Jon Dee Graham & the Fighting Cocks; July 6, 2013; Kiki’s House of Righteous Music

I said in the e-mail announcement for this show that Jon Dee Graham gets better every time I see him, and I definitely wasn’t kidding. After last summer’s show, it seemed impossible that he could be even better solo in December, but he was. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that this band show blew that one away. He realized it too. Just before the encore, he claimed that this had been his favorite show at Kiki’s. “Are you recording this?” he asked me. After I said I was, he asked “Do me a favor, after I die, give a copy of this to my kids so that they will know what I did.” I will gladly do that… many, many years from now. He played just shy of two and a half hours. After the first hour he asked if anyone was going to leave if they took a break, no one did. They second hour flew by so fast that my videotape had run out by the time I checked it, tragically it was on the third verse of “Airplane.”

He played a lot of songs, probably two dozen or more, but he also told a lot of stories. He told us the story of the Christmas card drawn by his nephew that was the inspiration for “Robot Moving,” and that just may have saved his life. He told us about the guy from the Latin soul band the Royal Jesters (the band from “At the Dance”) who was working in a convenience store, and who had played his high school prom. “Maybe,” the guy said, eyeing him suspiciously, “we played a lot of proms.” He talked about his renewed vigor for life, and how it just keeps getting better. He even ventured to give us some advice, “though the very idea of me giving advice is criminal.” Neither he nor the audience seemed to have tired at all by the time he wrapped it up with the sinister growl of “Laredo.” Not wanting to leave us with such a dark song, he finished the night with his son William’s rocker “Rock & Roll in the Streets,” which he wrote when he was five. And won’t play anymore now that he’s a teen because “I wrote that when I was just a kid.”

The night was pretty much all about love. Before playing “Majesty of Love” he introduced it as a love song, and paused before continuing “well, they’re all love songs, but this is a love love song.” I know what he means. About “Volver,” which is in Spanish, he explained, “this is a country love song… just not our country.” And then of course there is how much he loves playing the basement. He calls this time of year “The Run for the Roses,” a march north to play highlight gigs at Fitzgeralds American Music Festival and my house. “There are so many towns the size of Madison that would kill to have something like this,” he proclaimed, then smiled, “this one’s for you Kiki.” It may have been the best “Airplane” ever.

There was also a fair amount of picking on absentee bass player Andrew Duplantis and his gig with Son Volt. “Andrew has a young son he needs to provide for, so he needs to make some money.” Andrew definitely missed us too, texting forlorn messages to drummer George Duron “I bet you guys are at Kiki’s now…” Duron responded with a picture of an ice cold Spotted Cow which Andrew had developed a taste for last summer. The only person who didn’t seem to miss Duplantis was his replacement Naj Conklin. In fact he hoped that the new Son Volt record really takes off and Andrew is kept very busy. He went so far as to say he had to write a new bucket list since the number one item on it was to play with Jon Dee Graham. I love Andrew too, but I’ll admit I really liked the new guy. Too bad he won’t be with Jon Dee when he comes back in August. But the good news is that Jon Dee will be back in August to play Orton Park Fest.