe tapping. He stuck to the hits. Voices (hint: the voices he hears are his family and pastor giving him advice to stay on the straight and narrow) was probably my favorite of the night. It’s heavy handed, but no more so than 90% of country music these days. The new single Neon (hint: I could not tell you what it was about) was just your average song, though he gushed about how he wished he wrote it himself. He closed the set, and the show, with his megahit You. I thought the song was catchy. Unlike 90% of the audience, I had never heard it before. But I was humming a bit on my way out. And for someone who doesn’t live and breathe country music, I think that’s exactly what you want when you leave the Grand Ole Opry.

Craig Morgan can sing. Introduced as an ex-military type who spent 10 years serving our country, he looked the part. He had the muscle build and the square jaw, but the man can sing. He has that low register that’s pretty common in country music. He also played the girls in the audience like a plucking the strings of a violin. They sure loved him.

The music was completely unmemorable but his set had the best energy of the night. He also introduced a couple in the audience asking if the guy had proposed yet. Nope, he did it right there during the show. Not sure if that was staged, but if not, it would make a great part of his act on tour.

The Whites are a family band, three sisters, pa and a couple of backing musicians. They played an old folk song and two others that allowed the four to mix and match their harmonies. They bantered joyfully with some folk from the UK in the crowd but it was hard to tell if the family on stage even liked each other. Maybe a long overdue episode of Behind the Music.

Another long time Opry favorite, Steve Wariner was the crooner of the line-up tonight. He poured his country heart out on the stage. All three sweet and sincere songs could have been dedicated to one lady love or another. He closed the set with The Weekend which he said one of this top-favorite songs of all time. His music is the kind of stuff that you just know sits in heavy rotation on classic country radio and gets played every weekend at weddings around the South.

John Conlee is a bit of a country music institution. Old school country and in that vein, much more my cup of tea than the contemporary country music. He looks like your grandpa, complete with his pants hiked up over his stomach. He still has the voice, though, and on some of the melodies like Got My Heart Set on You there was some gorgeous moments. Thought the silly Stuff that Matters was a bit old fashioned, but he seemed to be having a good time up there anyway.

No trip to Nashville, so they say, is complete without a visit to the Grand Ole Opry. A live show (simulcast on the radio) that runs Friday, Saturday and Tuesday nights every week from the Grand Ole Opry House, this month’s guests include such country luminaries as Vince Gill, Carrie Underwood, and Ricky Skaggs.

Opry shows are divided into half hour segments of which each artist gets a chunk of two to four songs with some commercial sponsorship breaks in between.

Dailey & Vincent capped the opening segment of the show. They’re promoting a gospel album with a country twang and the middle song of their set was the duo playing unaccompanied giving Jamie Dailey a chance to show off his vocal chops. (Side bar, but all of his promotional photos make him look much younger than he does on stage).

The set opener and closer were both performed with the full band, but it was the barnburning last song, completely instrumental, that tore the roof off the place. The musicianship of the band was unbelievable.

I have too much back info on this band – mostly because a key member is a neighbor and a fellow sociologist. This makes it difficult for me to be objective and to see them as a ‘real’ band, because I know how they formed. Said friend is humble and downplays the situation. And of course all or most bands form in these ways. Well, seeing them all amped up and slick at the Brewery convinced me they are a real band, and they have a real sound. It’s a sound that I believe may have morphed since I saw them last many months ago during the monthly Gunnison art crawl. The young blonde lovely has taken over lead vocals (and guitar), while the brown lovely handles backup vocals and fiddle. The two boys and a man variously manage the banjo, the electric bass, guitar, and lap steel. Their sound flits about enough that it’s hard to pin it down but it’s some combo of alt country, folk, and Americana. All covers, I believe. They did help me pin down the Old Crow Medicine Show origins of the apparently #1 song in Gunnison (as per coffee shops) – the song is ‘Rock Me Baby.’ This band is peaceful, sincere, and … pure.

as you might imagine from their name and my locale, they’re a bluegrass band – it’s a good thing I didn’t review them after their intermission act at Move the Butte – for one, I would have complained that the upright bassist is touted as the best bassist in Colorado but never hinted at a slap, as tainted as I am by Austin – two, they weren’t plugged in and they played the same song they taught us at the Bluegrass Workshop (Sittin’ on Top of the World) – anyway, when we heard they had a proper gig lined up and, being frantic for any old sort of music, we decided to give them a shot – turns out the full band includes the guitarist and the bassist I am familiar with, as well as a mandolin, banjo, and fiddle– they’ve got amps and the whole deal so none of your mealy-mouthed bluegrass – each is a very talented musician – their fingers moved so fast, I’m classifying them as speed-metal-bluegrass – they basically reminded me of a CD I picked up in the Appalachian Mountains proper from a local bluegrass band, Blue Ridge Mountain Thunder, which is a big compliment from me, because it’s the danciest bluegrass I’ve done ever heard – as a piece of general advice, you know it’s going to be a good bluegrass song when it has “breakdown” in the title

She was a purty little thing with a sassy little mouth. Her set was littered with hilarious interludes, using her looks and her hillbilly twang to woo the audience. She talked sly shit about everyone she knows, about herself, and about us (“I appreciate you all coming out tonight when you had so many other options.”). Some of the audience members thought she was over the top and putting on a bit of an act, fluffing up the accent, but her background’s legit (rural Florida). I mean her dad went to prison for running moonshine. People couldn’t reconcile her prettiness with her supposed background. With the heavy makeup, the bleached blonde hair, the cute little outfit, and especially, pumping little spurts of throat soother in her mouth on stage, I knew she was the sort of girl who needed to be in control after a childhood that was a bit out of control. I just liked her – she’s done good for herself and she sees through life and people. So they made references to outlaw country through the night, but they were more of a country rock band. The music lacked definition, and she is definitely more of a voice and performer than a guitarist. They were at their best when the lyrics were witty and female [“I slid on my tightest pair of jeans, Combed my hair like it was 1983, Honey I know that I am just your wife, But I wanna be your girlfriend tonight”; “And we were making love in the disco era, And he was Travolta and I was Farrah, I was like man what is happening here, Dude must of put a qualude in my beer, If I wake up married, I’ll have to annul it, Right now my hands are in his mullet”], when they did covers (Johnny Horton, Merle Haggard), when they did old southern gospel, and when the guitarist sang two songs of his own. Unlike Elizabeth, he was a dopey humble hipster, in his misshapen shirt and slightly baggy dress pants, with a curly lock of hair covering his eyes. He maintained a rocker’s cool until he turned to look at Elizabeth and adoration beamed from his humble face, and when he sang, his face was a playground of emotions. His songs were simple but his voice and active face infused them with emotion – decent guitarist too – Tim Carroll is his name. We found out later he and Elizabeth just got married. The third member of the band was an Australian roughneck on upright bass – he was a sidenote, possibly because his guitar wasn’t amped properly.

I had to write my notes on paper napkins torn in half, which were all that were provided in this self-described “classiest” place in Gunnison – a group of nurses were there to see ‘the guys from their kitchen’ playing a gig for the first time – they were a formidable collection of guitars, 3 electric and 1 bass, with a female drummer (who was hidden behind all of the dueling fretboards) – although the setting was more suited for a jazz outfit and they were described as “easy listening,” they were a cover band who cast a 70s haze of Clapton and Santana over everything – with the length of every song doubled, they were also a hop skip and jump from being a jam band – they did Talking Heads’ “Take Me to the River,” Clapton’s “We’re Going to Let It All Hang Out,” Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” and then we left – the first singer was all right but the second singer was a Clapton look-alike who was living the dream and was suddenly half-screaming to a somewhat baffled crowd “How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat?!!”

great name – competent classic rock and 80s hits cover band

hippie extreme setting: barefoot, dreadlocks, doing rope tricks – Rockboy was very bothered by this but I was more bothered by the lackluster music – a woman and a man trying to kill whatever life was left in singer/songwriter music – she whispered along to her dull guitar strums – he livened things up a bit with some nice backwalking riffs – I’d like to say it was because the sound was bad but I’d be lying- we left before their set ended

More than anything, the current Erasure tour is about lead singer Andy Bell’s vocals. Every single song allowed Bell to stretch his voice to the rafters. In fact the new tracks, including the stunning I Lose Myself and the club-ready A Whole Lotta Love Run Riot, seemed custom-designed to showcase that voice.

Erasure have a back catalog spanning twenty-five years, and they reached way back for the b-side Push Me, Shove Me and the crowd favorite Oh L’Amour. The new songs fit right in but somehow it was the older tracks where Erasure truly found their groove. It wasn’t just a function of being familiar. The songs from early in their career, like the frenetic Drama and bouncy singalong Sometimes, just worked better tonight. Those songs found that balance between allowing Bell to roam wild and Vince Clarke’s intense love affair with the soundscape of Erasure’s songs.

Blue Savannah is consistently one of my favorite live tracks (nothing beats Clarke in a cactus suit playing guitar on an acoustic-tinged Blue Savannah during the Cowboy tour), and the backing vocals tonight were layered brilliantly behind Andy Bell’s soaring lead vocals giving the song a fresh new feel. Twice, Bell favored the lower register for a song, including Tomorrow’s World lead single When I Start To (Break It All Down). He must have been saving his voice for other tracks because A Little Respect was belted out with an intensity that sent waves of energy through the crowd.

The sound mix was a little muddy in the House of Blues, and it was distinctly noticeable on the ballads. Alien was just a sonic mess. The acoustic elements were completely lost and the backing vocals smothered Bell’s. A similar problem affected Always and Ship of Fools. But for whatever reason, the dance tracks didn’t suffer the same sound issues.

Erasure knows how to get people off their feet, and they had the crowd hopping from the pulsing intro to Love to Hate You straight through to the last note of Stop. Once again, Andy Bell sounded fantastic. With the new album’s release still a month off, it is always good to hear from them again.

Erasure setlist
Sono Luminus
Always
When I Start To (Break It All Down)
Blue Savannah
Fill Us With Fire
Drama
You’ve Got To Save Me Right Now
Ship of Fools
Chorus
Breathe
Victim of Love
Alien
Push Me Shove Me
Love To Hate You
I Lose Myself
A Whole Lotta Love Run Riot
Breath of Life
Chains of Love
Sometimes
A Little Respect
Encore
Oh L’Amour
Stop!

old school banjo from a very old man – stoic

We were pretty skerred to see our first music in Gunnison but they weren’t too bad – of course, the dobro player is our neighbor and a potential coworker – band consists of him (in his 40s) and four college kids – two sweet girls and two bored-looking (or cool-trying) boys – they played Americana of all sorts – their first song was a cover of a song from an Austin band sigh

Kristin Ezbicki is an unassuming singer-songwriter with country sensibilities who showed up on a porch on Willow Ave on a sunny afternoon in Somerville, MA. Dubbed Porchfest, the event was a city-wide initiative to highlight local artists by having them perform on people’s porches. After a rainy miserable week, the sun came out for a few hours as Ezbicki took the stage to promote her recent album, Bring Me to the Light.

Given the venue (a porch), the limited staging space she had to share with a guitarist, a keyboard and a drum kit, and a roving audience who came and went by foot, on bicycle, plus the constant stream of cars passing by, Ezbicki handled the entire atmosphere with aplomb. But what quickly became evident, despite Ezbicki not being a household name, was that the people who stopped to listen to the music stuck around. She was good. Her voice was warm and her songs struck a chord with the crowd.

Weaving deftly between haunting lost-love melodies like Anna and an Edgar Allan Poe poem A Dream Within a Dream set to original music, Ezbicki ran through a forty-five minute set of original tunes. The highlight was the gorgeous rendition of the album title track, Bring Me to the Light that soared through the crowd (which, fortunately for all involved, happened to be at its largest size at that moment).

For a change of pace, Ezbicki invited the house band on stage for a jam session of familiar tunes including Honky Tonk Woman and Dead Flowers (both Rolling Stones covers). And the surprise of the night was a woman named Anastasia who was recruited from the crowd to play guitar – and took lead vocals on an impressive version of Coldplay’s Clocks.

Ezbicki handled all the elements and surprises and put on a terrific showcase for her talents and her original music. Reportedly, her debut album was six years in the making. Here’s hoping the next one comes sooner than that.