Split Decision 07/12/20080 Comments Well we at LittleRockLiveMusic.net got split up Friday Night. I knew Big Smith was in town but I decided to keep things local, and in the family, with Kat Hood and The Good Time Ramblers. Read about G's night out on the opposite side of town with Big Smith in his blog above.
My night started with Kat Hood and Chuck Gilbert, putting on an awesome show at Studio Joe's at 7pm. The place was packed and definitely filled out well over the venue's 65 person capacity. That morning, Kat played "Back Home Again" on Good Morning Arkansas. That song along with "Fences" and "Back When" are my three personal favorites she both wrote and recorded with Chuck Gilbert and Eric Nolen as the Kat Hood Trio. "Back Home Again" has been featured on a promotional spot on AETN and also helped earn the band top honors at 2002's Arkansas Acoustic Festival. Never a bad thing, Kat and Chuck played many John Prine songs scattered throughout the show. Her and Chuck did an especially great job covering Prine's "Killing The Blues" recently made popular by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. I would highly recommend downloading the free music available on her web site and buying her cd. Her and Chuck have decided to branch off as a duo and continue to make new music together. She is an incredibly gifted songwriter and vocalist. Her and Chuck are both incredibly nice people and are going to try and schedule a concert somewhere in town each month. We will keep you posted with when and where. I was bummed that I had to leave at the start of their second set but The Good Time Ramblers were about to take the stage at Grumpy's at 9pm.
Grumpy's was absolutely packed and GTR rocked three sets for almost four hours. The band played through all the songs off their current cd and many more off their new one due out in the Fall. From the sampling of new songs I have heard at the band's last two shows, "Bigelow Strange" is going to be every bit as incredible as "Sinners Welcome". Gillian Welch, Springsteen, Skynyrd, The Band, Haggard and Willie Nelson were all covered expertly throughout the band's performance and kept people shouting out the familiar lyrics and the waitresses and bartender's very busy.
After completely amping up the hardly dispersed group of loyal fans, still singing and tapping their feet to "Maggie's Farm" at 1:30 am, Jeff Coleman came up to do his instantly classic song, "All The Whisky In Texas". It was encouraging to see the Mother of lead singer John Lefler, and for my second time of the night, Kat Hood show up with her family and make it out to support her son and his band. She came up earlier in the night to do a few songs and sang John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" with her son and his band. The band added a great new song to their incredibly long list of live music, "Seminole Wind". I just started listening to Donna the Buffalo over the past few months and the song was instantly recognizable from their album "Rockin' In The Weary Land". I really can't emphasize enough how good these guys are live. They have been playing all over town for the past three years and have recently gained some new found momentum. Everytime I see them they are more and more solid. No matter the venue, they always draw a huge crowd and never fail to impress. If you have not seen them live, or bought their cd, you are truly missing out on one of Little Rock's great local acts.
For me, even more than the music, I could not be more impressed by the sincerity and humbleness of both Kat Hood and Chuck Gilbert, the members of GTR, and their incredibly large group of friends, family and fans. They are truly some of the nicest people I have met since moving out here two years ago and Little Rock could not be more lucky to have them.
http://www.myspace.com/goodtimeramblers
http://www.kathood.com
-T
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Ramblin' In The Rock 07/04/20084 Comments Little Rock can't seem to get enough of The Good Time Ramblers lately. I don't know what rock I was living under the last couple years. It's either I just missed them or this band has just completely exploded onto the LR local music scene. Solid songwriting, great vocals, and an array of impressive instrumentation, there are truly no weak links. They have been writing music since the summer of 2005 and just released an EP last year. In preparation for last weeks run of concerts I checked them out on their Myspace page and was blown away. I marked their White Water show that week on the LRLM concerts page. Originally scheduled to be the opener they unexpectedly headlined that night for American Aquarium and Nathan Singleton. After an incredible performance by the two opening bands from Raleigh and Austin, Little Rock's GTR went toe to toe and played late into the night.
Part traditional country, alternative country, and southern rock, GTR have a passion for music that is widely apparent from their live shows. The band is one of the most solid performing acts I have seen in recent years. Lead vocalist John Lefler and bass guitarist Rich Dwiggins harmonize perfectly, Alex Piazza is an amazingly talented lead guitar and pedal steel player, and Brooks Browning keeps the beat and the energy flowing.
I normally don't go to shows by myself but Thursday night was a big exception. Everybody else from LRLM was out of town so it was just me. I showed up at Sticky Fingerz at around 9:30 just as GTR were getting into their sound check. Sticky Fingerz was jammed packed. Now at first I thought maybe it was the $2 Coronas (beer of the month) or the free cover charge. I was proved wrong when the crowd stuck around for the entire 2 1/2 hour show and judging by their response, became obvious everybody was there for the band. I think the band was even slightly surprised by such a large turnout. Last week at White Water Lefler asked the very welcoming and energetic crowd where they had been for the past three years. Obviously a little taken back by their recent success, this band is definitely going somewhere. With an even larger audience at Sticky Fingerz Thursday night the band fed off of their quickly expanding fan base through the early morning hours.
The band played through their entire EP released last year and several new songs from the tentatively titled Bigelow Strange album due out in the fall. The band has almost completed the album and just needs to spend some more time, and money, in post production. Rich sang lead on several songs including a new one he wrote while hanging out at Tootsie's in Nashville. Another one "Coming Back Home Again" was introduced to the audience that sounds great live. Brooks kicked into the two-step and Alex played an awesome guitar riff that had people instantly hooked.
The band paid tribute to some of their early influences and played through songs by Johnny Cash, Gillian Welch, Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Willie Nelson and a host of others. The band really got the party started and the dance floor hopping when they ripped into their version of "Mississippi Queen". Sticky Fingerz lighting and sound guy, Maestro, worked the lighting controls to make GTR look like something right out of Guitar Hero. I think the most impressive moment of the night came when the band covered Springsteen's "Atlantic City" They covered the legendary song perfectly and transitioned in to my favorite song off their EP "Gotta Get Back". The most unexpected moment came when later in the second half Jeff Coleman from "Jeff Coleman and the Feeders fame" joined the band on stage to play a thunderous version of his awesome song "All The Whiskey In Texas" In case the audience was still not convinced, the band played the most impressive version of Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" I think I have ever heard. Another couple songs off their EP, "Roland Lilly" (written about Lefler's wife) and "Carolina County" had the band's friends the "Saline County Boys" and group from Buffalo Grill stomping to the beat.
If you haven't seen them live yet, you will undoubtedly have plenty of opportunity. The band has a quickly expanding group of fans and are gaining extraordinary momentum. I quite honestly don't know where we have "all been the past three years", but we are all here now, and the Good Time Ramblers freakin' rock.
http://www.myspace.com/goodtimeramblers
-T
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"Calling the World" from South Main 07/03/20086 Comments
T texted me. "Man, this place is packed!" When I got to Juanita's T had a Pabst in a can -- one of those stretched cans that looked like it was a joke if it wasn't for real. I scanned the crowd and no one else was drinking. The reason was very simple. No one else was over 12 years old. That's an exaggeration, but it was a young crowd. It looked like a junior high lunchroom; the air was saturated with emo. The band The Bridges were in the middle of their set. They sounded good. The lead singer of this "family band" had a striking voice. She sounded a little beyond her years, which, again, was about 12 (I swear the base drum had Dora the Explorer screen-printed onto it). After The Bridges headed home for bed, Locksley took to the stage. They went to 11 (not their amps but their ages). Not as much to write home about with these guys as with The Bridges. In fact, I can't think of anything else. Let's skip to the next paragraph.
T finished his gigantic PBR and selected a more respectable, and less comical, beer - Miller Lite. It was about this time that the rest of our crew showed up, including our newest LRLM contributor, C, and the party started. Now's where the fun starts, faithful readers (all four of you). Rooney stepped up, as they say, and ripped into "Blueside," the band's first ever song (lead singer Robert Schwartzman showed it to guitarist Taylor Locke the first time they met up in Locke's garage to start the band). The Calling the World Tour, which began in May, had finally reached Little Rock.
By this time, we had moved to the floor, about 7 people deep from the front of the stage. This was a good move on our part, as Rooney live is an act best seen and heard up close. We intended to practice C's ABMF methodology to get as close to the stage as possible. For the uninitiated, the acronym stands for the following:
Always
Be
Moving
Forward
Basically, when anyone in front of you shifts out of the way or in any way leaves room for a breach, move into that position. Enough moves on the chessboard and eventually you're up front and center. It didn't work tonight. The crowd was like concrete. Once it set, it was impenetrable.
"Blueside" was followed by "Don't Come Around Again," then the memorable "Calling the World," the namesake of the tour. "Believe in Me" gave Louie Stephens a chance to showcase his talent on keyboard, adding a sonic layer to the music that hadn't been apparent on the first three songs. "Stay Away" was followed by an incredible rendition of "Are You Afraid?", with a guitar solo toward the end that took it to another level. After "If It Were Up To Me," bassist Matt Winter got to show his stuff on bass guitar in "All in Your Head." The driving bass line in this song really is distinctive and is reminiscent of some of my favorite stuff from U2. Next it was time for a cover song, and they made an excellent choice with The Band's "The Weight." This gave a chance for some of the older members of the audience - not me, I said the older members of the audience - to have a song to sing along to. "What For" followed it up and featured a really cool slide guitar effect.
Schwartzman prepped the crowd for the next song by getting everyone to participate in the obligatory "clap your hands to the beat" routine in the lead-in to "Paralyzed". Locke's guitar built to a crescendo toward the end that made you remember why the guitar was invented. They threw in a little bridge in this song and prodded the crowd with repeated chants of "come on, Little Rock." That was followed by the raw guitar sounds of "I Don't Think So." They did an incredible job of performing this song live, with some mesmerizing electronic effects that carried over into "I Should've Been After You." After "Sorry Sorry", it was time for another cover. This time it was "Helter Skelter," the song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles. Rooney stole it back. Seriously. The guitar was totally over the top by the time the song ended. "I'm Shakin'" was instantly recognizable and welcomed by the crowd. Schwartzman tried to stretch it out a bit at the end, but the rest of the band didn't get the cue and the song, unfortunately, ended.
By the time they started the last one on their list, "When Did Your Heart Go Missing?", a song Schwartzman proudly imformed us had gone #1 in Europe, C's careful application of the ABMF method had vaulted him to the fourth row. I guess he was expecting an encore, but it never materialized. T pointed out that it looked like at one point the guitar tech was tuning things up for a few more, but then the house music came up and he put it back down and shuffled out the door. No worries, though, at 17 songs, the length of the setlist was nothing to complain about.
This was my first Rooney show, and I came away impressed. Some bands just sound much better live than they do in studio, and I think these guys fit that category. This was a little bit of redemption for Juanita's too. We've been a little hard on them of late, but they showed tonight they can still bring in some of the bigger names and, in turn, the bigger crowds. I hope this is an indication of what's to come for them.
-G
Singleton Surprises in a Night to Remember 06/28/20080 Comments Though too few people are actually aware of this, one of the great things about living in Little Rock is its access to live music. Not the over-hyped sold-out arena style, but the small venue, up close and personal performance where you can actually sense the emotion of the artist. With the obvious exception of Green Day’s alter-ego, Foxboro Hot Tubs, playing at Juanita’s, you’re not going to see the biggest acts at the several places here that offer up live music on a regular basis. But what you will find is an incredible array of talent, real talent, from those just breaking onto the scene, to the ones who are really ascending to musical success. It is becoming a weekly event now, to go to a concert without much advance knowledge of a group, only to be blown away by what you see and hear. And let me say, Friday night’s set at the White Water Tavern was certainly no exception.
What started as a decision on a rather slow Friday night to go and check out The Good Time Ramblers, a very talented local alt-country group, resulted in, from beginning to end, an unbelievable evening of entertainment. It all began with a band from Raleigh, NC, the American Aquariums, whose lead singer, BJ Barham could be described as a cross between two rough voiced balladeers, Ryan Bingham and Ben Nichols of Lucero. The music was strong, well-performed (even without female violinist Sarah Mann), and had the small but growing audience on their feet. The band had performed at White Water a couple of times before, and the affection of the group for the bar matched that of the listeners for the band.
Nathan Singleton and his Sideshow Tragedy, whom we thought would be playing last, followed with a performance with so much verve and energy that words will not fairly describe it. The Austin-based band rocked the place with what might be called their own brand of punk-laced Texas rock, but don’t try and pigeonhole this band – their musical tastes are quite diverse. Singleton is an incredible guitar player, whose Dobro looked like it had logged a lot of Texas highway miles. Even the broken string (“luckily it was the high E, so it didn’t affect me much”) couldn’t slow the virtuoso, whose youthful appearance belies his road-warrior years. And the inappropriately named Sideshow Tragedy was anything but -- bassist Justin Thompson, active and rambunctious, was just as much an integral part of the show, and it was all held together by the strong, rhythmic beat of Singleton’s long-time musical accompanist, drummer Jeremy Harrell. In this set, the audience appeared almost stunned, as though they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Only the fact that the band was returning to Austin after 2 weeks of touring prevented a trip to see them again the following night. And once more, homage was paid to Matt White and White Water, as Singleton seemed very sincere in his praise of the venue as his favorite place to play, anywhere.
Wrap all this with the Good Time Ramblers, giving you an hour and a half of self-styled “delta rock” music, including a number of covers very popular with the crowd, and you’ve had yourself a hell of a night. And oh, there was a cover charge by the way – a whopping five bucks.
So what makes a particular place so musician praiseworthy? That can be debated of course, but include the fact that the artists are accessible, that they can relate to the audience, and the audience back to them. That those attending are a diverse group, and free to be themselves. That the venue (this one in particular) bears little or no presumption – come as you are – any style, any age, any personality – just have a good time and join in the fun. There are not a lot of places like this anymore. Give me the White Water Tavern over Alltel Arena any day.
-C
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Tom Takes Tulsa 06/26/20080 Comments "I was born in the back of a Yellow Cab in a hospital loading zone and with the meter still running. I emerged needing a shave and shouted 'Times Square, and step on it!'" Thomas Alan Waits was born on December 7, 1949 just one day after the late great Leadbelly died in New York City. Later Tom mentioned in The Many Lives of Tom Waits by Patrick Humphries, "He died the day before I was born and I like to think I passed him in the hall and he banged into me and knocked me over." Tom was born in Pomona, CA and later moved with his family to San Diego. "I wanted to be an old man when I was a little kid. Wore my grand-daddy's hat, used his cane and lowered my voice. I was dying to be old." Shortly after high school he took his first jobs working various shifts at a Bible factory, delivering newspapers, as a short order chef, car-wash attendendant, salesman, toilet attendant, truck driver, jewellery salesman, bar tender and doorman. He also had a stint as an ice cream man. "The hardest thing about driving an ice cream truck is getting the little bell out of your head at night." Some of the characters that would later emerge in his songwriting undoubtedly came from some of his early work experiences. He took his first paid piano gig at a local San Diego nightclub.
Fast forward 40 years and Tom would go on to record 20 albums each odder than the first. I first heard Tom Waits when I was researching Neko Case music on the Internet. I had already owned all of Neko's stuff and was desperately looking for anything else I could get my hands on. The only track I was able to find was a Tom Waits song she covered called "Christmas Card From a Hooker In Minneapolis" off of a Waits inspired tribute album. Vocally, Neko Case has sung nothing better. The songwriting was nothing I had heard before. The song is equally as imaginative as anything Dylan has done, but darker. The first Waits album I went on to buy would later be my favorite. To say Mule Variations had an affect on me would be a bold understatement. Frankly, the album scared the hell out of me. The night I took it home I think I listened to it on loop 6-7 times till 3am. Every time the album went by I could literally visualize everything unfold like a play. Often labeled as "experimental blues" the artists on the album play the turntables, the bari-sax, alto-sax, guitars, dobro, trumpet, optigon, chumbus, dousengoni, organ, piano, drums, percussion, pump organ, chamberlin, bassoon, bass clarinet and the violin. Twenty five individual artists lent their talent to the album and the list reads like a who's who of the recording industry. Combine that with Tom's voice, often described "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car" and you can begin to see how the experimental got put into "experimental blues". After it's release in 1999 Mule Variations would later win a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. I own over 1500 albums and even counting Bob Dylan's entire cannon of music I rank Mule Variations a solid number one.
I promised myself I wouldn't listen to any Tom Waits music on the drive up to Tulsa on Wednesday for fear of having pre-show burnout. When I first drove in It was a no brainer to stop at Chipotle (the closest one to Little Rock) to eat. I used to go to Chipotle everyday after summer school my final year at San Diego State. Awesome food, awesome music, and a cool modern/retro vibe kept me coming back. I always knew Chipotle was notorious for playing awesome indie music. Much to my surprise and enjoyment a Waits song came smashing through the tiny speakers. I can't recall the name but it was something off of Rain Dogs (1985). Halfway through the song I looked around to see if anyone else was appreciating the irony. Aside from me there was a local suburbanite soccer-mom in typical gym-clothes-fashion and an old couple complaining that the food was too spicy. After Chipotle it was off to the Brady Theater.
I arrived at the theater 2 hours early and decided to stop by a local bar called Caz's pub in the historic Brady district. Turns out Waits has a very active online forum and about a week ago an extensive list of pre-show hangout spots was formulated from Phoenix to Edinburgh. The bar was packed with faithful Waits fans and a mix cd playing nothing but Waits tracks. I met a nice couple from Omaha that were also seeing Waits for the first time. License plates in the parking lot were from Arkansas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Alabama and Nebraska. Tom Waits is only playing 13 US dates in two weeks. He typically tours every 5-6 years and only for about 1-2 weeks. People generally come far and wide to get the incredibly rare opportunity to hear him live. Humphries adds, "The increasingly rare live shows had fans flying from all over the world; his profile found him stalked by U2 and The Pogues."
The show was scheduled to start at 8:00pm but the "will call" only ticket sales created a line a mile long. The Brady theater is by far the most interesting place I have had the opportunity to see a concert. The building was built in 1914 as a public assembly facility. The building's interior was restored in 1930 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The interior design is described as "Western Classic Revival". The seats had not been replaced since 1930 and the way they were tightly arranged around the stage reminded me of the haunting back-alley concert hall in David Lynch's, Mulholland Drive. Tom's stage could only be classified as a magnificent colorful collision of musical instrument store meets pawn shop. A suspended twenty foot hat rack acted as the back drop and a massive chandelier mounted with antique bull horns and sirens was the set piece. A tiny circular circus stage would later be Tom's platform for much of the set.
When the lights finally dimmed at 8:40 a man in the back screamed at the top of his lungs "TOM WAITS IS GOD!". God? I would hardly want Tom Waits being in charge of my salvation. He would more likely soak it in whiskey, bottle it and try to pawn it off at a street fair. The applause was deafening and went on and on and on. The band took the stage and Tom jumped on to his 12' diameter circus platform. The concert started as all of the others have with a song called "Lucinda". As the first two songs of the night rang out, Tom stamped his foot into the platform with such vigor one would wonder how many they go through in a two week tour. The stagehands must have purposely layered his small platform with a dusty chalk-like substance. Every time his foot came down the chalk dust would kick up giving him the presence of a maniacal carnival barker. The lighting for the first couple songs was a faint rustic amber pitched directly on Tom's little stage casting a fifty foot tall shadow in the back of the stage. The rest of the band was not illuminated until a few songs later. He blew through several of his songs but the highlight for me did not come until the end.
During the middle part of his set the band seemed a little rusty and often took solos out of turn. A couple of songs were started off with poor timing and his son Casey Waits had to quickly vary his beat on the drums. In his blog, Andrew Gilstrap sums up Tom's stage demeanor well, "Waits himself was a wonder to behold, barking, crooning, and marionetting himself around the mic like one of his strings had been cut. He grabbed the mic stand, pressing its base into the floor like it would help him tap into an even more primal beat. Attired in his trademark porkpie hat, dark jeans, and jacket, he mugged for the fans, reaching out his hands like claws and adopting the old-man mannerism of clutching his jacket to his chest when he spoke."
My only real complaint of the night came with the crowd. Often yelling over each other, people just kept shouting out songs they wanted to hear. I had the impression that it turned into a "I'm a bigger fan than you are" contest as each request was more obscure than the last. During a couple songs Tom repeatedly tried to get the crowd clapping or singing along only to leave huge gaping moments of silence. Towards the middle Tom just simply stopped trying and had nothing near the passion of his first couple songs. You began to almost feel sorry for him after on top of everything else a couple of his jokes flopped. I can't put all the blame on the crowd though. I began to realize that if the Brady theater was last renovated in 1930, well then its ventilation and air conditioning are rigged to pre World War I standards. The outside temperature Wednesday afternoon in Tulsa was 99 degrees. It must have been 104 in the Brady Theater. It got so hot that at some point my back stuck to the antique wooden chair. It really was miserable and I think a lot of people just didn't have the energy to get into it.
Tom's best song of the night (one of my favorites) came right before the encore. I think Tom realised this was hit and summoned up his initial stage presence and screamed out the lyrics to "Come On Up To The House" for a showstopping ovation that brought the house down. The crowd was now pumped and Waits banged out three more "Make It Rain", "Eyeball Kid" and "Time" for the encore.
All in all it will probably not rank near the best in the two week tour. However, it was Tom Waits singing Tom Waits songs and what more could you really ask for. I challenge anyone to come out to his next tour in 4-5 years. Even if you are not a fan it is still a performance you will undoubtedly not forget.
-T
Quotes used without permission from:
"The Many Lives of Tom Waits" by Patrick Humphries.
"Innocent When You Dream" by Mac Montandon
and Various liner notes / Wikipedia...
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Grand Archives, Sera Cahoone and a Table for Twelve 06/22/20080 Comments
Good friends, good drink, and good music. All three are necessary ingredients in the recipe for a great Friday night. All three were present Friday night as Sera Cahoone and Grand Archives put on an impressive show for us at Sticky Fingerz. I showed up early and alone and the man and woman at the door asked if I'd like a table for one. They looked at me funny when I said that, in fact, I would be needing a table for 10, thank you very much. "Well, what time will the other nine be arriving?" they asked. "I don't know, at different times." "Well, what time will they start arriving?" "I don't know, in five or ten minutes." "How many will be here in five or ten minutes?" "I don't know. A few." I let them off the hook and told them I didn't really expect them to provide me a table for 10. In the end, the eight-top that the lady from the front door graciously pulled together for me ended up comfortably handling our crew of 12. Those folks at Stickyz are a pretty accommodating lot when it gets right down to it, and it's one of the better places to see live music in town, especially when you look at some of the talent who have come through there recently -- Hayes Carll, Claire Holley, and, Friday night, Sera Cahoone and Grand Archives.
The New Frontiers, an indie quintet from Dallas, started out the night. Honestly, my first impression of this band's performance was that it was loud. They were having trouble controlling THE VOLUME OF THEIR AMP(!!!). It was turned up to 11, and Alex Bhore hacked away like he had something personal against the drum kit. But when they settled into some of their more restrained material, things really started to sound much better. And I can't be too hard on them because they're recorded stuff is not bad at all. "Black Lungs" and "Walking on Stones" are personal favorites from their new album Mending. And hell, they're earnest. And I like earnest people.
After an hour of sipping tea by herself during The New Frontiers' set, Sera Cahoone took to the stage next. She's currently touring with Grand Archives and was formerly the drummer for Carissa's Wierd (yes, they intentionally misspelled "weird"), a band which, not coincidentally, Grand Archives' frontman Mat Brooke used to play guitar and sing for. They were also both in a little-known act called Band of Horses. Her music combines elements of country with a bit of indie rock, and she's touring to promote her latest with her new label Sub Pop Records, 2008's Only as the Day Is Long, a nice little CD with some great songs. The banjo adds a great touch to some warm, subdued music that's easy to listen to. Cahoone's smooth voice layers nicely with the music, and it's even more evident on the CD, which I highly recommend purchasing. On their website, NPR describes the sixth track, "You're Not Broken" as "the sonic equivalent of a foot-rub at the end of a long day."
It was after 11:00 when Grand Archives struck their first note. I'd been listening to their CD for a week, so "Miniature Birds" was instantly familiar (and welcome). A few of their songs will disappoint listeners at a live show who have only heard the CD if they go into it thinking it's going to sound the same. It's simply too difficult to replicate the sonic layering of a CD track like the hypnotic "Sleepdriving" on the small stage. But if you remove those expectations, the stripped down version doesn't disappoint, and it's impressive how they can come so close to replicating that full sound with just guitar and keyboard. "Swan Matches" and "Index Moon" were simply beautiful, with a falsetto harmony that took you to another place. But "The Crime Window" is where we really got to hear what this band can do live. Its clever lyrics and upbeat, driving rhythm took the performance to the next level, to the point that even the blackberry gazers at the table had to look up and take notice.
We got to hang out with Sera Cahoone and Mat Brooke for a while after the show. They were all getting ready to pull an all-nighter on the road to Austin, but they couldn't have been more gracious with their time, talking shop and signing posters and CD cases. They even initialed a couple of pins for some of the girls in our group. Nothing like having a little autographed flair. By the time we headed out the door to let the bands hit the road we came away with the sense that these were very down-to-earth people who want nothing more than to perform the music they love for people who love it too. I can tell you that at least some of those people live right here in Little Rock.
Here's hoping that the road leads Sera Cahoone and Grand Archives back to Little Rock again soon.
-G
Len Rainey and Friends 06/21/20080 Comments I had never been to Studio Joes, much less heard about it before last Wednesday night. I used to work at Barnes and Noble and do remember seeing it several times. During big store events all of the employees were required to park in the lot right next to the place off of Autumn and Chenal. I always thought that it was a hair salon. When Mike Dollins messaged me on Myspace a month ago he asked if our web page (at the time Street Scene Little Rock) had anything to do with San Diego's annual Street Scene Music Festival. Well yea, in fact it did. I used to live out in San Diego and got the name from it. But how would someone in Little Rock know about that?? It turns out Mike grew up out in San Diego and moved out to Arkansas after college. Sound familiar? In San Diego I worked at a popular music store for most of high school and all of college. Turns out Mike knows many of the same people and places I do. He started a local Blues Newsletter in the area and jammed with many of the bigger blues musicians of the area. Long story short our conversation was one of those "Wow what a small world" scenarios. He told me about a musician named Len Rainey that would be playing through town on June 18th.
Apparently Len Rainey has toured with all kinds of bands and lived in Chicago for a while. Mike has his own band that tours quite frequently around the Central Arkansas area. Mike shared the stage with another predominant local blues musician, Joe Pitts of the Joe Pitts Band fame. I had meant to see the Joe Pitts Band play at Cornerstone in NLR a month or two ago but didn't get a chance. I could write up a whole blog on just what these 3 people have contributed to the blues scene but I will let you do your own research.
G and I headed over to the show just after it got started. Len played bass and sang some of his own own stuff as well as some more popular blues standards. I really didn't know anything about Len other than he currently lives in San Diego, and plays bass. When he took the stage he completely blew me away. He had a an awesome voice and completely ripped it up on the bass. Between Mike Dollins and Joe Pitts trading licks there was never a dull moment. Most of the members of the Mike Dollins band took the stage in the second half and added a keyboard and harp player. Another phenomenal blues musician, Essie the Blues Lady, came up for one song with Mike, Len and Joe. Another guy from Austin came up and played some lead with Len and Joe backing him up. The surprise of the night came when Ginny Becton took the stage in the second half. I knew Ginny was in the Mike Dollins band but had never heard her sing. G and I were completely floored! Her singing was worth the trip out to the show alone. I saw Aretha Franklin in Memphis a couple months ago and Ginny's singing kept bringing me back. Unfortunately I forget the drummers name but he really held his own. He jammed several drum solos and kept a solid beat throughout the night. All in all the event was a great opportunity for me and G to get exposed to the local blues scene here in Arkansas. And folks, the scene here is alive and well.
It was odd that almost everyone in the audience either played at some point during the night or was married or friends with someone on stage. G and I kind of felt out of place at first but everyone was extremely welcoming. Studio Joe's is a real interesting place and we will definitely be back. Apparently they are open for open mics Tuesday and Thursday. They are also open Fridays and at other times when there is an event going on. Part recording studio, coffee shop and lounge, and right next to a doctor's office, it is obviously an interesting place. I really was blown away with the amount of talent in the room that night. I was even more blown away that G and I were hearing all this right off of Chenal. We drove all the way to Helena's blues festival last year and didn't see anything as good. I really wish more people could have made it. Apparently Studio Joe's has a maximum capacity of 65 people and I would say they were pretty close that night. I highly recommend going to the 24th Arkansas River Blues Society event at Juanitas this Tuesday night. Most of the same people will be there I am sure. Thanks to Mike Dollins for inviting us out, you rock.
http://www.myspace.com/lenraineyandthemidnightplayers
http://www.myspace.com/mikedollinsband
http://www.myspace.com/essietheblueslady
http://www.myspace.com/joepittsband
http://www.myspace.com/ginnybecton
-T
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timur - littlerocklivemusic.nte (Jul 15, 2008)