The Shed as seen through the Gourds' van

July 16, 2011

Maryville, Tennessee

If you’ve been paying attention, you’d already know that there is no such thing as a bad Gourds show. Given that, I wasn’t going to bore you all with yet another Gourds rave review but I saw them Saturday night (7/16.11) at The Shed and the whole experience was too much fun not to share.

The Shed is an outdoor venue connected to the Smokey Mountain Harley Davidson dealership there in Maryville (correctly pronounced “MURR-ville”), Tennessee. It’s under a big tin roof and you bring your own chairs. I thought it was gonna be godawful hot but,miraculously, the temps had cooled off and we even had a breeze so, you know, perfect night to be outside, drinking beers (Shiner Bock!), eating barbecue, and dancing to the Gourds.  Didn’t get a great picture of the venue (Shiner Bocks) but there are some here that are better than any I could have taken with my phone.  Along with some fine video.

Teeny Tiny Toilet at The Shed

Aside from the Harley dealership, The Shed is also connected to an outstanding barbecue shack where you can get pulled pork, brisket, and a full rack of baby back ribs. Also some pretty darn good onion rings.  They got some real nice porta-potties in back – stay away from the one on the middle left or you might have some trouble getting out. Kinda fun, if you’re not the one who’s stuck. And they got this itty bitty toilet over near the bbq stand. So cute.

The crowd at a Gourds show is always fun (I’ve maybe been to a few shows in several states) but you can’t beat The Shed for eccentricities. As my sister-in-law described it to me, you got your bikers, your music fans, your old folks (even older than we are!) that bring their lawn chairs to every show regardless of who’s playing. your young people all dressed up for their first dates, and even the hippie chick in the teeny tiny chair (ok, we brought her which is why she wouldn’t let me take a picture and post it here).   As every one knows, biker audiences are never boring. This was a particularly friendly and polite group of bikers but still fun.

Teeny Tiny Gourds Fan

And I almost stepped on this little guy – apparently, he really loves dem gourds.

Before the show, we wandered over to inspect the Gourds van and maybe sneak a couple pictures – very luxurious compared to some band vans I’ve seen (cough, cough – The Drams). Max Johnston (fiddle, mandolin player extraordinaire) generously offered to let us climb in and smell it. So we did. He said it had aired out some. Um, that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

And I was too tongue-tied when we spoke with Max to tell him that his song “Jesus Christ With Signs Following” is one of my all-time favorite songs. But he did play “Best of Me” later on and that was awful damn good too. You gotta love that guy, he plays pretty much ALL the instruments and only write a few of the songs but every one of his songs are masterpieces.

Blurry photo of Max and Dave

I’d say maybe a third of the audience was made up of pre-existing Gourds fans and the rest were virgins. The Gourds were in prime form, even ending with “Gin and Juice” and the deflowered all left well satisfied with the experience and eager to come back for more. . . .

Partial setlist:

• All The Labor
• Grievin’ and Smokin’
• Best of Me
• Omaha
• El Paso
• Waxy”s Dargle
• Lower 48
• Do 4 U
• Pine Island Bayou medley with Rocky Top (gratuitous crowd favorite in East Tennessee)
• A couple of new Jimmy songs
• Encore: The aforementioned Gin and Juice with . . . uh, well, I don’t remember what it was with but it was a medley with a really great cover. Trust me on this.

Fauss’s first EP, New Songs for The Old Frontier, was damn good (see my review).  But his new stuff is nothing like his old stuff was. It’s better.  Rocks more.  Rougher voice.  I like that.  Got a fiddle on some of it.  I like that too.

I can’t get the first song, To Ease My Mind,  out of my head.  Very catchy tune.  And It’s a Long Long Way is a funny talking blues song (think Todd Snider’s Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues) explaining the direction, or lack thereof, of a guy growing up in the post-Nixon era.  I’m pretty sure that anyone who rhymes “riches” with “bitches” is headed in the right direction.

Wish had me fooled.  I thought it was a  sweet little love song but then I really listened to the lyrics.  It’s more like a hate song.  There’s a lot of bitterness packed in that one, with amusing lyrics to boot.  And the mandolin and harmonica just make it that much better.

I love the fiddle on Just Another Tuesday.  And the lyric “Sometimes a dream is worth believing, even if it’s only in your head.”

Fauss has got that songwriting/storytelling gene I admire in the great ones – James McMurtry, Steve Earle, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen .   The music stays with you and the stories are fascinating, kind of open ended so you have to think.  With a lot of humor thrown in.

I think I figured out how he does it – he’s a nosy bastard. I spent some time with him this week before his show at Quixote’s and I wanted to ask him about the stories behind some of his songs but he kept turning the tables on me.  Asked me all sorts of questions I didn’t want to answer.  Seems to have an instinct for which buttons to press.  Uncanny.

And that inquisitive streak has got to be where he gets his material.  He looks for stories and he puts them into his songs.  Makes for great music.

Ronnie’s Denver show last  week wasn’t attended nearly well enough but that didn’t stop him from playing as if the club was full.  And this was after he spent a day in 95 degree heat watching baseball.  He might have had a few beers too.  It only helped his voice.  Ragged and good.

He also had a bunch of really great stuff that hasn’t shown up on either EP.   He says he’s going to make another one soon.  Get on it, Ronnie.  We’re waiting.

On a cold winter Wednesday night in a small room in downtown Denver, with a warm fuzzy warm up from the beautiful Angie Stevens, Hayes Carll thrilled a focused crowd.  This was not your typical shit-stirring, body-bumping audience.  These fans mostly knew the words, sang along or silently stood in ‘rapt-attention’ mode.  I know I did, anyway.

Hayes just seems like the kind of guy you wind up on a barstool beside and surprisingly find yourself as relaxed and at ease as you would with someone you’d known and conversed with for years.

A story told by Hayes is a gift – wrapped up in an old newspaper with no bow.  He strains to get the high notes out sometimes, and sometimes just close enough is good enough for him.  Nobody minded.  He had just finished touring with Steve Earle, playing 30-minute opening sets.  The following day was to be his 5th wedding anniversary and, as he told us, “I’ve missed 4 of them.”  Ah, the road….. He did seem pretty weary.  Who wouldn’t be, trying to keep up with a Steve Earle tour?  That just had to be trying, what with Steve’s larger-than-life personality, relentless drive, and numerous idiosyncrasies.  I  imagine that Hayes is about as laid-back personality-wise as Steve is revved up and angsty.  I love Steve and always enjoy his concerts, but opted, this time, for a full Hayes Carll show.

I found myself mesmerized – awestruck by this skinny, raggedy-haired man with a well-used Gibson on stage alone, singing our lives to us, one song at a time.  I didn’t miss the dozen guitar stands displaying flashy, expensive guitars *cough – McMurtry*.  Hayes played the old Gibson with a new pickguard popped on recently, apparently to prevent Willie Nelson guitar-wasting disease.

All evening, Hayes was comfortable, relaxed, sleepy-eyed, perhaps even bedroom-eyed.  Those blue eyes were working the room, though.  As my friend put it, he made eye contact with every woman in the room slyly and sweetly.  Hmphf!  I was convinced I was the only one, but since one guy yelled out loudly that he wanted to have Hayes’ baby, I guess that was not the case.

Is Hayes really from big-city Houston?  ‘Cause his voice is small-town Arkansas lazy, if you ask me, and I should know, having learned to talk under the tutelage of that breed.

I’ve been a fan for years but I’m avid now!  Note to self:  Don’t miss the next Hayes Carll show.

He simply delighted everyone with all those great songs from Flowers and Liquor, Little Rock, and Trouble in Mind (2008 release), and pleasantly surprised us with three new tunes that he ‘tried-out’ on us before his next release, which he says will be out in 2013.  Surely he was kidding.  He knows we can’t wait that long.

Turns out that gig was private and they felt bad that their other Denver fans wouldn’t be able to see them so they tacked on another gig after the fancy gig (thanks to Jay Bianchi of Owsley’s Golden Road for scheduling The O’s at the last minute).

I had listened to a couple of tracks on the website and they sounded decent but  the folks down in Dallas have been raving about them so I figured it was worth going out late on a Monday night to see them.  Well, it was.

The O’s are Taylor Young and John Pedigo. They both sing. Taylor has the guitar and the drum. John has the banjo.  It sounds like there are a lot more than two of them up there.  Takes coordination to do that.  And it’s not like they weren’t drinking or anything.

The two of them have been and continue to play  in several bands.  The O’s  website lists:  Polyphonic Spree, Young Heart Attack, Hi-fi Drowning, Slick 57, Young James Long, Rose County Fair, Boys Named Sue, P. W. Long, and The BAcksliders.  That’s a lot of bands – all well respected down there in Dallas.  They have something special here with The O’’s, though.

So, the music.  Mostly they played their own songs despite loud demands from a somewhat inebriated crowd to play anything from “Freebird” (really!) to Manilow (not kidding about this either).  One particularly persistent guy kept requesting  “Hotel California” and even offered to sing it for them if they would just play it.  The boys charmingly resisted – they had a lot of original stuff to play and play it they did.  And it was great!

The O’s mostly sound like The O’s but I was reminded somewhat of the Old 97’s.  Bucky was talking Avett Brothers.  We were both entranced.  I especially liked the way Pedigo would start screaming the chorus of a couple of the songs – also, I think songs written from a stalker’s point of view are funny.  Darling, I do.

They did play one cover – “Bowling Green.”   Good job on that one.

We bought the disc and ripped it open in the car on the way home.  I continued to play it in my car for the rest of the week.  Still haven’t decided which songs are my favorite but “I Still Wait” has already made it on my newest compilation.  And when I close my eyes, I can see them wailing out the chorus together.

This caused us to do some serious soul-searching because, really, we slackers (especially me and Gracey) are borderline obsessed with DBT and play them pretty much ALL THE TIME.  We’ve all been to see them at least once (twice, three times) in the past year – basically anytime they are in the neighborhood.  Much of Gracey’s conversation revolves around things she has read on the DBT fan board. . . . And then there is the whole problem of keeping Gracey from stalking the tour bus.

So yeah, we love the Drive-By Truckers.  Then why, you may ask,  is their tag so small?  Uh, ‘cause we haven’t written that many reviews about them.  Why is that?  Uh,  ‘cause I think we maybe tend to drink too much at their shows.  Well, Gracey and Jitter do, anyway.

So there is that.  We’ll try to do better though.  In the meantime, if you get a chance to see them, make sure you go.  And make sure you stand down in front where it’s really loud and you get the full rock show experience.  But if you see a little person in a Cooley/Hood For President t-shirt jumping around in front of Cooley, keep a safe distance.

Just saying.

The Gourds, Longhorn Saloon, Ft Worth, June 27, 2009
It was about 3:00 or so Saturday afternoon when I called our friends in Ft Worth to cancel out on the evenings festivities. It really did look pretty hopeless at that point; stranded in a 7-11 parking lot off I-30 in Arlington, sweltering in the 100 degree heat, waiting for a tow truck to come and take our badly overheated car back home.
Then I suppose it was due to the angels intervening on our behalf but things all started coming together in our favor. The tow truck showed up hours before we were expecting it and got us home just in time for a neighbor to offer to loan us his car and just like that, it was on again!
So after all the high drama we still made it out to the Fort Worth Stockyards and got to the newly re-opened Longhorn Saloon plenty early enough to score a choice table.
It’s a very nice room, that Longhorn Saloon, with a couple of levels, three bars, reasonably good sound and it’s got a whole lot of history too. After Saturday night’s Gourds show, they can probably add another chapter

We had plenty of time to kill, so after a couple beers I wandered over to one of the guys who work the bar and asked who was opening the show… “Some band” he told me.
“Some band” turned out to be The Gourds’ own Kevin Russell, doing one of his all-too-elusive Shinyribs solo sets. There just can’t be a better way to start an evening of Texas’ best roots-dance-techno-jug musical amalgamation than with the folksy acoustic singer- yodeling poet-performance artist at the very heart of much of that music. He told funny little stories and sang songs straight from the fetid underbelly of what they’re calling “Americana” these days. It was kind of like a big fat bonus grub worm for all of us early birds, strong satisfying stuff.
You could pretty much feel the buzz in the room when The Gourds finally took the stage. That may or may not have had something to do with the girls who came by earlier passing out sample shots of way-too-sweet Southern Comfort and lime (it took another shot of real whiskey to clear the palate of that gawd-awful stuff). By then the crowd had filled out to a perfectly respectable but not at all uncomfortable size. You could easily walk through the dancers to the stage or see the band from your table and still feel like you were at the party that night.
They started things off fittingly enough with “Country Love,” the first track on their latest album, Haymaker! They brought the whole terrible arsenal… mandolin, banjo, tambourine, fiddle, accordion, guitars, keyboards and a set of drums that got a thoroughly rhythmic pounding by Keith Langford.
Now even on an off night the Gourds are better than 95 per cent of the live music you’re likely to find playing anywhere but on a good night they can be downright transcendental. This was no off night.
At first I thought maybe it was just me being all happy to be there and shit; but no, it was definitely them. Other people there confirmed that for me, I wasn’t just hearing things…voices were in key and strings were in sync and every note sounded exactly right. They did less of the between song banter than usual but more than made up for that by playing every damn thing they played just about perfect. As usual, it was a mix of old and new. (…and yeah, that describes the audience as well as the set list. Funny thing about even the most raucous Gourds shows… you never feel like the oldest guy in the room, even if you are).
The three primary Gourdian singer-songwriters, Russell, Jimmy Smith and Max Johnson did their usual song swap repertoire and even the songs I wouldn’t normally list as favorites were sounding great. I don’t even think I can point to any highlights. Everything sounded as good as I can imagine it should sound. The band was having as great a time as the crowd. It was like a shared delirium, which is how it should be.
One thing I’ve learned following these guys is that a good deal of that contagious musical delirium can be credited to red headed accordion slinging keyboard player Claude Bernard. Like everyone else in this hippiefied traveling tent show of an ensemble, he’s an essential element. And like all the others, when he’s on it always makes a big difference.
A question we had all pondered at some point that day, how would they pay tribute to the week’s biggest media saturated news event. They answered that in high style the very end of their four song encore- a straight up disco, note for note cover of “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.” You could be forgiven for expecting a “Gin N Juice” treatment of that one, or for them to fuck it up somehow but, maybe out of respect or maybe just for the sheer hell of it, they kept it real with Kev singing the falsetto lead over Jimmy’s pounding bass and some authentic disco sounding keys by Claude. OK, so Max played a banjo but still.
They’re coming back to these parts in a couple months to play The Granada in Dallas and that’s another venue where they never fail to deliver the goods. And I’m pretty sure that one is gonna be a whole lot easier for me to get to.
We got your set lists here:

Shinyribs*
Devil SongSea Of Galilee
Church On Fire<
Never
Horny Toad Blues
Fisherman’s Friend
Poor People’s Store
Crown Out
When The Cat’s Outside
Country Cool
Buy You A Drink
(T-Pain)
Gourds
Country Love
Shreveport
Dying Of The Pines
Trampled By The Sun
Mister Betty
Red Letter Day
Blanket Show
Pill Bug Blues
Roll & Tumble
Blankets
Layin Around The House
Thurman
Pine Island Bayou
TTT Gas
Omaha (Billy Joe Shaver)
New Dues
Luddite Juice
Lower 48

Encore

Promenade
My Name Is Jorge
El Paso
Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough (Michael Jackson)

*Thanks, Steve!

Photo by jitter

The Wildflower Festival in Richardson is one of the biggest music festivals in North Texas. It’s a big, sprawling three day event that usually features a fairly diverse lineup that’s maybe  a little heavy on the classic rock.

This year’s headliners were Kool & the Gang, Jackopierce, Hoobastank, Rick Springfield, Edgar Winter Band, Tonic, Night Ranger, Kansas, The Toadies, The Wailers and Robert Randolph & The Family Band. That’s on the big stages; there’s also plenty of country, folk and other various acoustic singer songwriters going non-stop on the smaller stages.
And tribute bands, lots of tribute bands.

For instance, you had Swan Song (Led Zeppelin) Badfish (Sublime) Le Freak (disco- 80s rock) The Spazmatics (80s new wave) Bebe Le Strange (Heart) Eight Arms To Hold You (The Beatles) Spectors Gun Collection (Allman Bros) and Kraig Parker (Elvis).

So you had your choice of folk, funk and fakes with some alternative and a few classic rock nostalgia re-groups thrown in for good measure.

This year’s festival kicked off with Friday night’s program of Ellis Paul, Pierce Pettis and David Wilcox on the singer songwriter stage in the Eisemann Performing Arts Center. That’s a small theater with comfortable seating and near perfect acoustics. That sounded pretty good but we showed up Friday with one thing in mind and one thing only… Kool & the Gang.

The big concert area was pretty well packed when the sun went down and they hit the stage. It was uncomfortably warm and humid but that didn’t stop anybody from getting up and getting down. People were getting down all over the place. They played a set that was equal parts old school soul and straight up funk and the crowd loved it. Anyone who thought this was going to be a disco show would have been wrong. It was a lot more than mere disco.

The Spazmatics from Austin had the acoustic tent completely packed when we went by. They were pretty gimmicky but there was the truly awesome moment when they played "Jesse’s Girl" while Rick Springfield was playing on the big stage next door. We were having camera problems so we decided to take a pass on Jackopierce and Hoobastank and made plans to get there early on Saturday…

Saturday is the biggest day of the fest with shows starting early and going til midnight. Damned if it didn’t rain all morning so we got a late start and arrived in time to hear Edgar Winter playing “Frankenstein” from the parking lot. I’d seen him decades ago during the peak of his popularity and wasn’t all that impressed back then. Still, it was part of the package so I was hoping to see how he’s aged in the thirty years since. These days he’s playing with an entirely new band and he mixed up the set with some of his rootsier early stuff along with the more pop oriented hits like “Free Ride.” He was way better than I would have expected given my previous experience.

The morning rains had cooled things down for Saturday evening and left a lot of mud on the field in front of the big stage but not nearly as much as you’d think. It’s a testament to whatever commercial grade landscaping turf they use that there was any grass at all. After Edgar Winter’s set we set out for a beer run and to take in the ambience. We managed to catch some of Tonic’s set on the other stage but not enough to form any kind of opinion.

Next up on the big stage was 80s mainstream rock band Night Ranger. I was never anywhere close to being a fan but somehow managed to find myself holding down the base camp through their entire show. Spinal Tap has nothing on these guys when it comes to rock clichés.

Moving on…

Kansas

Saturday’s big stage headliner was Kansas, another band I had seen decades ago. I’ve always thought the best thing about them was their album covers but they sounded pretty good- what little of their set I caught. I’m not sure who was and who wasn’t part of the original lineup because they’ve changed personnel so many times and it’s been so long since they’ve done anything notable that it’s kind of hard to keep track. Despite all that, they attracted quite a crowd,  probably the biggest of the weekend.

I was hoping to at least hear "Point of Know Return" before cutting out but they must have been saving that one for the run of big hits later in the set.

The Toadies

About twenty minutes into Kansas show it was time to hike across the grounds for the real event that night, The Toadies. They’re back together with a new cd coming out. Previously I’d  only seen The Toadies in a medium sized club where they could work a packed room into a lather. Turns out they can do the same thing on a big outdoor stage. The body press at the front of the crowd was so intense that in between songs Todd Lewis had to keep asking people to take a few steps back. I think the barricades nearly came down a time or two.

In a festival mostly featuring lots  of re-formed bands with lots of substitute players, The Toadies are still composed of Todd Lewis, Clark Vogeler and Marc Reznicek with new bass player Doni Blair. Although former bassist Lisa Umbarger was certainly a force to be reckoned with, their sound hasn’t really lost much with Blair filling in. They still crank out loud, angry, guitar driven rock and draw a huge enthusiastic crowd a full decade after they first called it quits. For a while there Saturday night, it was like they never went away.

The Wailers

Most of the mud had dried up by Sunday afternoon when we got to the big stage to see The Wailers. It was a perfect day really, temps in the low seventies and clear sunny skies, a small but respectable crowd and plenty of positive vibrations to go around.

Of all the re-united bands this one was the most suspect. Bob Marley and Peter Tosh have gone on to the big Island in the sky and Bunny Wailer is retired , so who’s left that can actually call themselves the Wailers?

Anton "Family Man" Barrett, that’s who. He played bass on every Bob Marley record you can think of.  And he still has it going on.

He’s put together a pretty impressive band with a guy named Elan Atius on vocals. I can only imagine being the new replacement vocalist in the Wailers is kind of like being the new replacement vocalist for The Rolling Stones. Those are some pretty damn big shoes to try and fit into. Not only that but they were playing the classic album "Exodus" in it’s entirety.  He did a fully credible job as he bounced around the stage and even sounded a little like the late great man himself. He certainly embodied Marley’s spirit of peace, love and unity. Of course this being a tightly controlled setting with lots of security and police, I didn’t see anyone firing up a spliff.

By the time they got to "One Love" the light crowd was in full groove mode. Spliffs or no, with the awesome weather and awesome music it would have been impossible to feel bad about anything at that point. It was a truly beautiful thing.

They closed their show with a couple more classics, including a great version of "Lively Up Yourself."

Robert Randolph And The Family Band

The last big show of the weekend was the one I was most looking  forward to. Robert Randolph is a pedal steel guitar phenomenon. He comes from a gospel music background called "sacred steel," which is basically hyper gospel music hopped up on speed, played on a pedal steel. Or rather, several pedal steels.

The Family Band’s sound is a mix of soul, funk, gospel and blues with a nod to country here and there. It’s a great big sound and the band members play off each other beautifully. His sister Lanesha trades off with Robert on some big vocals but the majority of the set is instrumental. For the most part Robert wails (and I do mean wails) on the pedal steel but straps on a fender at various points as well. It’s an attention grabbing, high energy performance that you just have to see and hear to believe. If you ever wanted to see someone channel Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix through an instrument best known for vintage country weepers or Hawaiian music, then go see this guy the next chance you get.

All in all it was a great weekend of music that came off sounding a lot better than it looked  on paper. A chance to see some guilty pleasures of the past and turn on to some (relatively) new  stuff as well.

And to think, just a couple weeks ago it looked like the whole country might be outlawing large public gatherings for health reasons. Whew!

I can still remember when I first heard the Jayhawks in the early nineties. A friend had given me a tape of Hollywood Town Hall
and my first response was “Neil Young could probably sue those guys.” I think I might have said that once or twice when the subject of the Jayhawks came up but after a few listens… and then a few more… those songs started working their way into my head on a cellular level.  I quit making snarky comments about them and started playing them all the time.

Over the course of three records they managed to forge a sound that was, at the same time, highly derivative and highly original and became one of my very favorite bands.

Yeah, they were more white-guy-folk-rock than the "alt country" label they were tagged with. Their early seventies “Southern Man” style riffs and long guitar jams merged with vaguely abstract lyrics and those ethereal harmonies between songwriters Mark Olson and Gary Louris, created a bunch of stubbornly enduring songs that could stick in your head like superglue.

After Olson left the band at their creative peak in ‘95, despite teaming up with his then-wife Victoria Williams, he kind of faded into obscurity while Louris kept the Jayhawks going, changing their sound pretty dramatically on the next two albums.

I caught an Olson solo show last year. It was a great night of quiet acoustic music with a few Jayhawks songs but there was definitely something missing. Obviously what was missing was Gary Louris.

So when Olson and Louris had put out a new acoustic record and booked a show in town, at the Sons of Herman Hall no less, I’m sure I wasn’t the only person around here who was overly excited at the opportunity.

Friday night they showed this town just what was lost when they went their separate ways long over a decade ago. You can take your Simon and Garfunkel and your Tweedy and Farrar and your Johnny and June and even your She and Him… If ever two people were born to sing together it was Olson and Louris.

They started out a little shaky. Opening with “Rose Society” from their new album, Ready For The Flood, the mix was a little murky and their timing sounded a little off. Even when they followed that with “Two Angels” from their breakthrough second album, Hollywood Town Hall, it sounded a little awkward- like they were still trying to find their stride. They found it about 4 or 5 songs in after Olson asked the sound board for a little more mic then very politely asked if they could maybe turn off the famous but kind of annoying Sons of Herman mirror ball so they could get an actual groove going without all the distraction.

Then they launched into “Red’s Song,” from Tomorrow the Green Grass, the last Jayhawks album that featured them both together. At this point the crowd erupted at the opening chords, or at least as close to actually erupting as they had come so far, and all of a sudden the heavens aligned, their voices fully synced, the timing came together perfectly and damned if they didn’t find that groove. A groove they  worked the rest of the night.

The crowd was as quiet and attentive as I’ve ever seen at the Sons. That’s no small thing considering the set-list was old favorites mixed in with new songs that an audience full of aging Jayhawks fans had most likely never heard. Still they had pretty much everyone hanging on nearly every word and note.

While the majority of the show was just Olson and Louris singing that sound that only the two of them can create and playing acoustic guitars there was still some interesting variety to be had as well. Percussionist Ingunn Ringvold, or Sailorine as she’s known in her native Norway, sat behind them trancelike, shaking a variety of little noisemakers and slapping on an ornately carved African hand drum called a djembe. She not only gave the whole thing an element of cool mystique but also provided a subtle yet solid beat. And at one point Olson brought out an Appalachian style dulcimer he played in his lap. The man wailed on that thing and brought some noise to the room and made it look pretty easy.

I don’t know if it was intentional or not but like the set-list itself, a lot of the between song banter focused on things that used to be… they asked if anyone remembered the first band they ever played Dallas with- Flathead. No one did. They also mentioned playing here with Slobberbone, who everyone seemed to remember. They reminisced about playing at Club Clearview and how cool the Bronco Bowl was.

Good times.

It was hard to say what was better- the new songs or the old ones. The old ones have had time to marinate, but since they played them all stripped down to the bare essentials- guitars, voices and djembe, etc. it was amazing how much like the new ones they sounded.

As a team they’ve still got it. Brand new songs like “Bicycle” and “Saturday Morning On Sunday Street” stood out so memorably that I was humming them to myself that night after I got home. The litany of old Jayhawks songs they played sounded like what you might have heard if they had made one of those MTV Unplugged albums that were so popular back when these guys were kicking it with their old band.

It was also a pretty a sweet move billing The O’s as an opener since both acts feature strong songwriting, vocal harmonies, acoustic strings and minimal percussion. It was also a great opportunity for The O’s to play for a roomful of what would have to be a key demographic. They rose to the challenge admirably doing a short set of the best stuff from their debut CD, We Are The O’s.

When Olson and Louris came out for a 3 song encore they had John Pedigo of the O’s sit in on banjo on one of their more striking new songs “The Traps Been Set.” He looked pretty happy to be up there adding some atmosphere behind Olson’s nicely delivered spoken word poetry. They closed with what is arguably their best song- "Blue." Olson had played that one at his show last year but it was striking how much more fully realized it was with Louris accompanying him.

I’ve read that there’s some talk of the original Jayhawks getting back together here and there as an occasional thing. They’ve already played a couple shows in Spain< and in their hometown of Minneapolis. I sure hope it happens more often and they make it here- or at least somewhere nearby. In the meantime the stripped down, acoustic singer-songwriter team of Louris and Olson is as close as you’re gonna get. And it’s like nothing else out there.

Bonus YouTube clip- Here’s Louris and Olson doing one of the songs from Flood that they actually wrote back in the early Jayhawks days:

The place has been around 30 years and we just now get around to visiting. I can’t really explain how that happened except to say that sometimes it’s hard to get down to Denver from here. We won’t wait so long next time.

So anyway, the Swallow Hill Music Association held its 3rd Annual Roots Fest on March 28th at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, part of the very impressive Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA).

Walking in the venue was fun because there were lots of other events going on at the same time. We could spot the Roots Fest folks by their footwear, though, for the most part. Sensible shoes. Those guys in the tuxes were headed in a different direction.

The DCPA ushers who usually work the operatic events helped out at the Festival. Talk about a culture clash. Music festival-types like us like to get up and wander around in the middle of a show, shop a little at the merch tables, and make frequent trips to the bar (and associated bathrooms). Operatic ushers prefer that the audience take a seat and STAY PUT during the entire performance. And they are generally so polite about it that it’s hard to refuse them. It made for some interesting crowd dynamics – still, everyone was so pleasant and accommodating that I saw no real conflicts (I did have to reprimand one of our group for placing his foot squarely in a seat while crawling over the rows to get out for another beer. Crawling over the rows = good idea. Footprints on the opera seats = not so good idea).

For the Festival, they let us bring our drinks inside the venue. I’m guessing this isn’t usually the case because that place was way too clean and there were no cup holders. On the up side, the drinks had that cool kind of ice you get on airplanes, you know, with the holes in the middle.

The show featured seven acts, headlining with bluegrass favorites, Hot Rize,  and Shawn Colvin. Colvin, however, had a last minute emergency and could not make it but the resourceful folks at Swallow Hill managed to come up with another headliner at short notice – Rickie Lee Jones. I didn’t hear many complaints.

We were all very impressed with Joe Pug. Wow. Just Joe and his guitar and his harmonica. Excellent. Dylanesque. I know you hear that all the time but it’s true. It is. We bought his EP but it looks like you can maybe still get it for free from his website. I highly recommend it. Think we’ll be hearing more from this guy. Watch Joe Pug here.

Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams was way fun.  Six of them in the band – accordion, guitar, bass, drums, tambourine, and more. They covered “Pinball Wizard,” but with a Western beat and a deep deep voice, a la Johnny Cash.

I think their music is meant to be played louder but probably, at the Opera House, they don’t want to make your ears bleed with volume (the sopranos will do that for you even without amplification). And just when I was complaining that they should be louder, they promised a louder song. As if they had heard me. “The Great Unravel” which they claim they wrote just before everything unraveled. And they played a Love Song to Tinkerbell, accompanied by a slide mandolin and a harmonica.

In between sets, Mollie O’Brien came out and sang a very moving version of “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”   Very appropriate.

And then there was The Tallest Man in the World. I’m not going to comment on his height. Whatever. One guy, one guitar, and some moves. A nice big voice with some growl to it, tight jeans, and little tiny steps all over the stage. He was fun to watch and I’d like to see him again. He needs a new name though. Too gimmicky and very hard to google. Who’s going to take him seriously with a name like that? Found him on You Tube, though.

Had to leave during Leo Kottke so missed his set, Rickie Lee Jones, and Hot Rize. Right – we missed the headliners. Regardless, we were plenty happy with what we did see.I delegated the reporting of the rest of the show to our ace cub reporter.
Here is what she had to say about Rickie Lee . .

“Seemed kind of drugged up when she talked. But the singing was awesome. Sounds the same as she did on “Chuckie” back in the day. Amazing when she hits the high notes. New CD about to come out. Note to self: BUY her new CD – good music to make love to – or at the very least to slow dance to (so you know where my head is these days…)

Our cub reporter went on to note that Rickie caught her attention with “Remember Me,” a song about divorce, and “Scary Chinese Movie” – “must have liked it because I wrote it down.”. .

“H called the in-betweens the ‘Mighty Wind Interludes.’”

“So, I suck at reporting when I have been drinking! But suffice to say, I loved Rickie – then I was DONE and ready to go home…”

I shamed Gracey into coming with me. I’ve been trying to force her to listen to the Gourds for about a year. Truth is, it’s really hard to get her to listen to much besides the Drive-By Truckers and her local Wyoming bands (see Hogback). But there were other, more worldly, folks coming down from Wyoming (peer pressure still works) and I promised her some corn chips. That did the trick.

Of course, she was wearing a Drive-By Truckers shirt (I think that might be all she owns). A guy offered her $1000 for it. That’s when she started believing me that Gourds fans are fun, and maybe more than a little whacked out.

And she wasn’t disappointed. I was too lazy to take notes or anything but I can swipe the playlist from other places it’s posted. Surprisingly, they didn’t play anything from their second-to-latest CD (which I count as one of their best) Noble Creatures – except Cranky Mulatto which doesn’t count ’cause it’s an old song – but they played plenty of tracks from the latest CD, Haymaker! and plenty of older tracks as well.

As the Wyoming crowd predicted, the first song was "Country Love." It served the purpose. Maybe it was just because I was down in front but it seemed like everyone in the place was up and dancing – some of us better than others. I should admit that I am grossly impaired as a dancer, even drunk (once, at a Gourds show, some woman bitched me out because of it), but that is where having Gracey along comes in handy. She has all the moves and she uses them all so no one even notices me.

Jimmy Smith played my favorite song on Haymaker! – Bridget – and it’s even better live. With Max playing the fiddle, it reminded me a lot of Roll and Tumble, one of the all-time great Gourds songs but these lyrics are even funnier ("thanks for the lift, you old geezer"). And Jimmy is so sincere when he sings it.

We had a primo spot right front of Claude (Benard) and Jimmy. Claude, who has shaved since I last saw him, was looking mighty fine. I took a picture of him and his accordion with my cell phone but I think my phone maybe had a little too much to drink before the show.

Kev (Russell) was high stepping all over the stage. I kept waiting for him to trip over all his cords but he was far too nimble.

Jimmy had the wild hair thing going. Again. Always fun to see how that is going to turn out.

They treated us to many of the old favorites: Caledonia, Maria, Blankets, Trampled By The Sun . . And then they came out for the encore and we got El Paso, Jorge (for my cat), Waxy’s Dargle, and that song from the Growin’ A Beard documentary, cause we were sneaking up on St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t remember when they played Dirty Plaid Coat but I was mighty glad to hear that one too.

Yeah, they played some great songs. 26 of them. And I guess they can’t play all my favorites at every show but I can’t wait for them to come back again and play me some more. Seeing the Gourds live is the best deal going.

Edit: Hey, look what some nice person posted on YouTube! Claude singing Whiskey in The Jar for St. Patrick’s Day.