Eyelids w/ Hallelujah The Hills 3/19/23 Cafe 9

 Never miss a Sunday afternoon show. The phrase has been known to be uttered. Caught the last couple tunes from Boston’s HTH. Rowdy crew with a lot of bodies on stage. Fiddle, guitar, guitar/ vocals, trumpet/ synth, bass, and drums made a lot of sound. Their call and response shouty attack swerved toward Dropkick Murphy territory, in a good way. Having released several albums since 2007, Spin calls them “criminally under-appreciated”, and I can see why. Powerful front man held the crowd and their recent single Get Free was sweet. Don’t know much about Eyelids, but the Portland OR best kept secret graced the stage at the 9. With a band pedigree that includes work with Guided By Voices, Decemberists, Elliot Smith, Stephen Malkmus, Camper Van Beethoven, Damien Jurado, and a recent release produced by  Peter Buck, my interest was piqued. Started with a warmup rendition of CVB’s Eye of Fatima before launching into a pleasant set of Beatle-y jangle pop. Singer Moen was the better vocalist. These guys have been on stages for decades and tried to come off as The Wrecking Crew of Indie rock. The music was good and they pulled heavily from recent release, A Colossal Waste of Light. Nice afternoon of tunes, an interesting example of the opening band eclipsing the performance of the headliner.

The Contrarian Ensemble 3/16/23 Frist Museum, Nashville TN

 The Frist Museum of modern art in Nashville seems like an outlier in this country music Mecca. Housed in a cool old post office, the two exhibits on view channeled climate change and gender inclusivity. When scrolling for tickets, I notice that a performance by the Contrarian Ensemble is free in the Cafe. These guys could have been called the Contrarian Octogenarian Ensemble as they were five old guys playing traditional and string band music. The musicians were dobro, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and accordion. A slow trickle of attendees eventually filled the room. The lineup allowed them the ability to play a wide swath of string music. Autumn Leaves, a French song Wild Strawberries, Duquesne Waltz, an Appalachian ramble, and some Irish reels (St. Patrick’s day warmup) made for an enjoyable listen. The age range for this audience was 5-90, which always makes me smile.

Clem Snide 3/15/23 The Bluebird Cafe, Nashville TN

 Serendipity. February 2022 Clem Snide was slated to play in New Haven. The show was cancelled for a Covid issue, rescheduled for August, cancelled again, money refunded. I was annoyed. Clem Snide is a band that’s the brainchild of Eef Barzelay. So serendipity reared its head and had Eef playing at the historic Bluebird while we were in town. Tickets for this venue are difficult to come by, sales open a week prior to the show and sell out within hours. A perfect place to view this quirky singer songwriter. He has a nasal voice and plays a righty acoustic left handed ( a la Hendrix). On this evening, Eef also leaned on this odd vocal technique, he made this high pitched hum and shook his head near the microphone which shaded songs with a Bernoulli effect. The best part of this venue is that you are feet from the artist, he  said that he can look into “all of  our eyes”. The inter song stories were abundant and hysterical. One story had Eef smoking a fatty  in an alley with a fan named Tugboat. Apparently, Tugboat was pinched with a quantity of weed which required him to pee in a cup to show remorse for his “crime”. Pot smokers, a wiley cadre, know work arounds. Tugboat purchased a whizzinator, a limp strap-on that allowed him to “pee” with some clean urine in tow. It would have worked, but Tugboats choices for clean urine were limited and he failed his exam with someone else’s pee. Another intro to the song Jews for Jesus Blues had Eef relating the start of Christianity. Turns out that the apostle Paul was not too keen on dining with men who weren’t circumcised which was impetus to start his own religion, go figure. Part of the CS oeuvre is absurd folkie covers. For this show, Eef played a screwed down version of Stayin’ Alive. The setlist of originals had some gems, Noone’s Happier Than You, Some Ghost, Grace, Don’t Bring No Ladder, Something Beautiful and many more. It’s not often that I can recommend a song that encapsulates the vibe I felt at a certain show. While he didn’t play this song, I urge all readers of this blog who are over 50, locate Clem Snide’s rendition of Faithfully by Journey. You’ll feel what I felt, at the Bluebird, witnessing an under the radar artist who deserves radar status.

The Royal Hounds 3/14/23 Robert’s Western World, Nashville TN

 South Broadway in Nashville is Honkytonk Row. It is a sight to behold, five or six blocks of wall to wall saloons, cowboys, cowgirls, urban cowboys, bouncers, and musicians convening in a maelstrom of country music. Many bars are owned by pop country icons that help lure patrons off the street. The bars have stages in front with windows open to the street in the hopes a choice riff snares a thirsty patron inside. Guidebooks are often misleading, but our Nashville book described a “sweet spot” to take in this spectacle. Early evening before the population (and their bladders) swell to the pop point is the best time to view. We caught much of The Royal Hound’s set at Robert’s. There were several bands before and several after on this chilly Tuesday. The trio consisted of a fret burning guitarist from Brazil, a capable drummer, and a front man who sang and played standup bass. They stormed through Dick Dale’s  Misirlou which morphed into a speedy Rawhide. These guys can play, but I’m assuming so can the other thirty bands that were playing the 6pm time slot on the strip. They played the obligatory Devil Went Down to Georgia, I wonder if the cowboys realize that song is about Robert Johnson’s deal. I know summayall are thinking about Getting Drunk On a Plane, but I was happy to be Here At The Western World.

Regina Spektor 3/13/23 Ryman Auditorium Nashville TN

 Any trip to Nashville should come with a visit to the historic Ryman. Situated in the heart of town, and the site of the original Grand Ole Opry, this repurposed church still has pews to accompany its divine acoustics. The lobby is adorned with country music ephemera, and a tour of the facility oozed music history. The artist entrance backs up to honky tonk central and I’m sure many an act tipped a few at a bar before going to work at “church”. Regina Spektor took the stage in a full sparkly dress. Russian born Spektor started classical piano at 6. On this evening she spent most of her time at the Steinway, her angelic warble was perfect for the venue. While I’m not entirely familiar with her catalog, I am able to piece together some of the setlist. Raindrops, Sugarman, the scatty Loveology from her recent 2022 release. Grand Hotel, Ballad of a Politician, Eet, Folding Chair, Genius Next Door were all excellent. RS moved to a small organ for some songs, using a drumstick on a folding chair for some one handed percussion. She also sang some a cappella, using a cool microphone tapping technique for added effect. Local musician, and friend of Spektor, Ben Folds hit the stage for one duet. I was interested to see how (if) RS commented on the current situation in Ukraine. A tasteful show of support for the people of Ukraine and a swift condemnation of the “insanity of Vladimir  Putin” was backed up by stating that proceeds from merch sales would be donated to aid for Ukraine. I do need to comment on the seating. So God made man (and woman), and his “house” comes complete with pew seating. He messed up on the math as to how a parishioner (or audience member) could possibly sit in one of these soapbox derby  seats for the duration of a mass/show. A Nashville entrepreneur might do well to set up a Rolfing kiosk outside the Ryman. Closed with her best known hit Samson. Very enjoyable check on the bucket list of music venues.

Remain In Light: Harrison, Belew w/ Cool Cool Cool 3/11/23 College Street Music Hall

 We speak of “desert island” recordings. Few will land as high up the ladder as the Talking Heads Remain in Light record. A confluence of art punk hijinx, African rhythms, and proto-sampling era field recordings produced by top of his game Brian Eno. To those who know me, you realize that I would need to procure a nearby desert island to house my desert island recordings. There would be Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy, natch and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, duh, the storage island would need to be big. So excited was I then to see an event that had original guitarist Jerry Harrison and hired axe-slinger Adrian Belew fronting a crowd of regional jamsters performing this album. Any jam crew worth their salt needs a passing grade in Talking Heads 101, and the outfit Turquaz, now awkwardly named Cool Cool Cool, moved to the head of the class and backed this adventure. CCC had a drummer, drummer/percussionist, bass, guitar/keys, trumpet/keys, multiple saxes, and dueling women vocalists who dervished to the beat. Harrison has been underground for years but seemed grateful to Belew for driving this project. Started with Psycho Killer and never looked back. Cross eyed and Painless, Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), Houses In Motion, Once In A Lifetime were supplemented with Life During Wartime, Drugs, I Zimbra, Slippery People, and Cities. Harrison played Rev It Up from his Young Gods release and Belew tackled King Crimson’s Thela Hun Ginjeet from the simultaneous Discipline recording. The near capacity crowd was into it and I felt like a kid in a candy store reliving my many viewings of this tour. Multiple New Haven shows, West Hartford Agora, the Orpheum in Boston, culminating in the Colliseum Stop Making Sense viewing. I even retained my TH 1982 tour pin. Closed with an excellent reading of The Great Curve, a song that matched this group of musicians perfectly. David Byrne can’t be replaced, his avant-Gump dead pannedness is a singular talent that can only be attempted. The fact that Byrne is a restless artist who is always swimming upsrtream or maybe even out of water entirely, should not relegate this vital music to a drawer. It belongs on a desert island, or on your turntable. For the happy crew in attendance it was the same as it ever was, for the rest of you, well, ……you are still waiting.

Sunny War 2/26/23 Cafe 9

 Sunny War is a young African American woman from Nashville. She played folk, finger style guitar and was joined by another guitarist and a drummer. War’s voice was a fantastic alto, like a cross between Odetta and Cassandra Wilson. Haters may say that I am just comparing her to other black women, but she definitely does not sound like Laura Nyro or Barbara Streisand. The songs were simple, folk, country, even a fake bossanova, that allowed her voice to shine. The other guitar player said he has played the 9 four times, with a different band each time. His electric offered a good counterpoint to Sunny’s picking. His use of the whammy bar shaded with sliding chorus notes that added to the appeal. The whammy was central to his playing, one might even dub him a whammyphile. Sunny seemed to channel her voice, I say that because her intersong banter was that of a 20something stoner, a striking difference from the booming vocals. Lucid Lucy, Whole, No Reason, and New Day were all excellent, many coming off a recent album. Sunny encored with a solo reading of Elizabeth Cotten’s Freight Train. Cotten, another black woman, is a perfect addition to my list of comparisons.